A Manual For Cleaning Women, By Lucia Berlin (2015)

 A Manual For Cleaning Women, By Lucia Berlin (2015)

8/10


I found the way this story was written to have more weak points then good points. I understood what kind of atmosphere the author wanted to deliver, but I don’t think this way of slicing up the story’s progress was that necessary. Personally, I think it basically made reading the story slow and hard to focus.

I felt that this story delivered the feelings of the main character very raw. We are roughly introduced into the life of this weary, suffering cleaning lady. Her stories are realistic in both good and bad ways. Her thoughts and actions, choices are mentioned bluntly for the reader to judge, with only her descriptions to add to the details. Thus, although I found her to be likable and pitiful, I also wanted to keep my distance from her life.

I guess since this story is originally from a collection of stories with the same characters, I would have better sympathized with the main character if I read the other stories. Still, this story is a rather fine piece of work even as a standalone short story. I rated it eight out of ten. (189 words)


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