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Title details for A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin - Available

A Manual for Cleaning Women

Selected Stories

by Lucia Berlin
Stephen Emerson
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
"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, from the forewordA 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.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    January 19, 2016

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781504676472
      • File size: 425874 KB
      • Duration: 14:47:14

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      In her foreword to this collection, Davis writes, "Her sensitivity to the sounds of the language is always there, and we too savor the rhythms of the syllables or the perfect coincidence of sound and sense." While meant as a reflection on Lucia Berlin's writing, the words hold equally true for the narrators of this short story collection. They each (with a special nod to Carol Monda and Hillary Huber) slip easily inside the sidelined and marginalized characters who populate these semiautobiographical stories. Berlin's writing, both tempered and elastic, provides a perfect springboard, and the narrators use it to full advantage: gracefully leaping, twisting, and--when called for--landing with force on the emotional heart of each story. K.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from April 6, 2015
      Berlin, who may just be the best writer you’ve never heard of, has a gift for creating stories out of anything, often from events as apparently mundane as a trip to the laundromat. Imagine a less urban Grace Paley, with a similar talent for turning the net of resentments and affections among family members into stories that carry more weight than their casual, conversational tone might initially suggest. Many of the strongest stories here are autobiographical, featuring Berlin’s stand-in (sometimes called Lucille, sometimes Carlotta) and her sons, husbands and lovers; a range of jobs, mostly pink collar, but occasionally, as in the title story, blue; a complicated backstory across two continents; and a problem with booze. Berlin’s offbeat humor, get-on-with-it realism, and ability to layer details that echo across stories and decades give her book a tremendous staying power. The collection could be tighter (there are over 40 stories, some only minor) and could give readers a better sense of how they’re sequenced, but this collection goes a long way toward putting Berlin, who died in 2004, back in the public eye. Agent: Katherine Fausset, Curtis Brown.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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