A manual for cleaning women : selected stories / Lucia Berlin ; edited and with an introduction by Stephen Emerson ; foreword by Lydia Davis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Berlin, Lucia, author.

Contributor:

Emerson, Stephen, editor.

Dhiren H. Shah W'82 and Katherine M. Shah Fund.

Standardized Title:

Short stories. Selections

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Short stories, American.

Genre:

Short stories, American.

Short stories.

Physical Description:

xxiv, 403 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015.

Summary:

"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"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Angel's laundromat

Dr. H. A. Moynihan

Stars and saints

A manual for cleaning women

My jockey

El Tim

Point of view

Her first detox

Phantom pain

Tiger bites

Emergency room notebook, 1977

Temps perdu

Carpe diem

Toda luna, todo anäo

Good and bad

Melina

Friends

Unmanageable

Electric car, El Paso

Sex appeal

Teenage punk

Step

Strays

Grief

Bluebonnets

La vie en rose

Macadam

Dear Conchi

Fool to cry

Mourning

Panteoân de Dolores

So long

A love affair

Let me see you smile

Mama

Carmen

Silence

Mijito

502

Here it is Saturday

B.F. and me

Wait a minute

Homing.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Dhiren H. Shah W'82 and Katherine M. Shah Fund.

ISBN:

9780374202392

0374202397

OCLC:

898433447