A Manual for Cleaning Women : Selected Stories (Paperback)

from dickmanikowski

I had never heard of writer Lucia Berlin until I happened upon an NPR review of this collection of her stories. And they are absolutely great. As I read through them, though, I noticed some recurring themes. It was almost as though specific characters had reappeared in multiple stories. When I re...

from TimBazzett

A MANUAL FOR CLEANING WOMEN is hands down one of the best short story collections I have read in years. It's hard to believe that the author, Lucia Berlin, was virtually unknown during her lifetime. She died fifteen years ago. She'd finally gotten sober after suffering from alcoholism for most of...

from clifforddham

Heard about on radio, an East Bay resident, alcoholic, manual labor work, rose to professor at UC Boulder. Amazingly terse, insightful, and expressive short stories. Much local reference. Amazon: ""I have always had faith that the best writers will rise to the top, like cream, sooner or later, an...

from Carrie_Etter

For me, reading Lucia Berlin was like coming home, as some of its themes touch on issues in my own life, including shifts between working and middle class experience. I learned a lot about writing fiction, particularly developing characters and letting the character be the story. The book seems t...

from msf59

"I love houses, all the things they tell me, so that's one reason. I don't mind working as a cleaning woman. It's just like reading a book." Every once in awhile, you stumble on a book, that just reminds you, why books are special, why you have devoted endless minutes, hours and days, to the prin...