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So Long: Stories 1987-1992
Twenty-three stories from a widely recognized master. Each will resonate, as questions of the human condition always do, in the heart of the reader.
Lucia Berlin is widely recognized as a master of the short story. This collection captures distilled moments of crisis or epiphany, placing the protagonists in moments of stress or personal strain, and all told in an almost offhand, matter-of-fact voice.
The San Francisco Chronicle wrote, “Most of the stories in this collection are very short and very simple. They are set in the places Berlin knows Chile, Mexico, the Desert Southwest, and California, and they have the casual, straightforward, immediate, and intimate style that distinguishes her work. They are told in a conversational voice and they move with a swift and often lyrical economy. They capture and communicate moments of grace and cast a lovely, lazy light that lasts. Berlin is one of our finest writers and here she is at the height of her powers.”
This is a collection for anyone who loves short stories or great writing of any kind.
Lucia Berlin is widely recognized as a master of the short story. This collection captures distilled moments of crisis or epiphany, placing the protagonists in moments of stress or personal strain, and all told in an almost offhand, matter-of-fact voice.
The San Francisco Chronicle wrote, “Most of the stories in this collection are very short and very simple. They are set in the places Berlin knows Chile, Mexico, the Desert Southwest, and California, and they have the casual, straightforward, immediate, and intimate style that distinguishes her work. They are told in a conversational voice and they move with a swift and often lyrical economy. They capture and communicate moments of grace and cast a lovely, lazy light that lasts. Berlin is one of our finest writers and here she is at the height of her powers.”
This is a collection for anyone who loves short stories or great writing of any kind.
271 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1993
38 people are currently reading
1136 people want to read
About the author
Lucia Berlin
42 books974 followersBerlin began publishing relatively late in life, under the encouragement and sometimes tutelage of poet Ed Dorn. Her first small collection, Angels Laundromat was published in 1981, but her published stories were written as early as 1960. Several of her stories appeared in magazines such as The Atlantic and Saul Bellow’s little magazine The Noble Savage.
Berlin published six collections of short stories, but most of her work can be found in three later volumes from Black Sparrow Books: Homesick: New and Selected Stories, So Long: Stories 1987-92 and Where I Live Now: Stories 1993-98.
Berlin was never a bestseller, but was widely influential within the literary community. She aspired to Chekhov's objectivity and refusal to judge. She has also been widely compared to Raymond Carver and Richard Yates. One of her most memorable achievements was the stunning one-page story "My Jockey," which captured a world, a moment and a panoramic movement in five quick paragraphs. It won the Jack London Short Prize for 1985. Berlin also won an American Book Award in 1991 for Homesick, and was awarded a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Berlin published six collections of short stories, but most of her work can be found in three later volumes from Black Sparrow Books: Homesick: New and Selected Stories, So Long: Stories 1987-92 and Where I Live Now: Stories 1993-98.
Berlin was never a bestseller, but was widely influential within the literary community. She aspired to Chekhov's objectivity and refusal to judge. She has also been widely compared to Raymond Carver and Richard Yates. One of her most memorable achievements was the stunning one-page story "My Jockey," which captured a world, a moment and a panoramic movement in five quick paragraphs. It won the Jack London Short Prize for 1985. Berlin also won an American Book Award in 1991 for Homesick, and was awarded a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
February 8, 2022
“Sally, you were so little when we first went to Mexico City, by train, when all the volcanoes were vast and visible against the blue sky… Our parents dead now, husbands gone, children grown.”
There was something very evocative, nostalgic and melancholic about this set of short stories, my first by Lucia Berlin. I’ve had her A Manual for Cleaning Women, a larger collection than this one, sitting on my shelf for some time now. I thought I’d dip my toes into the water with this smaller offering. As it turns out, the water is very inviting, and I’m ready for a deep soak. Several of the stories revolve around two sisters, one of them diagnosed with cancer. Nothing bright and cheery here, yet beautifully expressed. The fear, the love, the sharing of childhood memories, stories of motherhood. It made me think of all the times I’ve had a heart to heart with my own sister. How we have and always will stand by each other in times of need.
