The House on Mango Street (Vintage Contemporaries)
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NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A coming-of-age classic about a young girl growing up in Chicago • Acclaimed by critics, beloved by readers of all ages, taught in schools and universities alike, and translated around the world—from the winner of the 2025 Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle.
“Cisneros draws on her rich [Latino] heritage...and seduces with precise, spare prose, creat[ing] unforgettable characters we want to lift off the page. She is not only a gifted writer, but an absolutely essential one.” —The New York Times Book Review
The House on Mango Street is one of the most cherished novels of the last fifty years. Readers from all walks of life have fallen for the voice of Esperanza Cordero, growing up in Chicago and inventing for herself who and what she will become. “In English my name means hope,” she says. “In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting."
Told in a series of vignettes—sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes joyous—Cisneros’s masterpiece is a classic story of childhood and self-discovery and one of the greatest neighborhood novels of all time. Like Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street or Toni Morrison’s Sula, it makes a world through people and their voices, and it does so in language that is poetic and direct. This gorgeous coming-of-age novel is a celebration of the power of telling one’s story and of being proud of where you're from.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A coming-of-age classic about a young girl growing up in Chicago • Acclaimed by critics, beloved by readers of all ages, taught in schools and universities alike, and translated around the world—from the winner of the 2025 Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle.
“Cisneros draws on her rich [Latino] heritage...and seduces with precise, spare prose, creat[ing] unforgettable characters we want to lift off the page. She is not only a gifted writer, but an absolutely essential one.” —The New York Times Book Review
The House on Mango Street is one of the most cherished novels of the last fifty years. Readers from all walks of life have fallen for the voice of Esperanza Cordero, growing up in Chicago and inventing for herself who and what she will become. “In English my name means hope,” she says. “In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting."
Told in a series of vignettes—sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes joyous—Cisneros’s masterpiece is a classic story of childhood and self-discovery and one of the greatest neighborhood novels of all time. Like Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street or Toni Morrison’s Sula, it makes a world through people and their voices, and it does so in language that is poetic and direct. This gorgeous coming-of-age novel is a celebration of the power of telling one’s story and of being proud of where you're from.
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Readers say *The House on Mango Street* is a poetic, coming-of-age novel with vivid imagery and themes of identity and culture in a Hispanic-American ...
What in the world? Honestly, I just didn’t get it at all. I had to sign off on this for my daughter’s high school English class, so of course I had to read it first. I just didn’t get it. It’s written in the perspective of an indigenous girl’s POV. Every chapter is basically a scenario of her growing up on mango Street. Maybe I just didn’t like the writing style. I signed off on this for my daughter’s class but for me personally it’s a no. I didn’t enjoy it.
I appreciate books that try to go outside the usual norms. Books that do something different and unique are hard to come by. That doesn’t necessarily mean that every attempt works. Unfortunately, this book did not work. Confusing writing. No memorable characters. No cohesive plot. Too much yet simultaneously too little detail.
I also understand that this book has been subjected to bans. While I oppose book bans, there always seems to be this opposite overcorrection everyone gives towards banned books. If a book has been subjected to a ban, we all collectively give blind praise towards it. We should be allowed to critically analyze books. Give them praise. Give them criticism. No book is infallible.
There were interesting chicana feminist themes that the book tackled. It makes for a good conversation piece. I can appreciate that aspect. If I were younger, perhaps I would have liked the book more. It was a frustrating read, but a short one at least.
I also understand that this book has been subjected to bans. While I oppose book bans, there always seems to be this opposite overcorrection everyone gives towards banned books. If a book has been subjected to a ban, we all collectively give blind praise towards it. We should be allowed to critically analyze books. Give them praise. Give them criticism. No book is infallible.
There were interesting chicana feminist themes that the book tackled. It makes for a good conversation piece. I can appreciate that aspect. If I were younger, perhaps I would have liked the book more. It was a frustrating read, but a short one at least.
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