![]() ![]() ![]() “Cleaning women know everything,” the domestic says. They take sleeping pills or nail polish, toilet paper or a bottle of Spice Island sesame seeds. They steal, Berlin wrote, but not jewelry or coins left out in ashtrays. … The ladies will get jealous.”Ĭleaning women get their revenge. Put back the furniture wrong so they’ll know you’ve moved it. Sooner or later they resent you because you know so much about them.” Open the Comet tab to three holes instead of six. “Women’s voices always rise two octaves when they talk to cleaning women or cats,” she observes. Take the title story “A Manual for Cleaning Women,” the tale of a jaundiced domestic who observes more about her employers than they might think. The writing is troubling, but it is also human and empowering. ![]() More than half of those stories are included in “A Manual for Cleaning Women.” But the onetime University of Colorado associate professor was also a powerful writer whose 76 short stories draw on her own life, her personal relationships, her failures and her addictions. She was an alcoholic with three failed marriages, too. Lucia Berlin was a cleaning woman, a switchboard operator, a physician’s assistant and a nurse. Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menu ![]()
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