“The moon. There’s no other moon like one on a clear New Mexico night. It rises over the Sandias and soothes the miles and miles of barren desert with all the quiet whiteness of a first snow. Moonlight in Liza’s yellow eyes and the chinaberry tree.”
Despite the brevity of most of these stories, Berlin seemed to have a knack for conjuring a striking scene. Many of them take place in Mexico or the American Southwest. She contrasts the beauty of these settings with violence, poverty, alcoholism, aging, and death. There’s one story about a bullfight that left me stunned, as it did Jane, the retired teacher returning to Mexico for the first time in twenty years. Another story set in Santiago, Chile, demonstrates the stark disparity between the wealthy schoolgirls at a Catholic high school with the destitution of the surroundings.
“At first the place seemed to be deserted, miles and miles of dunes. Dunes of stinking, smouldering garbage. After a while, through the dust and smoke, you could see that there were people all over the dunes. But they were the color of the dung, their rags just like the refuse they crawled in.”
Somehow, Lucia Berlin managed to create a longing to visit these places, despite the hardships and sorrows. Perhaps it was the feeling that she manages to convey that there is life and beauty mixed in with everything else. I wanted to embrace my sister. I wished to gaze at a moon changing from orange to gold. If I had any complaints, it would be that a small number of the stories were far too short. They seemed to end before I could even absorb what point was being made. But that’s fine. It’s par for the course with a collection like this. What I’m grateful for are the lovely offerings that more than made up for the ones I may forget in a month’s time. It’s comforting to know the next collection is right there waiting for me.
“She has come alive. She savors everything. She says whatever she wants, does whatever makes her feel good. She laughs.”
There was something very evocative, nostalgic and melancholic about this set of short stories, my first by Lucia Berlin. I’ve had her A Manual for Cleaning Women, a larger collection than this one, sitting on my shelf for some time now. I thought I’d dip my toes into the water with this smaller offering. As it turns out, the water is very inviting, and I’m ready for a deep soak. Several of the stories revolve around two sisters, one of them diagnosed with cancer. Nothing bright and cheery here, yet beautifully expressed. The fear, the love, the sharing of childhood memories, stories of motherhood. It made me think of all the times I’ve had a heart to heart with my own sister. How we have and always will stand by each other in times of need.
“The moon. There’s no other moon like one on a clear New Mexico night. It rises over the Sandias and soothes the miles and miles of barren desert with all the quiet whiteness of a first snow. Moonlight in Liza’s yellow eyes and the chinaberry tree.”
Despite the brevity of most of these stories, Berlin seemed to have a knack for conjuring a striking scene. Many of them take place in Mexico or the American Southwest. She contrasts the beauty of these settings with violence, poverty, alcoholism, aging, and death. There’s one story about a bullfight that left me stunned, as it did Jane, the retired teacher returning to Mexico for the first time in twenty years. Another story set in Santiago, Chile, demonstrates the stark disparity between the wealthy schoolgirls at a Catholic high school with the destitution of the surroundings.
“At first the place seemed to be deserted, miles and miles of dunes. Dunes of stinking, smouldering garbage. After a while, through the dust and smoke, you could see that there were people all over the dunes. But they were the color of the dung, their rags just like the refuse they crawled in.”
Somehow, Lucia Berlin managed to create a longing to visit these places, despite the hardships and sorrows. Perhaps it was the feeling that she manages to convey that there is life and beauty mixed in with everything else. I wanted to embrace my sister. I wished to gaze at a moon changing from orange to gold. If I had any complaints, it would be that a small number of the stories were far too short. They seemed to end before I could even absorb what point was being made. But that’s fine. It’s par for the course with a collection like this. What I’m grateful for are the lovely offerings that more than made up for the ones I may forget in a month’s time. It’s comforting to know the next collection is right there waiting for me.
“She has come alive. She savors everything. She says whatever she wants, does whatever makes her feel good. She laughs.”
January 25, 2022
In August, I read my first Lucia Berlin story, after picking up her posthumous and by far bestselling collection in an airport bookstore in an act of desperation.
