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Title: Caramelo by SANDRA CISNEROS ISBN: 0-679-74258-1 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 09 September, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.92 (52 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A MUST HEAR FROM A CONTEMPORARY SHEHERAZADE
Comment: Author Sandra Cisneros gives resonant voice to her first novel since the widely acclaimed "The House On Mango Street." Her articulation brings these fictional characters to vibrant life and adds an unexpected richness to her story of Mexican/American culture.
We return to Chicago's Mexican/American community and the family of Lala Reyes, a generous and vital woman. She comes from a clan of shawl makers, and now owns the caramelo, a beautiful striped rebozo which symbolizes history and the meaning of blood ties.
A gifted and intriguing story teller, Cisneros holds nothing back as she paints fully realized human beings with all their flaws, foibles, and goodness. Her story begins with the Reyes' family's annual trek from Chicago to Mexico City, which is where Lala hears the stories of her forebears and their sometimes hard scrabble lives in San Antonio, Texas and Mexico. Stories may be true or they may be embroidered - but there is always something to learn.
Caramelo is a saga replete with life, love and laughter told by a natural weaver of tales. This is a must-hear from a contemporary Sheherazade.
- Gail Cooke
Rating: 4
Summary: Caramelo
Comment: In Caramelo, Sandra Cisneros does an amazing job to describe the typical Mexican family. She shows our family values, our culture, and the essence of who the Mexican people are. She makes a trip down memory lane and at the same time emphasizes the meaning of love. Cisneros shows all this through the eyes of Celaya "lala", who is the main character of the book.
The story begins when Lalas family takes the yearly trip to Mexico, and gathers for the family reunion. All throughout the ride she constantly reminds what we
Mexicans do on our trips with our families to Mexico. We sing songs and bug our parents till they freak out. Through Celaya, the reader acquires much of the Latino culture. Whether it's the food, the games that we play, or the music that we listen too. Caramelo deals with the dysfunction and history of her family, whom of which represents almost every Latino family.
There is an awful grandmother who is always constantly bothering Lalas mother, Zoila, and her father, Inocencio, never says anything to discourage his mother from doing so. The book makes a fascinating turn that gives the reader much emotion and forces them to continue on reading with the story. The family is in Mexico and are on their way back to the grandmothers home from Acapulco. The mother and father get engaged in a harsh argument in which Zoila storms out of the car. Inocencio rushes out and its running chase of trying to catch up to his wife. When they finally come to a rest, a decision is going to have to be made by Inocencio. Zoila and the awful grandmother, Soledad, force him to choose between them. Just as the answer is about to be dished out, the book makes a turn that creates many emotions for the reader, it starts from the very beginning of the Reyes family history and would eventually have to lead up to the argument between Zoila and Inocencio. This angers and fascinates the reader, we learn all the important facts of the Reyes family, but we want to know a certain secret that sparked the argument amongst the parents of Lala.
In describing the Reyes family, we hear about the many love stories that the family has encountered. Every single story has much similarity amongst the others. Cisneros portrays love as equivalent to misery. Every relationship that is describes has a form of agony and pain with it. With everything new that the reader finds in regards to the Reyes family, the reader notices and feels some sort of sympathy for the awful grandmother. We understand why she is the way she is. She had a strenuous life, and lives by the telenovelas that she reads.
Caramelo has the essence the typical Latino family, but also has the theme of love as a connection. This book makes the reader feel the pain and love that the characters experience. We see how history repeats itself. The characters love a person, but once they have them, the person whom they love cheats on them or leaves them. That happens to all the mothers or fathers of the Reyes family. The reader connects the meaning of love for Cisneros. That with love, misery is not to far away.
We learn so much of the Latino culture, and our desire to know of a particular secrete that sparked the argument, lead up to a very dramatic ending. Caramelo is such an incredible book to read, once your read up page seventeen, you will not want to put that book down. It makes a trip down to history lane for the Reyes family, and sparks many themes of love and deception all along the way. It has a conclusion that will move the reader. All these qualities make Caramelo an excellent reed.
Rating: 5
Summary: Caramelo
Comment: I absolutely love Sandra Cisnero's writing, and Caramelo is no exception. Caramelo was such a wonderful story because it portrayed truth about Mexican culture and the things that a Mexican family goes through and experiences throughout life. One of the main issues I found very prominent was the idea that the characters made choices out of need and not out of want, which had a definite impact on the rest of their life. I also felt that there was the feeling that men and women were not connecting to the point where they could completly love eachother, there was not one character who did have a successful relationship with their partner. I think that this concept stems directly from the idea that because of the limitations, these characters made decisions that were convenient, like marrying because of pregnancy and not out of love. However, overall I would have to say that I loved this book and the fluttery language that it's filled with. Cisnero's is such a descriptive writer and her use of words makes the story imaginative and delightful.
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Title: The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros ISBN: 0679734775 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 03 April, 1991 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Woman Hollering Creek : And Other Stories by Sandra Cisneros ISBN: 0679738568 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 03 March, 1992 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: Loose Woman : Poems by Sandra Cisneros ISBN: 0679755276 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 14 March, 1995 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: My Wicked Wicked Ways by Sandra Cisneros ISBN: 0679418210 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 17 November, 1992 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: The Dirty Girls Social Club: A Novel by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez ISBN: 0312313810 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 02 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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