While reading and analyzing Junot Diaz's How to date a Browngirl... this week, I was reminded of a book I read as a teenager titled The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. At the time, I liked this book because it was short, but still powerful. You could write a review of The House on Mango Street twice as long as the very book. The characters are so complex and real.
What both Junot Diaz and Sandra Cisneros have in common is that they are writing about a minority culture, pretending to be writing for people of the same social circumstances, but in reality writing for the general audience, and more specifically, those outside the lifestyle about which they are writing. These two writers also are very skilled in poetry. Diaz has very poetic meter. I love the "goat on a rope" bit. Cisneros finds poetic beauty in simplicity.
Has anyone else read this book? How do you feel about this topic of writing? At first I was annoyed by How to Date a Browngirl. I felt it was a bit trite. "Look how different people are, isn't it funny?" Did you feel this way?
I've only read "How to date a browngirl" once, and I really didn't know what to think, except that it made me uncomfortable. It may be that Diaz is trite but, Perhaps that is the tone he wishes to project while writing about this culture.
ReplyDeleteI have not read Cisneros's "The House on Mango Street." Sounds interesting!
I haven't read it, but I'm bookmarking it on GoodReads riiiiiiiiighghggghtt...now.
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