(Typically a trip to a bookstore, even a terminal kiosk-sized one, is an hours-long affair for me, and anything shorter than that is a frantic, panicky spur of the moment decision in comparison.)
When I started it on the plane, I immediately pulled out a notebook and a pen, because I knew I'd want to take notes on every story. It was that good.
I made myself go as slowly as possible, which turned out to be less than a week, even though I was doing a project at the time that should've required it to take a day for every story. (Which would have been a month and a half.)
It was just too good.
After finishing, I bought a copy of every single Lucia Berlin collection I could find, which are varying levels of hard to track down, and had read all of them by the end of the year.
It's so sad to be done.
Coincidentally, this one, with its adieu-bidding title, was my last. By the time I got to it, there were just 4 stories I hadn't read yet, but all of them were good.
Is there any goodbye more painful than one to a favorite author?
Bottom line: So long, Lucia. Thanks for all of it.
---------------
pre-review
there were only four stories in this whole book i hadn't read yet, but they were good ones.
review to come / 4 stars
---------------
currently-reading updates
apt title for my last lucia berlin book :(
clear ur sh*t book 59
no quest, just seeing how many more i can finish
(Typically a trip to a bookstore, even a terminal kiosk-sized one, is an hours-long affair for me, and anything shorter than that is a frantic, panicky spur of the moment decision in comparison.)
When I started it on the plane, I immediately pulled out a notebook and a pen, because I knew I'd want to take notes on every story. It was that good.
I made myself go as slowly as possible, which turned out to be less than a week, even though I was doing a project at the time that should've required it to take a day for every story. (Which would have been a month and a half.)
It was just too good.
After finishing, I bought a copy of every single Lucia Berlin collection I could find, which are varying levels of hard to track down, and had read all of them by the end of the year.
It's so sad to be done.
Coincidentally, this one, with its adieu-bidding title, was my last. By the time I got to it, there were just 4 stories I hadn't read yet, but all of them were good.
Is there any goodbye more painful than one to a favorite author?
Bottom line: So long, Lucia. Thanks for all of it.
---------------
pre-review
there were only four stories in this whole book i hadn't read yet, but they were good ones.
review to come / 4 stars
---------------
currently-reading updates
apt title for my last lucia berlin book :(
clear ur sh*t book 59
no quest, just seeing how many more i can finish
March 6, 2015
Who Will Save the Stories of Lucia Berlin?
When I was 23 years old this was my favorite book. Then as now, I was peculiarly strict about what should be read when and where -- there were books for the morning or the afternoon, for dawn, sunset or midnight. There were the books that were right when accompanied by two strong cups of coffee, by casual distraction or complete exhaustion. There were books that were right for the toilet, for the cafe, or for the bus. So Long was the only book I had that I felt I could be read anywhere, at any time. Even when I read it in the nightmarish waiting room of Denver’s public health clinic, this book didn’t condescend to me, it always granted to me its kind, funny, sad, wise company.
I discovered the stories of Lucia Berlin in the classroom of the legendary Bobbie Louise Hawkins, who had been a friend of Lucia’s and said that her writing was a hidden American literary treasure. For months I carried this book everywhere and read it all the time. I adored it. Almost twenty years later, I reread the stories and -- Bobbie spoke the truth. These stories are a treasure. Like Chekhov or Saramago, these stories are profound instructions in the practice of compassion. Anyone who read and reveres Grace Paley or Alice Munro has got to read these stories -- but how are they are going to be able to do that? The Black Sparrow Press books were heroic undertakings but they are fragile books and increasingly hard to acquire. These are brilliant stories -- how are people going to be able to find them?
When I started rereading this book, I could find no evidence of a rescue mission, a book in the works. Lucia died more than ten years ago now. The neglect of her work since seems as universal as it is senseless and maddening. Checking again a few weeks later, I am astonished. I find rumors that Macmillan is going to publish a Selected Stories of Lucia Berlin titled A Manual for Cleaning Ladies with an introduction by none other than Lydia Davis. If this is true, then it is magnificently good news. If the project flounders, we will be guilty of allowing the stories of an unsung American master to disappear. May the rumors be true! I hope very much that the re-discovery of the stories of Lucia Berlin is, at last, about to commence.
