You will not like this book...
IF you enjoy fine literature.
IF you have read and enjoyed anything by Nabokov or Joyce.
IF you have already suffered through House on Mango Street.
IF you don't enjoy encountering paragraphs like the following...

"Except it's not me who I want to kill. When the gravity of the planets is just right, it all tilts and upsets the visible balance. And that's when it wants to out from my eyes. That's when I get on the telephone, dangerous as a terrorist. There's nothing to do but let it come." (Cisneros, Woman Hollering Creek p.83)

I apologize if this offends any Cisneros fans, however, I must risk being impolite in order to save people the discomfort of reading this book.


Poetically written exploration of women's experiences   June 11, 2002
 13 out of 14 found this review helpful

This is the book which made me a feminist during my undergraduate years, and on which I subsequently wrote my senior English thesis. No author of short stories can turn a phrase the way Cisneros can, and her poetic evocations of different stages of life from young girl to mature young woman shed a multi-faceted light on Hispanic women's experiences in which every paragraph becomes thought-provoking.

In addition, read as a whole thematically, this anthology can be seen as similar to the sort of artistic coming-of-age novels such as Hermann Hesse's Peter Camenzind. The key turning point in this development may be the story "Little Miracles, Kept Promises," which is a series of letters left at the shrine of La Virgin de Guadelupe. This reveals the many layers of the shrine, which is the site of an old Aztec goddess with whom Cisneros identified, and who allows for a new revelation of feminine power in the Mexican heritage which comes out for the rest of the work.

However you choose to read it, this is a collection which will both delight and challenge all who come prepared.


A novel full of stories that protray life through many women   October 21, 1999
 10 out of 12 found this review helpful

Women Hollering Creek and other stories by author Sandra Cisneros, is written into different perpectives of everything that happens in life. Perspectives such as love, sex, adultry, abuse, forced marraige and war,etc. All the perpectives are told in a most honest and relistic tone making you want to read more. The most interesting thing about is that it's not just written with one woman's perpective like most books, but through many women young and old. I've read others an so far to me this is the best. I would request this book to anyone who likes to read women's persective in life.


Short stories that sparkle   November 1, 2001
 8 out of 8 found this review helpful

Woman Hollering Creek is a powerful collection of short stories from Sandra Cisneros. One of the main strengths of her writing is her ability to make her characters (especially her first person narrators) very accessable. She is able to get into the minds of, and portray, many of her characters in a very lifelike way. She seems especially adept at dealing with the children in her stories. For instance, the story "Eleven" (one of the many gems in this collection) is the account of a little girl on her eleventh birthday. It deals with helplessness of a child in the face of an authoritive adult. It also looks at a childs preoccupation with the opinion of his/her peers. Cisneros manages the tale in such a way that it seems inevitable that the reader will identify with the girl. That, in itself, is a sort of mastery of craft.

These stories range from impressionistic, two-page shorts that read like poems, to longer, more detailed accounts of relationships. As with any collection of short stories, there are those that are more successful than others (in other words those that you'll relate to better than others). However, all of the tales have a sort of vivid life to them; and, in all, I think that this is a very well rounded collection.

Perhaps the only real point of difficulty that readers may face in this collection is Cisneros' use of spanish phrases throughout the book. However, don't let such things discourage you. Many of these phrases can be understood within the context in which they are written (so they aren't too much of a stumbling block). Also, these stories are too good to let a few words discourage you from reading this book. I would recomend this book to anybody who is interested in the struggles of childhood (especially that of minority children), as well as the pains and pleasures of intimate relationships. I would also recomend this book to lovers of good, colorful short stories.