A Manual for Cleaning WomenA Manual for Cleaning Women
Score Modern
What it's about
Forty-three stories by Lucia Berlin, drawn from her own unsettled life: cleaning women riding buses through Berkeley, a girlhood in mining towns and in Chile, laundromats, emergency rooms, detox wards, a sister dying in Mexico City. Her narrators are drinkers, single mothers, teachers and nurses, and they notice everything.
Why it's worth reading
Berlin was barely known when she died in 2004. This collection made her a sensation eleven years later, and the New York Times named it one of the 100 best books of the 21st century. Her stories are funny, sad and electric line by line.
You'll love it if you liked
Interpreter of Maladies
The Stories of John Cheever
CathedralGood to know
The stories stand alone and many are short, so you can dip in. Alcoholism and hard times run through them.
By the numbers
- Readers78 out of 100 · counts 42%
- Critics59 out of 100 · counts 34% (its stronger lane)
- Bestseller18 out of 100 · counts 14%
- Buzz0 out of 100 · counts 10%
Critics and Bestseller are two ways to earn a place: a book's stronger one counts more. Buzz rewards recent bestseller weeks and prizes, so older books start at zero. The parts combine into the Must-Read Score, shown on a scale where the best book we found scores 99 and the last book to make the ranking scores 50.
Where it ranks
- #271 of the 1,573 modern books we rank
- #535 of the 2,816 books we rank
Why it made the list
Reads as
Adventurous
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Quick answers
Is A Manual for Cleaning Women worth reading?
Yes. Berlin was barely known when she died in 2004. It ranks #535 of the 2,816 books in our ranking, with a Must-Read Score of 78.0 (the best book we found scores 99).
What is A Manual for Cleaning Women about?
Forty-three stories by Lucia Berlin, drawn from her own unsettled life: cleaning women riding buses through Berkeley, a girlhood in mining towns and in Chile, laundromats, emergency rooms, detox wards, a sister dying in Mexico City. Her narrators are drinkers, single mothers, teachers and nurses, and they notice everything.
How long does it take to read A Manual for Cleaning Women?
About 11 hours (432 pages), or about 3 weeks at 30 minutes a day.
What should I read after A Manual for Cleaning Women?
If you liked it, try Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever or Cathedral by Raymond Carver.