a book
A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories
Lucia Berlin · 2016 · 432 pages
A MANUAL FOR CLEANING WOMEN compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin.
recommended by 3 people
sourced from public statements
Emily Ratajkowski
“Lucia Berlin lived her life as an unknown writer who worked as a cleaning lady. This is a collection of short stories put together after her death; they are stories, but I think it’s understood that they are thinly veiled fiction, and you do feel you’re getting to know her as a person as well as a writer when you read them. The publisher did a wonderful job putting the stories together; they build on one another, and the book is really enjoyable to read as a whole. There is something very rough and tumble about her voice—sort of like she’s related to [Charles] Bukowski, if Bukowski were a brown woman who cleaned houses.”↗
Colson Whitehead
“A posthumous collection that gathers 40-plus stories from this overlooked writer and gives them a worthy showcase. Autobiographical fiction like an intimate conversation in the wee hours, Pall Mall smoke filling the air.”↗
