- Sue Kwong
This winter, the Reader has set a humble goal for itself: to determine the Greatest Chicago Book Ever Written. We chose 16 books that reflected the wide range of books that have come out of Chicago and the wide range of people who live here and assembled them into an NCAA-style bracket. Then we recruited a crack team of writers, editors, booksellers, and scholars as well as a few Reader staffers to judge each bout. The results of each contest will be published every Monday, along with an essay by each judge explaining his or her choice. The Reader reader who best predicts the judges’ rulings will win a trip to Mexico.
While I had never so much as glanced at a copy of Working before this tournament, my experience with The House on Mango Street dates back to my freshman year of high school when it was required reading. The language spoke to me in a way that has kept me revisiting the work time and time again. As a pure exercise in writing, it’s a far more interesting read. Sandra Cisneros’s short, poetic vignettes are engaging in their simplicity while deftly capturing the complexities of a young woman’s journey to adulthood. Another tournament judge, Andrea Battleground, nailed it when she wrote, “Mango Street is a book to read to confirm that Chicago prepares people to become anyone they want to be.” Esperanza’s story is one that is rarely told as part of Chicago’s narrative, and in that sense, it’s a more compelling representation of the city. It’s a new view to many readers and addresses evolving issues of gentrification that have only become more relevant since the book’s publication.
