Name: Dom's review of A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
Item: A Manual for Cleaning Women
Rating: 3
Author: Dom

Lucia Berlin

"I have always had faith that the best writers will rise to the top, like cream, sooner or later, and will become exactly as well-known as they should be-their work talked about, quoted, taught, performed, filmed, set to music, anthologized. Perhaps, with the present collection, Lucia Berlin will begin to gain the attention she deserves." -Lydia Davis A MANUAL FOR CLEANING WOMEN compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin. With the grit of Raymond Carver, the humor of Grace Paley, and a blend of wit and melancholy all her own, Berlin crafts miracles from the everyday, uncovering moments of grace in the Laundromats and halfway houses of the American Southwest, in the homes of the Bay Area upper class, among switchboard operators and struggling mothers, hitchhikers and bad Christians. Readers will revel in this remarkable collection from a master of the form and wonder how they'd ever overlooked her in the first place.

Selected Stories

A Manual for Cleaning Women

Stories from a lost American classic "in the same arena as Alice Munro" (Lydia Davis) "In the field of short fiction, Lucia Berlin is one of America's best kept secrets. That's it. Flat out. No mitigating conditions." --Paul Metcalf A Manual for Cleaning Women compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin. With her trademark blend of humor and melancholy, Berlin crafts miracles from the everyday--uncovering moments of grace in the cafeterias and Laundromats of the American Southwest, in the homes of the Northern California upper classes, and from the perspective of a cleaning woman alone in a hotel dining room in Mexico City. The women of Berlin's stories are lost, but they are also strong, clever, and extraordinarily real. They are hitchhikers, hard workers, bad Christians. With the wit of Lorrie Moore and the grit of Raymond Carver, they navigate a world of jockeys, doctors, and switchboard operators. They laugh, they mourn, they drink. Berlin, a highly influential writer despite having published little in her lifetime, conjures these women from California, Mexico, and beyond. Lovers of the short story will not want to miss this remarkable collection from a master of the form.

Joana da Silva

LUCIA BERLIN, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE? It took me a while to finish this book but these stories, dear lord, these stories. The writer really had a way of pulling me in and making me truly live inside them. What a fascinating point of view and fresher look on just ordinary American lives. Wasn't expecting such a romantic touch on some stories but it was HIGHLY appreciated. 
Favorite ones:
Melina
Toda luna, todo año
Friends
Let me see you smile
Mijito
Here it is Saturday

Amy Thibodeau

I wasn't sure about Lucia Berlin's stories when I started reading. They're different than anything I've read and the language initially felt too simple. I was also a bit thrown by all the first person narratives. About five stories in, I felt like a lightbulb went on and I understood what she was doing. As in any collection of this size, some stories are better than others, but the ones that are good are wonderful little revelations. She's a fan of little twists and ah-ha moments at the end and they're surprisingly effective. I also loved the way these stories are organized: they follow a natural progression where you're seeing the same story, character or event but from a different angle at various points. When a character pops up in a new story it feels a bit like deja vue or like running into someone familiar in an unfamiliar place.

My favorites in this book are:

Tiger Bites
Temps Perdu
Todo Luna, Todo Año
Melina
Friends
Grief
Bluebonnets
La Vie en Rose
Panteón de Dolores
So Long
Mama
Here It Is Saturday
Wait a Minute and Homecoming

Chiyeung lau

What a stunning collection of stories. They are enthralling, surprising and heart breaking. The more I read, the better they got. My favorites were definitely the ones towards the end of the book, closer to the end of her life. 

“ Mama” still haunts me many weeks after finishing it.

Nadine 

Just stunning. A must read for fans of short stories.

Amy Grieve

I picked up this collection on a whim after reading many rave reviews and I was certainly not disappointed.

Lucia Berlin is maybe my favorite short story writer now. It is a genre I have been attempting to explore because I enjoy writing short stories myself and wanted to broaden my understanding of the genre. Berlin’s writing is solid, well paced with an honest take on different situations she has faced through her life.

Point of View is one of the more notable stories for me. As I read it I knew it was going to be something I was going to come back to. It felt very meta that Berlin, as a writer was writing about the actual process of being a writer. It reminded me of a assignment I had for my creative reflection module at university and I kind of wish that I had discovered it earlier because it fits with the assignment brief perfectly.

Emergency Room Notebook, 1977 also notable for me as it felt like a masterpiece in storytelling. It was well paced, engaging and demonstrated Berlin’s skill as a writer.

I feel like for anyone wishing to explore the world of short stories Berlin and this particular collection is a great start. Her writing is well-paced and more importantly it feels raw and truthful. From what little I know of Berlin’s personal life I can see it reflected in her writing which made me enjoy it much more.

Erin Noel

A series of dark, poetic, realistic stories--all inspired by Lucia's tragic and beautiful life. I'm not typically a short story fan, but each one takes you deep into the characters, as if a novel--really enjoyed this work!

