Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.

A House of My Own

Stories from My Life

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

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.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

  • Formats

  • Languages

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      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
    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 7, 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.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

Loading