Caramelo Author:Sandra Cisneros The celebrated author of The House on Mango Street gives us an extraordinary new novel, told in language of blazing originality: a multigenerational story of a Mexican-American family whose voices create a dazzling weave of humor, passion, and poignancy–the very stuff of life. — Lala Reyes’ grandmother is descended from a famil... more »y of renowned rebozo, or shawl, makers. The striped caramelo rebozo is the most beautiful of all, and the one that makes its way, like the family history it has come to represent, into Lala’s possession. The novel opens with the Reyes’ annual car trip–a caravan overflowing with children, laughter, and quarrels–from Chicago to “the other side”: Mexico City. It is there, each year, that Lala hears her family’s stories, separating the truth from the “healthy lies” that have ricocheted from one generation to the next. We travel from the Mexico City that was the “Paris of the New World” to the music-filled streets of Chicago at the dawn of the Roaring Twenties–and, finally, to Lala’s own difficult adolescence in the not-quite-promised land of San Antonio, Texas.
Caramelo is a romantic tale of homelands, sometimes real, sometimes imagined. Vivid, funny, intimate, historical, it is a brilliant work destined to become a classic: a major new novel from one of our country’s most beloved storytellers.« less
I can see why Cisneros is lauded as one of the most poetic storytellers ever. This book is alive with sights, sounds, smells and feelings of the family involved.
I hate the label "coming of age" book, because it seems there are so many of them. This book takes a long time to relate all of the back-story and history of various characters, but in the end wraps it all up neatly and tidily. It is about a young girl, Lalita, who is unsure of her place in Mexican society and within her own family and how she comes to accept and embrace her heritage. This is a very well written book and I'm surprised that it hasn't gotten more attention. It is lengthy, but worth the read!
Fantastic read! Helped me to better understand the struggles of immigrant families, especially children trapped between two cultures, specifically the US and Mexico. Made me hungry for really good Mexican food! Looking forward to reading more by Ms. Cisneros.
Got this book through paperbackswap.com after seeing it on someone's list of good books. The story takes a very long time to get interesting--I was around page 80 and had decided that if the book hadn't become more engaging by page 100, I would likely quit reading. I read a lot of books and can only think of 1-2 times where I've actually gave up on a book.
I think it was a little after 100 that things started to pick up a bit. An Amazon reviewer described the book as "character driven" and I would agree with that. The central character is a young girl so the story is told mainly through her eyes. The author frequently describes (in great length) streets, rooms, etc. I found these long descriptions overdone--the author used this technique so often that I started scanning or skipping those paragraphs.
The author doesn't use the standard method of writing in which quotation marks signify when a character is speaking. Instead, she uses a long dash at the beginning of the sentence to indicate someone is talking. When there's a back and forth exchange between two characters, it is sometimes difficult to know who is speaking, unless the speaker calls the other person by name.
I didn't find any of the main characters to be particularly likable. The story often goes back in time and it sometimes isn't clear right away that the story is no longer in the present. The most interesting parts of the book were when the story went into the past of some of the characters.
This is the first book I've ready by Cisneros. Some Amazon reviewers commented that this is not her best book but I don't plan to read any others.
Beautiful, fun read. So glad i picked this up. It is about Family and so very well written. The little Grandfather and the Awful Grandmother that the family went to visit and stay with every summer. Half of the year in Mexico the other half in the US. Just a heart felt story and so worth the time. One book that all the reviews are so brimming with praise for. This author is a treasure.
I loved this. The stories of several generations' worth of a large family are recounted (and sometimes possibly made up) by Lala, the insightful, only daughter among a tribe of brothers. She explores the lives of her parents, her grandparents, even her aunt, to find out how everyone came to be as they are at present, and along the way she discovers more about herself.
But this is already explained above. What grabbed me was Cisneros' ability to pull me into a scene with every sight, smell, taste, and beautiful or quirky description that she came up with.
Just opening to a random page...
"The men in their shark suits, gray with a little lightning bolt of blue, or olive with a gleam of gold when they move. A stiff white handkerchief in the pocket. The man's hand leading a woman when they dance, just a little tug, just a little like when you yank a kite to remind it-Don't go too far. And the woman's hand nesting inside the man's big heart-shaped hand, and his other hand on her big heart-shaped hips"..."Swish of stockings against the cream-colored nylon slip with its twin shells of lace on top and an accordion pleat at the hem, and one strap, always one, lazy and loose asking to be put back. My father with a curl of lavender cigarette smoke, his mouth hot next to my mother's ear when he whispers, his mustache tickling, the roughness of his cheek, and my mother throwing her head back and laughing"(60).
Some find her writing in this way to be odd or pointless, but I'm enchanted by it. It might be my interest in Latino and Hispanic cultures that make her descriptions so likable to me - but what's touched upon is often universally felt. Even if you don't speak any Spanish, she writes in such a way that the meaning can often be understood by the context. (There is a lot of Spanish in the book, if that's any surprise.)
