The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Someone gave me this book as a gift in 1999, I guess I read it for the first time in 2009, but I didn't remember any of it when I read it again this year. It's a really short novel that's organized more like a short story collection of a short book of poems.

I grew up on what could be called a Mango Street. I lived in an apartment on Boulevard East in a town in New Jersey that had once been half Italian but was then mostly Hispanic. Like the main character, I never had a house, and to this day, I have never had a house. While I can relate to the longing to own my home, it only developed later. As a kid, you're usually mostly happy with what you have.

--SPOILER ALERT--

As for the rest of the novel, I found it a very heavy-handed in places (the rape chapter in particular), and incomplete in others. Maybe who you are is in part where you're from, but there's no special case made here as to why Esperanza is Mango Street, especially when she's presented as fundamentally different from the other residents and eager to leave.

Not a favorite of mine.

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Don't Worry, It Gets Worse by Alida Nugent

Don't Worry, It Gets Worse: One Twentysomething's (Mostly Failed) Attempts at Adulthood by Alida Nugent
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A cute and funny recounting of the author’s 20s in New York City post-2008 recession.

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Shockaholic by Carrie Fisher

Shockaholic by Carrie Fisher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is Fisher’s second memoir. I also read her first one, Wishful Drinking, which is more of a conventional memoir so I recommend reading that one first. This one is more of a series of super interesting anecdotes. Nonetheless, I like this one better than the first.

Wow, Ted Kennedy sounds like a huge misogynist asshole in Fisher’s account of meeting him. Despite being a liberal myself, I’ve always suspected the worst of him, so it’s easy to just trust Fisher’s account.

The Michael Jackson account is also fascinating but maybe less reliable because she makes a lot of assumptions about him.

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The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Very quick read. I enjoyed it, and it was an extremely impressive scene writing for such a young author. Some picky things: Ponyboy seems a little unclear about whether he is or isn't into girls yet, and at his age, you'd think he'd get it. Also, who was paying for all these kids' hospital bills?

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