![]() ![]() They are all trying to make it, or just trying to get by, and what a mess that creates, but it’s a mess her stories embrace wholeheartedly. These 22 stories show her startling range and unwavering devotion to remaining open, refusing to judge any of her characters, whether delinquent, conniving, or alcoholic. It is a small, but worthwhile, consolation that Berlin has found a readership 10 years after her death - an imperfect and bittersweet success, not unlike many of the pieces in this latest collection. That her work went unheralded during her lifetime has numerous likely reasons: sexism, no novels (a grave sin in some publishing circles), alcoholism, and a career with smaller presses. ![]() Considered together, the two collections leave little doubt she is one of the greatest American short story writers of the 20th century. IT IS HARD to read Lucia Berlin’s Evening in Paradise: More Stories, which is every bit as generous and perceptive as A Manual for Cleaning Women, and not feel some sense of frustration or exasperation at the fact that Berlin was not more widely read during her lifetime. ![]()
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