The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros and Childless Millennial by Chiara Di Lello<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe House On Mango Street<\/em> by Sandra Cisneros: <\/strong>goodNIGHT what a wonderful little book. Literary pointilism. I know it\u2019s often taught in middle school but I believe writers at all stages can benefit a great deal from reading this book. So much show don\u2019t tell<\/em>, so much iceberg theory here. So much left off the pages that nevertheless populates in a reader\u2019s head\u2014I\u2019m gonna go cut 50 pages from my manuscript.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd so much horror that people without means live with, as a matter of course. There\u2019s a part at the end where Esperanza laughs out loud at the idea of the mayor ever visiting Mango Street. If you think this country has a pedophilia and misogyny and racism and xenophobia now<\/em>, check out this book written by a woman born the year before my dad. That the novel doesn\u2019t dwell on these horrors\u2014or explicitly spell out what \u201cmoving every year, and further west each time,\u201d means in Chicagoan\u2014is partially due to its prepubescent narrator and partially due to the nature of their lives. So some old man took your 13-year-old friend to state where that\u2019s old enough to marry. What\u2019re you gonna do about it? Leave Mango Street? Better go down to whatever store is hiring and lie about your age so that you can start making minimum wage. Actually, the more I think about it, the more it sounds like the kind of country Republicans are trying to build. <\/p>\n\n\n\nIf you haven\u2019t read it, the book isn\u2019t as depressing as that paragraph makes it out to be\u2014can a Bildungsroman, by its nature, even be depressing? More like, this is a book about people, as they are, as perceived by a middle schooler. It\u2019s not unlike a Gwendolyn Brooks book, and not not<\/em> in the Carl Sandburg lineage. Check it out. You can read it in an afternoon. <\/p>\n\n\n\nChildless Millennial <\/strong><\/em>by Chiara Di Lello: <\/strong>if everything that happens in The House On Mango Street<\/em> sounds like too much to deal with, you can always not have children. Seriously, though, I believe more people should consider the prospect of childlessness with as much rigor as Chiara Di Ello. If you’re imagining what some Boomer Fox News watcher is probably imagining from the title? There’s no brattiness here, just honest assessment of capitalism and the current moment and a desire to maintain a sense of self. I can’t remember if I’ve written about this before or not, but that was a big desire for me when my kid was born. I wanted to be a good dad, I wanted to be his dad<\/em>, but I did not want to lose myself. Another thing about me: I didn’t think I wanted kids from about age 19 to age 24. I don’t think you should have kids if you’re not certain about it. As much as I love being a dad, I encourage my childless friends to stay that way if they want to, encourage parents with “only one” to not feel the pressure of manufacturing siblings just because. <\/p>\n\n\n\nChiara’s book references\u2014mostly in disgust\u2014this word “nulliparous,” which is apparently the term for childless people. “There is no word \/ for what I am, \/ so I have taken \/ what I could find,” one poem begins, and we learn that this term has connotations about not contributing. As a teacher and writer, Chiara contributes. As a person, Chiara asserts that passing on your genes is not the only route to a meaningful or worthwhile life. This is important stuff, and more people should read and think about it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
LINKS!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nSomething to listen to while you browse? I don’t think I’ve posted this yet, but I’ve been sending it around and am obsessed with it. Here’s Joshua Domfeh adding some flourishes to “Clair de Lune.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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