《芒果街上的小屋》 一本優美純凈的小書，一本“詩小說”。由幾十個短篇組成，語言清澈如流水，點綴著零落的韻腳和新奇的譬喻，如一首首長歌短調，各自成韻，又彼此鉤連，匯聚出一個清晰世界，各樣雜沓人生。所有的講述都歸于一個敘述中心：居住在芝加哥拉美移民社區芒果街上的女孩埃斯佩朗莎。生就對弱的同情心和對美的感覺力，她用清澈的眼打量周圍的世界，用美麗稚嫩的語言講述成長、滄桑、生命的美好與不易和年輕的熱望與夢想，夢想有一所自己的房子，夢想在寫作中追尋自我，獲得自由和幫助別人的能力。

　　Marin
　　We never see Marin until her aunt comes home from work, and even then she can only stay out in front. She is there every night with the radio. When the light in her aunt's room goes out, Marin lights a cigarette and it doesn't matter if it's cold out or if the radio doesn't work or if we've got nothing to say to each other. What matters, Marin says, is for the boys to see us and for us to see them. And since Marin's skirts are shorter and since her eyes are pretty, and since Marin is already older than us in many ways, the boys who do pass by say stupid things like I am in love with those two green apples you call eyes, give them to me why don't you. And Marin just looks at them without even blinking and is no afraid.

　　Marin, under the streetlight, dancing by herself, is singing the same song somewhere. I know. Is waiting for a car to stop, a star to fall, someone to change her life.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　瑪琳
　　在瑪琳在嬸嬸下班回家前，我們從來都看不到瑪琳。在那以后，她也只能出到房子前面。她每晚都拿個收音機在那里。等她嬸嬸房間里的燈熄滅后，瑪琳就會點一支煙，如果那會兒外面冷，或者收音機不響，或者我們互相沒話說，這些都不要緊；要緊的是，瑪琳說，要讓男孩子看到我們，我們看到男孩子。因為瑪琳的裙子更短，因為她的眼睛很漂亮，因為她在很多方面已經比我們成熟，男孩子跑過來說一些蠢話，比如我愛上你說是眼睛的那兩個青蘋果，把它們給我吧為什么不？瑪琳只是看著它們，眼睛都不眨一下，也不害怕。

　　瑪琳，街燈下獨自起舞的人，在某個地方唱著同一首歌，我知道。她在等一輛小汽車停下來，等著一顆星星墜落，等一個人改變她的生活。