The House on Mango Street

I love reading books that bring me in to the journey of someone’s real life.  The House on Mango Street, written by Sandra Cisneros, does just that.  Cisneros shares what it was like immigrating to Chicago’s urban center as a child of a Mexican family and moving into a house on Mango Street.  Esperanza, the lead character, may or may not be a complete biography of Cisneros, but certainly it is influenced by her own growing up.  The book is written in very short vignettes capturing the life of Esperanza, all written in a first-person narrative.  The stories range from her interactions with her five siblings, parents, aunts and other family members, neighbors, and kids from school.  The themes capture abuse, older relatives dying, growing up poor, growing up with lack of English speaking abilities, Catholic school and challenges with the nuns, what the Hispanic family dynamics are in their community, growing up, the plight of an immigrant in the US, and what is happening in the 1960s-70s in our society.  There is a ton to find in this “coming of age” tale of Esperanza and how the reader knows that she is remembering a time and place that she has left (for greener pastures?).  The book is a very quick read, less than 90 minutes front to back.  It’s one of those “little gems” that you get to read from time to time.  I certainly will pick it up again.  For anyone who is teaching young adults how to write about their journey, this is a great illustration of how to do it.  Moving and worth picking up!

Riddley Walker

Well I have to say, this was not one of my favorite reads.  Today’s read, Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban, which was fitting for the holiday weekend. Labor Day, was a MAJOR labor for me.  While it was awarded many great book awards, I am not the best at reading post-apocalyptic stories.  If that wasn’t bad enough… it was written in an English dialect of sorts, from a part of Great Britain “tribal” area.  With that as a backdrop, it was a grueling reading… here’s just a lit’ bit for your reviewing pleasure….

The Littl man sed, NO Eusa that wuzen no dream nor this ain no dream.  Its aul 1 thing nor you cant wayk up owt uv it. Eusa sed, I can dy owt uv it tho cant I. The Littl Man sed, Easu yu dy owt uv this plays & yul jus fyn me in a nuther plays. Yul fyn me in the wud yyl fyn me on the water lyk yu foun in the stoan.  Yu luk enne wayr & Iwl be thayr.

 Yes over 220 pages of this drivel… sorry, futuristic-loving friends.  While I like to pay attention, it is hard reading in a language obstructed by the author for reading pleasure.  But the story is about Riddley Walker.  Our protagonist is living in the future, roughly 200 years after a nuclear holocaust.  From there we enter a stream of consciousness, “thought parade,” of our character… from the death of his father, which he was innocently involved, when a group of them were trying to recreate a weapon that they found from the “ancient world” in his hope to uncover history of man.  There are many attempts at humor (the killing of the wild boar, or the traveling pack of dogs with Riddley as the entourage produces shows with puppets like those of the infamous “Punch and Judy”).  Riddley’s journey is full of uncovering things from the past, which the author toys with the reader.  Again, trying to decipher the language was so problematic for me, I lost most of the story and the fun things Riddley was discovering.  This was the most laborious book I have had to read in some time.  Again, reading the reviews from GoodReads (an on-line book review blog of sorts) to the info on the author, I clearly missed something.  Maybe it was my frame of reference and I had to be more open to the setting, the author’s “original” idea or something else, I just could not get into it.  I know I missed much of the underlying purposes of the journey.  Hard to get beyond it… but I did finish, though unsure of most of what I read.  Sorry to be so sour.  Just not my idea of a fun read.  Well, many of this year’s book choices of the RAs are sci-fi/futuristic books, so I may be in for a long, long winter….

Of course, I hope I get lots of Riddley fans to note their comments below this post! And note all that I missed out on.

One More Thing

It’s always fun to read a book of short stories, especially those by a comedian!  Enter B.J. Novak, former Executive Producer and writer of the hit television show, The Office.  Novak short stories are pretty short, some a paragraph long and the longest 18 pages.  Each has its own brand of humor.  I love the story “No one goes to heaven to see Dan Fogelberg” (the 1980s pop singer) where Tim (a nine-year old) reconnects with his grandmother after he commits to meet her in heaven.  The story illustrates that when we die we revert to the age WE want to and his inability to “share dinner with her for an evening” is reflected when he finds her in a sexual tryst with Frank Sinatra after a concert, and she notes that “I love you Timmy, but I only knew you for nine years.  And I’m young here in heaven.  You know? I have other things to do besides dinner at Grandma’s” – yes, we do have our priorities when we revert to being 19 years old, huh?  Or John Grisham’s (the talented Best-selling author) story when he confronts his editor for missing the title for his latest best-seller “The …. Something” instead of calling it “The Something” (missing that key word really bothers Grisham) OR the principal who tells his school to stop doing “rithmetic” and sticking with writing and reading, and of course loses his job OR the story of the man who decides to order a “sex-robot” and breaks her heart.  So many funny moments.  Novak is quick witted, pushes the proverbial envelope, and is very current with today’s latest celebrity bashes and current issue trends.  It is a quick read and well worth the time to get many chuckles.  Good to read some funny material, mix this up after reading a classic.