A Manual for Cleaning Women

by Lucia Berlin

Berlin’s collection of short stories is both wonderful and compelling. Raw, direct, personal, visceral, and often tragically humorous, her tales are set in the US land of immigrants, alcohol and laundromats. They are linked reflections of the author’s struggle with alcoholism, relationships and finding her place—all from a very female perspective. Sometimes the stories are hardly structured, and the language is so sparse that sentences only contain one word, but it is always the perfect word. I have heard Berlin referred to as a “legendary short story writer” and now I know why. Essential reading.