The house on Mango Street

Author

Sandra Cisneros

Call Number

• FICTION CISN (CEN)

Edition

1st hardcover ed.

Publication Information

New York : A.A. Knopf : Distributed by Random House, 1994.

Physical Description

xx, 134 p. ; 18 cm.

Summary

In celebration of the tenth anniversary of its initial publication, and with a new introduction by the author, here is Sandra Cisnero's greatly admired and best-selling novel of a young girl growing up in the Latino section of Chicago. Acclaimed by critics, beloved by children and their parents and grandparents, taught everywhere from inner-city grade schools to universities across the country, and translated all over the world, The House on Mango Street has entered the canon of coming-of-age classics even as it depicts a new American landscape. Sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous, The House on Mango Street tells the story of Esperanza Cordero, whose neighborhood is one of harsh realities and harsh beauty. Esperanza doesn't want to belong - not to her run-down neighborhood, and not to the low expectations the world has for her. Esperanza's story is that of a young girl coming into her power, and inventing for herself what she will become. The San Francisco Chronicle has called The House on Mango Street "marvelous ... spare yet luminous. The subtle power of Cisnero's storytelling is evident. She communicates all the rapture and rage of growing up in a modern world." It is an extraordinary achievement that will live on for years to come.

Notes

"Originally published, in somewhat different form, by Arte Público Press in 1984. Reprinted by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., in 1991"--T.p. verso.

Contents

• The house on Mango Street
• Hairs
• Boys & girls
• My name
• Cathy queen of cats
• Our good day
• Laughter
• Gil's furniture bought & sold
• Meme Ortiz
• Louie, his cousin & his other cousin
• Marin
• Those who don't
• There was an old woman she had so many children she didn't know what to do
• Alicia who sees mice
• Darius & the clouds
• And some more
• The family of little feet
• A rice sandwich
• Chanclas
• Hips
• The first job
• Papa who wakes up tired in the dark
• Born bad
• Elenita, cards, palm, water
• Geraldo no last name
• Edna's Ruthie
• The Earl of Tennessee
• Sire
• Four skinny trees
• No speak English
• Rafaela who drinks coconut & papaya juice on Tuesdays
• Sally
• Minerva writes poems
• Bums in the attic
• Beautiful & cruel
• A smart cookie
• What Sally said
• The monkey garden
• Red clowns
• Linoleum roses
• The three sisters
• Alicia & I talking on Edna's steps
• A house of my own
• Mango says goodbye sometimes.