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“The House on Mango Street”, a 1984 novel by Sandra Cisneros, is a short book. It’s written in short bursts, with small chapters, some of which are barely a page long. That is probably what draws me to the book time and again. I know I can finish it in a day and move on. But every time I pick it up, I’m also hoping to get something more out of this little book that’s sold millions of copies, made its way into different prescribed syllabi, and is considered a modern classic. And it doesn’t disappoint. Each reading leaves me feeling a little different from how I did before. 

Partly based on Cisneros’s own experience, The House on Mango Street is the story of Esperanza Cordero, a 12-year-old Chicana girl growing up in the Hispanic quarter of Chicago. The story explores what it’s like belonging to a low economic class family and living in a patriarchal community besides also dealing with elements of class, race, identity, gender, and sexuality.

At the start of the book, you find out Esperanza and her family have arrived on Mango Street. Before coming to Mango Street, they had moved a lot—from one run-down building to another—always promising themselves that they would own the next place and that it would be their ‘dream house’. The house on Mango Street is finally theirs but it’s far from the home they had always dreamt of.

Though the place is a lot better than any of the previous homes they have lived in, Esperanza isn’t happy. She pines for a ‘real’ house with a big garden and everything else she has seen in ‘ideal’ houses on TV. The rest of the story is basically Esperanza’s growing-up years in the house as she writes poetry to express her suppressed feelings, makes friends who aren’t really friends, and tries to craft a better life for herself.

I can understand the universal appeal of this book and why it’s prescribed reading in many countries. A story of a girl transforming through the challenges she faces as she steps into her teenage is motivating. With Esperanza, Cisneros has also delved into the immigrant experience and difficulties that children and young adults face as they struggle to fit in when they find themselves in unfamiliar surroundings. The only problem I have and what’s perhaps a bit jarring for me is the book’s narrative structure. It can get a bit confusing at times and you find yourself rereading certain parts because they have gone over your head. 

But despite its length, A House on Mango Street feels like a full-fledged novel and that’s the beauty of it. You will feel like you have known the titular character for a really long time because, a) there is just so much happening in the story, and b) with her intriguing thoughts and feelings, Esperanza takes up a lot of space in your head and heart. You can also relate a lot with her because some struggles—feeling like you don’t belong, trying to change yourself and your situation—are universal.

Fiction

The House on Mango Street

Sandra Cisneros

Published: 1991

Publisher: Vintage

Language: English

Pages: 110, Paperback

I know. Last week I had told our readers that I would most probably be watching and reviewing romantic movies for the Valentine’s month. But two things got in the way—Netflix didn’t release as many choices of the genre I’d expected this week, and a friend whom I completely trust on movie selection recommended “The Dig”.

The Dig is a 2021 British drama that unfolds in Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, England, in 1939, just around the beginning of the World War II. Directed by Simon Stone, the film is an adaptation of John Preston’s 2007 novel of the same name based on true events of the 1939 excavation of Sutton Hoo.

Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan), a landowner in rural Suffolk who also has a keen interest in archeology, hires a local excavator, Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes), to dig the burial mounds in her estate. Attracted by a better pay than his previous employer and the prospects of discovering the antiquities hidden beneath the mounds, Brown takes the job and starts what he does best—digging. In the process, he makes some discoveries that lead him to believe that the mounds could date back to the Dark Ages—the Anglo-Saxon era (410-1066).

The local Ipswich museum, as well as a prominent archaeologist, James Reid Moir (Paul Ready), at first dismisses the idea of Brown—a self-taught archaeologist/excavator who has not even completed middle school. But as Brown’s digging unearths some prominent artifacts that back his claim, the site attracts attention of Cambridge archaeologist Charles Phillips (Ken Stott) who declares it of national import and takes over the dig “by order of the Office of Works.”

