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

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015Edition: First editionDescription: xxiv, 403 pages ; 22 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 0374202397
  • 9780374202392
Uniform titles:
  • Short stories. Selections
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
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.
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.
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library Fiction Berlin Lucia Available 33111008043032
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

One of The New York Times Book Review 's Ten Best Books of 2015

One of Jezebel 's Favorite Books of 2016

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.

"Perhaps, with the present collection, Lucia Berlin will begin to gain the attention she deserves." -Lydia Davis

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.

"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.

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