Leafling

I wasn't going to review this book. I really wasn't. Because how does one even begin to go about describing what it feels like to be in love? Ok, maybe that's hyperbolic, but at the same time I'm feeling the same excitement and utter loss for words. I almost skipped this book because of all the hype. Because that's the kind of person I am. I figured there's no way I won't be disappointed by a book getting this much press and acclaim. But I am here to tell you that I, the coldest heart this side of the Mississippi, always ready and willing to hate, believe the hype is entirely justified and that this book needs more. This collection of short stories is a masterpiece.

I've only had this feeling with a few other authors. Shirley Jackson, Lydia Davis, Vladimir Nabokov. You just have a moment when you're reading where you go "wow, this person is actually a literary genius and I am not worthy." Prepare yourself for that feeling. Lucia Berlin is incredible in the least pretentious way possible. When you read her stories it's like being told a story by a friend. Granted, a friend who's seen a lot of life. Her writing is beautiful without it being easy to put your finger on why. Not a word is wasted and her voice is so strong and compelling. Normally I mark a bunch of passages that I like, but I had to give up with Berlin, because I loved it all so much. I was running out of book darts.

"After a long time the cranes did come. Hundreds, just as the sky turned blue-gray. They had landed in slow motion on brittle legs. Washing, preening on the bank. Everything was suddenly black and white and gray, a movie after the credits, churning.
As the cranes drank upstream the silver water beneath them was shot into dozens of thin streamers. Then very quickly the birds left, in whiteness, with the sound of shuffling cards."

The stories in this book are a selection of her best works put in order chronologically. What's brilliant about this is that Lucia Berlin writes very autobiographical stories. It essentially feels like you're growing beside her, like you're watching her life unfold. And this lady has been through all sorts of shit. For a while she lived in mining camps in America, then she moved to Chile where she lived flamboyantly into her 20s. She moved back to America and lived much less flamboyantly. She worked as a maid. She was married 3 times, had some kids, had some affairs, and struggled with alcoholism for most of her life. Most of her stories are about poverty, alcoholism, relationships, family, death. That's part of why I thought I wouldn't be interested, but I was wrong. Berlin is sharp as a tack, she has all sorts of hutzpah, and boy can she tell a story (often in only a few pages or less).

"Women’s voices always rise two octaves when they talk to cleaning women or cats."

I still really don't know what to say about this collection of short stories. I'm tongue-tied. I don't want to try to describe the pieces, because I know they'll all fall flat in my summation. All I can ask is that you please take the time to AT LEAST read this excerpt from it. "Carpe Diem" was one of the stories that really got to me and you can read it online here. I'm so grateful to have read A Manual for Cleaning Women. I genuinely feel lucky to have had the opportunity, which is an incredible feeling to have after reading a book. I want you to feel that too.

"The only reason I have lived so long is that I let go of my past. Shut the door on grief on regret on remorse. If I let them in, just one self-indulgent crack, whap, the door will fling open gales of pain ripping through my heart blinding my eyes with shame breaking cups and bottles knocking down jars shattering windows stumbling bloody on spilled sugar and broken glass terrified gagging until with a final shudder and sob I shut the heavy door. Pick up the pieces one more time."

Full review: Outlandish Lit

Lydia Davis

The New York Times bestseller 'This selection of 43 stories should by all rights see Lucia Berlin as lauded as Jean Rhys or Raymond Carver' Independent The stories in A Manual for Cleaning Women make for one of the most remarkable unsung collections in twentieth-century American fiction. With extraordinary honesty and magnetism, Lucia Berlin invites us into her rich, itinerant life: the drink and the mess and the pain and the beauty and the moments of surprise and of grace. Her voice is uniquely witty, anarchic and compassionate. Celebrated for many years by those in the know, she is about to become - a decade after her death - the writer everyone is talking about. The collection will be introduced by Lydia Davis. 'With Lucia Berlin we are very far away from the parlours of Boston and New York and quite far away, too, from the fiction of manners, unless we are speaking of very bad manners . . . The writer Lucia Berlin most puts me in mind of is the late Richard Yates.' LRB, 1999

Gary Homewood

Stories of the marginalised, alcoholics, couples. Frequently end with a poetic and unexpected emotional punch.

Aaron Lewis

Samantha Plakun

Allison Garber

Dhanya 

Saara M

Yasmin

Katie

Will Vunderink

Michael Ernst

Kyle Curry

Blake Powers

Emily Bult

Jacob Mishook

Berlin invites her reader into a rich, itinerant life: one of beauty, pain, laughter, drink and surprising moments of grace. In Mexico, Chile and the American southwest, in laundromats, hospitals, motels and bars, she crafts miracles from the everyday with a voice that is irresistible.

Jen &
A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin

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A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin