Sandra Cisneros perfectly captures how object unexpectedly can trigger memories, make them not only alive but palpable and transport you back in time. Her protagonist Corina goes through such an experience when she finds letters from a friend she met in Paris, where the three girls roamed the streets and were dreaming of a great future. A dense short story which touches you and invites yourself to go back in your memories.
The novella comes in two languages thus offering two perspectives on the same emotion.

This book feels like a lovely memoir from years before told through three friends letters. Many will be able to relate to this book. This is an unusual read that lingers after the book is finished.

A lovely novella about friendship between three women who met in Paris and then went their separate ways. Corina finds a packet of their letters one afternoon - these letters form the story of Corina, Martita, and Paola. There are no great secrets or revelations but it's nonetheless a gripping read. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Those with greater facility in written Spanish than I likely will enjoy this even more for some nuance I likely missed.

Cisneros, writes from a place of incredible beauty and pain, in sparse, clear language. This is a joy to read. Cisneros is able to share the experience of women of color in a manner that doesn’t simplify their complicated realities. The letters this novel forms from, transports readers.

Just so lovely. Sandra Cisneros, author of the beautiful House on Mango Street, writes a different kind of gorgeous book in Martita, I Remember You. It’s a short, but powerful, one-sitting book about a woman reflecting back on a time of her life with two friends in Paris. It’s wistful and quiet. I’m 30 years out of college and while reading I thought of a friend of mine from those days that I’ve lost touch with but remember vividly. This book gives the “feels” and does so in a tender way. Highly recommend. Thank you to Vintage for the advanced copy. I’m so grateful.

Beautiful evocation of life as a young, aspiring artist in Paris. Paris, a magnet for artists and young people hoping to change their life while the impervious city stands beautiful but indifferent to their struggle. Three friends meet in Paris and spend a short but important time together and their story is told through their letters and postcards to each other over the next two decades. Three young women struggle to stay true to who they are, to find happiness and fulfillment in Buenos Aires, Chicago and Milan. A fascinating way to look at their story. Could not put it down, so touching!!

This book reminds me of the wanderings of a beautiful mind. Lovely words strung together, but just no movement towards a goal. I loved the prose, but couldn't feel any connection with the storyline or the characters.

You could feel the reminiscence on every page. This was a wonderfully inviting novella. Such a quick read packed with a lot of emotion. I love the style of writing, it felt like remembering little bits of important moments in your life. Great read.

Sandra Cisneros' prose is always something to be savored; Martita, te Recuerdo is no exception. This short tale, told in letters, looks back on a friendship and significant events in the lives of three friends at a critical point in their lives. Through the poignant and tender letters, readers learn about the lives of the young women and work to piece together the clues about why they might have parted and what their lives held after their time in Paris. [I am thankful for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book from NetGalley.]

This was a really nice story. It is so short, it took about an hour to read it. But it sucked me in and I could imagine the three women exploring the city and supporting each other. Everyone needs those kinds of friends!

A lovely novella - a quiet reflection on a long since gone friendship. Puffina’s story reads more like real life than anything I’ve read in quite a while.

Did I enjoy reading Sandra Cisneros' Martita, I Remember You? Yes.

Is it a book I'll read again and again, like Loose Woman or The House on Mango Street? No.

Cisneros knows how to tell a story, to pull readers along on a journey, offering enough scenery and commentary that they never feel bored, never feel that they've wasted a moment of reading time. But, there are the books you read once and the books you read again and again. For me, Martita, I Remember You was a one-read experience.

Martita is an epistolary novella. The central character, Carina (known to the particular friends whose letters she's reading as Puffina) has come across a small bundle of letters from two women she spent time with in Paris years ago, with whom she's lost touch. All three were young then, hoping to be writers, artists, to make or do something that would make them stand out in some way. They were dreaming big. Clearly, those dreams didn't pan out, but I think part of the point here is that smaller things, just keeping going, doing right by loved ones and one's self, is enough. Small isn't the opposite of big. Small is a kind of big that it takes time and maturity to recognize.

I was charmed by this group of young friends, but never really felt I'd gotten to know them. As a reader, I had to fill in parts of their stories myself to get the sort of resonance I was looking for. So, in a way, I felt like I was simultaneously reading Martita while also writing parts of it.

I very much appreciate the format of this novella, with text provided both in English and Spanish. It gives readers with some competence in both languages an opportunity to see how language can affect the feel of a piece of writing, what kinds of ideas come across most clearly in which language.

Martita, I Remember You is definitely worth seeking out and reading. The pleasure may be brief, but it's pleasure nonetheless.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.

{I have also posted my review on Edelweiss.]

Corina leaves her family in Chicago and travels to Paris as it has been her dream to become a writer. However, things don’t work quite to plan.
She meets Martita and Paola and they are best friends but have lost touch with each.
A forgotten letter is found in a closet while she is using a scraper and blowtorch to strip a hundred and six years of built up varnish off a dining room built-in hutch. She stops to reliving those wonderful friendship memories; which seem as if they are once again talking to each

This style of telling a story through letters was once the way to tell a story. However, is a style I usually don’t read but it was more enjoyable than I expected.
Want to thank NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishers for this eGalley. This file has been made available to me before publication in an early form for an honest professional review.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for September 7, 2021

This book was my first introduction to Sandra Cisneros and I will be seeking out her other titles. I read the English version of the story. Cisneros has a different way of telling a story, one that mimics how we remember people, places, and events. The small snippets with the incredible sensory details; the feelings experienced, rather than a recitation of the events; the metaphors that invite the reader to remember times they may have felt the same. This is prose that reads like poetry, partially due to the structure and partially due to the choice of words. I highly recommend this small slice of life for people interested in travel, immigrant experiences, and stories of friendship. I am very thankful to have received this book early on NetGalley.

A long time ago I had the pleasure of knowing a teacher of English in Missouri, and somehow I overheard her talk with a student about Sandra Cisneros. The fact is that she hasn't written a heck of a lot, and yet has become a set-text provider. This, then, is quite a relevant purchase for anyone interested – a long short story with its translation into Spanish. I can't pretend it's perfect, but it certainly holds a quiet, mature, thoughtful charm. The core of the book at first is a woman looking back at the friendships she had as a poor Chicagoan living in Paris, suffering under the cold (everyone, everywhere, all over Europe, is cold, allegedly, which loses this a bit of a mark) and waiting for a call-up to an arts foundation that will validate her intent in the eyes of her parents and justify the expense (and cold). Sparsely-sent letters from her best girlfriends bring us all up to date, where we see the power of the formative relationship, even if it didn't last long whatsoever.

(Much like me and the teacher.)

For all its finding Europe and European men on the unlikeable side, this still hits the marks it wants to. It certainly has a convincing smack of being based on real life; I have no idea if Cisneros spent gap years in Paris, top-and-tailing with girlfriends, avoiding the attentions of generous-seeming puppeteers at night, and more, but you can damn well believe she did. Things are economically evoked, and you'll realise how much I mean that when you see the glaring white spaces between each paragraph. It's a story that covers a lot of years and a lot of ground, and is a perfect length for what it has to say. This likeable entry point to the author is well worth the look.

I always have a hard time reviewing for my favorite authors because I wonder if they are going to let up and not be as good as previous books that I adored, but this definitely is NOT the case for Sandra Cisneros! This book was beautifully written, poignant, emotional, and everything you’d imagine a Sandra Cisneros book to be! I love that it’s a dual language book and although I don’t know Spanish as a Chicana, it fills my heart knowing this book can appeal to Spanish speakers as well! Overall, 5 stars over and over again!

Carve out a time in the afternoon to lie back in a hammock and savor this delicate, perfectly worded novella. Sandra Cisneros says more with less. Somehow her voice is amplified through her gentle prose and the reader can feel the soul of her characters throughout.

Sandra Cisneros is a Writer. Yes with a capital "W". She is a master on par with Rembrandt, only she paints with words instead of a brush. I recently attending a virtual author talk by Cisneros that left me in awe. I could have sat and listened to her all day. I would describe her as a Wise Woman in the fullest sense of the word. The knowledge she has on how to live life, to observe, to be present for the smallest things everyday, to find those fleeting moments of joy.

Martita, I Remember You is a love letter to a friendship gone by. Three girls in Paris trying out their wings for the first time, making mistakes and moving on as only the young can do. The first half of the book is in English with the second half in Spanish. The tale told in snippets of fleeting memories as they pass through Corinna's mind while she is working on stripping the varnish off a hutch. A sweet reminiscence of beloved friendships, those people you love fiercely but are in your life for only a brief time and then gone.