This is apparently the more famous Cisneros work, although I was introduced to her via Woman Hollering Creek (recommended to me by Sandy at Daedalus; written about in the 6/29 Hip Replacement). Mango Street is similar, keeping up the form of vivid portrait by way of vignette but maintaining consistent narration and location throughout. I've written already about the ability of Sandra Cisneros to inhabit absolutely anybody, and that's still at play here; she's unbelievably adept at filling scenes with complete characters whose contribution may be as little as mere presence or a single line. My pal Walt once said that he finds short stories to be intimidating because every word is reputedly essential; if you're not intuiting something immediately, it's easy to feel lost. The House on Mango Street is the first collection I've read where I was never in doubt about where things were going (often because the intrinsic value of the stories was in their telling).

It was interesting to discover a bit more about Sandra Cisneros herself, not only through the obvious autobiographical elements but also in the commonalities between her stories and those that I've heard from other people. My mom has always talked about the places she grew up in terms of the house on [the street], something I've never fully understood after growing up in an age where everything was everywhere, or could be soon. Five pages of Mango Street makes it laughably clear, however; the titular house signifies a time, not a place.

Gil's Furniture Bought and Sold is one of my favorite stories now.

Highlights: Gil's Furniture Bought and Sold, A Rice Sandwich, Bums in the Attic