“The House on Mango Street”

Sandra Cisneros

“I put it down on paper and then the ghost does not ache so much.”

I think I’ve read this before, many years ago. It feels like the kind of book that was assigned in school, tied up in analysis and the attempt to make a child understand things that they can’t understand until they’ve understood the world a bit more. I’m certain that I didn’t appreciate it then; I’m not sure that I appreciate it now. Not really, not the way it feels like it deserves to be appreciated.

But more of it made sense this time than it did last time. Maybe I’ll come back and read it again in another ten years, and maybe then more of the book will fit into the spaces in my head.