While the 1hr 52mins long movie is based almost entirely on the digging up of the mound at Sutton Hoo and is also filmed mostly at and around the site, there is much more happening among the film’s characters, which is also dug up as the film progresses. Pretty, a widow with a young son, Robert, has a sad past and a bleak future with a life-threatening ailment that she hides from everyone. Brown, a skilled workman who is completely dedicated to his work, is ignoring his wife, hinting at estrangement in their relation. There is also a side story of the complicated relationship between the archaeologist couple Peggy and Stuart Piggott (Lily James and Ben Chaplin); and Peggy’s romantic involvement with Rory Lomax (Johnny Flynn), Pretty’s cousin who she has hired as a helping hand and a photographer.

Set in the backdrop of pre-WWII England, The Dig is a film that not only depicts the story of an exquisite find, but also takes us into the lives of its characters as each is trying to unearth something on their own. Whether it is the realization of her impending death for Pretty or Peggy’s dilemma in choosing between her husband and another man who loves her back, the film is laden with heavy retrospection into people’s lives and relationships.

Directed by Simon Stone, the entire cast emulates the gravity required by the script. The actors in the period drama help recreate the time in England when an impending world war has kept the people agile, agitated and on their toes. A sense of urgency can be felt throughout, even though the screenplay itself is a touch slow.

The urgency in the characters is supported by the cinematography, which will probably go on to win awards. It is 1939 in a sparsely populated Sutton Hoo. There’s not much going on besides the threat of a war, and the gloomy English weather is at its worst with rain and overcast skies. The characters are all somber and dressed in dull colors. In short, there is nothing visually appealing. But cinematographer Mike Eley’s camerawork is so brilliant that the film is an unexpected visual delight.

Despite the mundane film setting, Eley’s cameras follow the characters in a way so as to make the audience feel like they are actually real-life witnesses to the proceedings. There are multiple long shots to show the vast, un-vegetated murkiness of the English county and the actors are followed with handheld shots, the audience feeling themselves keenly following the characters they are so vested in.

Who should watch it?

Despite it being a complete package of good story, acting and filmmaking, we think “The Dig” is not a movie everyone would equally enjoy. It’s PG-13 rated, alright; but the movie’s weightage could also be lost on those only interested in face-paced thrillers. The Dig is a slow, steady film that will impress audiences who are into historical dramas. Even for a general movie fan, the film has enough material to entertain you throughout—if you can keep up with the slow-ish pace.  

Rating: 4 stars

Genre: History, drama

Director: Simon Stone

Actors: Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes, Lily James, Johnny Flynn

Run time: 1hr 52mins

A young man working as a tourist guide gets a foreign woman as a client for a few weeks. Coming from two different ends of the world, there is a vast difference between them and they don’t quite hit it off initially. But as time passes, they began to understand each other and ultimately fall in love, keeping all their differences aside.

The story for the Indian Malayalam-language movie “Kilometers and Kilometers” is not exactly new. It has probably been repeated by almost every film industry in the Indian subcontinent and maybe even beyond. Anyone living in tourism-related areas will also tell you that this is a true story or at least narrate to you something similar happen with someone they know.

In the film, featured this week in Netflix’s new release section, writer/director Jeo Baby takes a regular story and presents it craftily to make for an enjoyable watch. The road film has some exquisite shots of southern India and impressive acting performances by a small cast of talented actors.

Josemon (Tovino Thomas) is a local handyman in a rural village in Kottayam, Kerala. As the sole breadwinner for a family of three (including his mother and sister) and under huge debt from local lenders as well as the bank, Josemon decides to take a gig as a tourist guide-cum-driver for Cathy (India Jarvis). The girl is an American who’s just won a big lottery and is touring the world with the money.

Although a passionate biker, Josemon is an un-experienced guide who struggles to understand English. Cathy on the other hand is a demanding tourist who doesn’t like quite like Josemon’s inefficiency at the start. But by some turn of events, they’re stuck together, traveling from Kerala through Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Rajasthan on a motorcycle. The rest of the story—you’ve already read, almost until the climax, save for a few alterations in the screenplay to serve their purpose. 

