(I was wasted, too, after mama had read me only one story; I have to recover)
Well, mama just read me one of the stories in A Manual for Cleaning Women and we are both absolutely blown away by the brilliance of this writer. Mama can’t figure out how she would miss such a talent in her book searches. This from Amazon:
“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.
Get thee to a bookstore immediately! Even papa is reading this book after having read a very short story about a jockey that mama gave him to get hooked. And hooked he was. It is rare to find an author who is completely different from all others. The only drawback of reading Lucia Berlin is that if you are a writer, you may never open your computer again.
Just kidding. She is an inspiration to writers everywhere and mama, after having read a bit today at nap time, got up and said, “Well, that is such an emotional experience that it’s really hard to come back from it.”
Papa says that one day mama might just disappear into a book and not return and he would have NO idea of how to go looking for her! I hope that doesn’t happen. Whose knees am I going to sleep between and WHO WILL GIVE ME MY MORNING CEREAL?
Are you on the way to the bookstore or WHAT? Trust me, Lucia is a winner.
Don’t look so scared LouLou, your Mama won’t leave you. That book does sound good.
Oh, it isn’t actually a manual for cleaning women. It’s fiction. Sounds interesting.