![]() 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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