LOOSE WOMAN by Sandra Cisneros

Photo: Katie Chin

I've been trying for about two weeks to write about Loose Woman by Sandra Cisneros. Partly because I have a lot of feelings about her work; and partly because her poetry is so upfront about what it is, I'm not sure what else I can say. Loose Woman is only the second book of Cisneros' that I've read, the first being The House on Mango Street, which I first read in the eighth grade and periodically since then. Mango Street is a deeply important book to me for so many reasons. I think Loose Woman is a good book of poetry. It's not my favorite, and not as transcendent as I'd like it to be, as Mango Street is to me ... but it is still just as vital because it highlights women asserting their own perspective and sexuality, and celebrating flaws laced within both. All of which is why I think I have ultimately had a hard time writing anything specific about this book. What I can say for sure is that we need more books like Loose Woman, we need more writers like Cisneros to be widely read and discussed.