A House of My Own: Stories from My Life

by Sandra Cisneros Narrated by Sandra Cisneros

Overview

From the author of The House on Mango Street, a richly illustrated compilation of true stories and nonfiction pieces that, taken together, form a jigsaw autobiography-an intimate album of a beloved literary legend.

From the Chicago neighborhoods where she grew up and set her groundbreaking The House on Mango Street to her abode in Mexico in a region where "my ancestors lived for centuries," the places Sandra Cisneros has lived have provided inspiration for her now-classic works of fiction and poetry. But a house of her own, where she could truly take root, has eluded her. With this collection-spanning three decades, and including never-before-published work-Cisneros has come home at last.

Ranging from the private (her parents' loving and tempestuous marriage) to the political (a rallying cry for one woman's liberty in Sarajevo) to the literary (a tribute to Marguerite Duras), and written with her trademark lyricism, these signature pieces recall transformative memories as well as reveal her defining artistic and intellectual influences. Poignant, honest, deeply moving, this is an exuberant celebration of a life in writing lived to the fullest.

From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

OCTOBER 2015 - AudioFile

Sandra Cisneros’s sweet, wry, Latin-inflected voice is the perfect accompaniment to the true stories that comprise this engaging memoir. The author of the bestselling coming-of-age novel THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET here blends the personal—reflections on her parents’ marriage, her adventures on a Greek island while trying to finish a novel—with political commentary and essays on her literary heroes to create an unusual autobiographical quilt. Cisneros has an inviting, quirky tone that encourages listeners to stay—whether for her thoughts on women in Sarajevo or her story of finally abandoning Mr. Wrong. She varies her rhythm and pitch as ably as a professional narrator, and often reads with an audible smile, making us smile too for this moving tribute to life. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

09/07/2015
Cisneros, a MacArthur Fellow and two-time NEA grant recipient, has felt one constant emotion throughout her life: a hunger for a place that belongs to her, a place where she is free. In her lyrical, warm, and richly detailed account, Cisneros writes of her nomadic family. She, her parents, and her six brothers only find some sense of permanence during regular visits to her paternal grandparents in Mexico City. It isn’t until she’s an adolescent that they get their first real home in Chicago, which inspires her most famous novel, The House on Mango Street. But when given the chance, she flees in the early 1970s from the old-world, marriage-minded patriarchy of her father’s home for university and an M.F.A. Then, with the half-finished Mango manuscript in tow, she leaves the country for the first time, at 28. She lands in Greece and finds her first home of her own, a house where she writes in the garden looking out over the mountains. Many years on, it “holds a dazzling place in my memory.” Like many artists, Cisneros often lives as an itinerant; as a Mexican-American from “Chicano, Illinois,” she toggles between two metaphorical worlds. Settling in San Antonio, she wears tunics, the same style worn by the servants her Mexican relatives employ, and declares, “This cloth is the flag of who I am.” Now in her 60s, Cisneros vividly evokes the many stages of her life and the places she’s been. (Oct.)

From the Publisher

Dazzling . . . part artist statement, part declaration of independence.” —Los Angeles Times

“Delightful. . . . This memoir has the transcendent sweep of a full life. . . . [Cisneros’] prose reads like poetry, rhythmic and energetic; her poetry is as natural and effortless as plainspoken prose.” —Houston Chronicle

“[A] spirited collection. . . . [A House of My Own] puts a gifted storyteller at your fingertips, one who offers a panoply of life in apartments, rented rooms and borrowed houses, a journey with a curious, lively mind and reflections on cultures, families and traditions.” —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
 
“Resonant. . . . A complex, nuanced picture of the writer emerges—think of a mosaic, a collage.” —Chicago Tribune

“A fierce talent. No one writes like Cisneros. . . . A House of My Own is a compilation of true stories and non-fiction pieces that form a ‘jigsaw autobiography’ of the author’s life." —Jezebel

“An extraordinary and magical journey. Sandra Cisneros makes me so happy that I am a reader, so joyful that she is a writer, and even more exhilarated that she is part of our world. Read this book and laugh, cry, and rejoice!" —Edwidge Danticat