Frankly, we do not really watch rom-coms for their ingenious stories. Almost all these movies are made in the same ‘boy-meets-girl and so on’ formula that begin and end on similar patterns. Exceptions do apply. There are no exceptions in Kilometers and Kilometers though. The story is the same. Yet the screenplay adds a distinctive touch that does not let it be just another love story.

Better than the script is the acting though. Both the lead actors as well as the supporting cast deliver a non-grandiose performance that makes their character seem like a part of the society we live in. For a low-budget film, unpretentious acting has worked wonders. The performances are exact opposite of what we see in mainstream South Indian movies. But again, Malayalam has always had our hearts for being grounded in reality and for adhering to the laws of physics. (Pun intended.)

American actress India Jarvis deserves a round of applause for her performance. Jarvis seems comfortable in her character, which begins as a rich, arrogant young woman and transitions to someone who has found love and is willing to make sacrifices for it. Jarvis’ character changes dramatically in the film and yet she does not lose her mojo till the very end.

One can rest assured that she’s not just another ‘white face’ that Indian movies use for popularity. (Reference: Salman Khan films in the past couple of decades.) Jarvis turns out to be a well-trained actress and her inclusion is definitely justified by her performance.

Who should watch it?

The Valentine’s month is here and so I’ll most probably be reviewing a few more feel-good rom-coms you can watch with your someone special, or even alone if you’re yet to find someone. Kilometers and Kilometers definitely gets into the list of pleasantly watchable romantic movies this season.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Run time: 2hrs 9mins

Actors:  Tovino Thomas, India Jarvis

Director: Jeo Baby

Genre: Comedy/drama

I have never been a fan of the horror genre—in both books and movies. I know friends and YouTubers who love reading/watching horror. They have always made it sound so fascinating. There is a booktuber (@paperbackdreams) whose fondness for horror is particularly palpable. She gets visibly excited and happy while taking about the horror books she has enjoyed. I love watching her videos and hearing her talk about all these scary stories. But somehow being scared, with goosebumps up my arms, wasn’t a state of being I was comfortable with.

That changed when I started watching movies based on Stephen King’s novels on Netflix during the lockdown. The movies were creepy and made me cover my eyes and ears at least a dozen times during our weekly movie night—but I was hooked. Now, I seek horror recommendations and I’m determined to discover writers other than King who will make my skin crawl. Turns out, that ‘goosebumps up your spine’ is a pretty fun feeling.

I’ve also kind of made it my mission to devour King’s books; the endings of many of his movies, I hear, are quite different from how the books conclude. Not satisfied with how some movies have ended, I figured I’d read ‘The Shining’ and ‘Pet Sematary’ to get some closure. But, unfortunately, I couldn’t find the books at any of the bookstores in Kathmandu and the only one I could lay my hands on was ‘Elevation’. 

Elevation is a tale of Scott Carey and how he ends up uniting his town folks, while dealing with a baffling personal issue and his own prejudices as well as those of his community. It’s a story of an ordinary man, in extraordinary circumstances, who chooses to rise above hatred and value the people in his life.

Scott is suffering from a mysterious ailment. He is losing weight but doesn’t look any different. Every day he is getting lighter and lighter while taking up the same amount of space he always did. He doesn’t know what will happen if he steadily keeps losing weight. Scott also has another problem. He is engaged in a low-key battle with one of his neighbors, who happen to be a lesbian couple—Deidre McComb and Missy Donaldson. He is sure Deidre’s dog is doing its business on his lawn. She refuses to believe it and so he is fixated in proving her wrong.

Generally, King’s books can be used as doorstoppers. Not that we should use books for that but you get the drift. Elevation, on the other hand, is a novella. And it’s not horror. As disappointing as that was when I read the blurb, the book is now one of my favorites. It’s unlike King’s regular style but he is a skillful storyteller and, turns out, he doesn’t need the help of horror to grip your heart.

Elevation is a charming tale of the way our biases run deep, why it’s important to get over our narrow-mindedness, and how we can find friendship and love in the unlikeliest of places.

Fiction

Elevation

Stephen King

Published: 2019

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Language: English

Pages: 132, Paperback