“Cisneros is right there in the room, fiercely candid, warm and gracious, talking about everything. . . . A literary salon steeped in storytelling and writers, [A House of My Own] honors her process and influences and draws attention to crucial and difficult points of her development. Like a manifesto, it reasserts Cisneros’s artistic credo." —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“In a tone that is intimate and inviting—indeed, we feel we are sitting right next to [Cisneros] as she sips tea (or chugs tequila) at her home in Mexico, and recounts her adventures with a laugh and a shake of the head: Ay Dios mio." —Los Angeles Review of Books

“[Cisneros] has documented her life through a mélange of essay, poetry, and battle cry." —Oprah.com

“Cisneros . . . has here written what may well be the best memoir of the year thus far. . . . A fierce portrait of an artist and her quest, and the roads taken and not taken to find a home of her own." —Library Journal (starred review)

“[Cisneros] opens wide the doors to the house of her life, and we are all privileged to cross the threshold." —The Austin Chronicle

“Throughout each story, though written for a diverse smattering of purposes and people, is Cisneros’s constant molding of words like clay. . . . [Her] words will make existing fans love her more, and drive new readers to reach for her previous works after closing this one." —The Washington Times

“Cisneros’s earnest but casual voice resonates throughout, rich with humor and a sense of urgency." —Pasatiempo (Santa Fe)

“Welcoming and deeply gratifying." —NBC News

“Gorgeous." —The Rumpus

“Frank, accessible examinations of multiple subjects braided together in Cisneros’s personable, self-examining style." —Albuquerque Journal

Library Journal

★ 09/01/2015
Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street and Caramelo, has here written what may well be the best memoir of the year thus far. She seamlessly weaves "memories" from her life from 1984 through 2014 (some written for specific audiences and expanded in this volume). As in her fiction and poetry, Cisneros blends family stories from Chicago and Mexico with lively storytelling, rich details, and good humor. The result is a fierce portrait of an artist and her quest, and the roads taken and not taken to find a home of her own. All readers who are interested in creative writing, memoir, American literature, and Chicana literature will appreciate. VERDICT This memoir deserves to find the broad and wide readership of Cisneros's earlier books. [See Prepub Alert, 4/27/15.]—Pam Kingsbury, Univ. of North Alabama, Florence

OCTOBER 2015 - AudioFile

Sandra Cisneros’s sweet, wry, Latin-inflected voice is the perfect accompaniment to the true stories that comprise this engaging memoir. The author of the bestselling coming-of-age novel THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET here blends the personal—reflections on her parents’ marriage, her adventures on a Greek island while trying to finish a novel—with political commentary and essays on her literary heroes to create an unusual autobiographical quilt. Cisneros has an inviting, quirky tone that encourages listeners to stay—whether for her thoughts on women in Sarajevo or her story of finally abandoning Mr. Wrong. She varies her rhythm and pitch as ably as a professional narrator, and often reads with an audible smile, making us smile too for this moving tribute to life. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2015-07-07
The making of a Latina writer. Award-winning novelist, poet, and MacArthur Fellow Cisneros (Have You Seen Marie?, 2012, etc.) describes her first novel, The House on Mango Street (1983), as a series of discrete vignettes that could be read as a whole "to tell one big story…like beads in a necklace." That description is apt, as well, for this warm, gently told memoir assembled from essays, talks, tributes to artists and writers, introductions, and poems, most previously published over the last several decades. "I am the only daughter in a family of six sons. That explains everything," Cisneros once wrote as a contributor's note. But she admits her identity has been shaped, as well, by her proud, stern Mexican father, "intelligent, self-taught" Mexican-American mother, and by her childhood in working-class Chicago. Although she exalts in her identity as a Latina, she realized on a trip to Mexico, when she was 30, that like other "naive American children of immigrants," she was "filled with nostalgia for an imaginary country—one that exists only in images borrowed from art galleries and old Mexican movies." Cisneros chronicles the creation of her first novel, begun in graduate school at the University of Iowa, when she was 22, and completed on the Greek island of Hydra in a whitewashed house with "thick walls, gentle lines, and rounded corners, as if carved from feta cheese." Homes feature in many pieces: the apartments her family moved into, always looking for cheaper rent; the house they finally bought, where the author had a closet-sized bedroom; her house in San Antonio that she painted purple, raising objections from the city's Historic and Design Review Commission. Besides reflecting on her writing, Cisneros discloses a period of severe, suicidal depression when she was 33; a tantalizing family secret; and eulogies for her parents. A charming, tender memoir from an acclaimed Mexican-American author.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169061277
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	10/06/2015
Edition description:	Unabridged

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