When I was 23 years old this was my favorite book. Then as now, I was peculiarly strict about what should be read when and where -- there were books for the morning or the afternoon, for dawn, sunset or midnight. There were the books that were right when accompanied by two strong cups of coffee, by casual distraction or complete exhaustion. There were books that were right for the toilet, for the cafe, or for the bus. So Long was the only book I had that I felt I could be read anywhere, at any time. Even when I read it in the nightmarish waiting room of Denver’s public health clinic, this book didn’t condescend to me, it always granted to me its kind, funny, sad, wise company.
I discovered the stories of Lucia Berlin in the classroom of the legendary Bobbie Louise Hawkins, who had been a friend of Lucia’s and said that her writing was a hidden American literary treasure. For months I carried this book everywhere and read it all the time. I adored it. Almost twenty years later, I reread the stories and -- Bobbie spoke the truth. These stories are a treasure. Like Chekhov or Saramago, these stories are profound instructions in the practice of compassion. Anyone who read and reveres Grace Paley or Alice Munro has got to read these stories -- but how are they are going to be able to do that? The Black Sparrow Press books were heroic undertakings but they are fragile books and increasingly hard to acquire. These are brilliant stories -- how are people going to be able to find them?
When I started rereading this book, I could find no evidence of a rescue mission, a book in the works. Lucia died more than ten years ago now. The neglect of her work since seems as universal as it is senseless and maddening. Checking again a few weeks later, I am astonished. I find rumors that Macmillan is going to publish a Selected Stories of Lucia Berlin titled A Manual for Cleaning Ladies with an introduction by none other than Lydia Davis. If this is true, then it is magnificently good news. If the project flounders, we will be guilty of allowing the stories of an unsung American master to disappear. May the rumors be true! I hope very much that the re-discovery of the stories of Lucia Berlin is, at last, about to commence.
July 26, 2007
Lucia Berlin was my Fiction Writing professor at the University of Colorado in 1998. She still holds a very special place in my heart, as she was the one who encouraged me to write what I knew best.
In this collection of short stories, Berlin mixes fiction and memory, jumping from the Alaskan mining town of her youth, to the coast of Mexico with her dying sister, to Santiago, Chile, and modern-day Oakland where she fights her alcoholism while raising young children. "So Long" contains personal and poignant writing. This is a hard-find, but absolutely worth every dime.
In this collection of short stories, Berlin mixes fiction and memory, jumping from the Alaskan mining town of her youth, to the coast of Mexico with her dying sister, to Santiago, Chile, and modern-day Oakland where she fights her alcoholism while raising young children. "So Long" contains personal and poignant writing. This is a hard-find, but absolutely worth every dime.
July 31, 2022
What a talent Lucia Berlin was—I never tire of reading her stories.
March 16, 2016
I don't know how I missed Lucia Berlin when I was trying to read through the Black Sparrow catalog years ago but I did and now her selected stories, A Manual for Cleaning Women, is everywhere, a genuine literary bestseller. Published by FSG, getting write-ups in the New Yorker, the book is off in Franzen-land, a place where every peckerwood in NY and LA who reads books suddenly has an unified opinion of the same author. I've wanted to read A Manual for Cleaning Women for a while but I have a hard time getting through selecteds. Four-hundred-plus pages of stories is a lot to handle. Thankfully, the original Black Sparrow books are still in-print and available at a decent price so I went back and started there.
So Long is mostly brilliant stories about women in crisis, sisters caring for each other, damaged mothers hating their daughters, families so confused they barely look like families. In here jazz musicians love their wives and ignore their wives, and the wives of jazz musicians leave their horn-playing husbands for other jazz musicians. I've seen Berlin compared to Carver and Grace Paley, but these stories remind me of the messy domestic situations of Andre Dubus and Alice Munro. Pain is everywhere but so is joy and sometimes responsibility is the only gate dividing the two. The narratives about growing up in South America and caring for the narrator's dying sister in Mexico were the most powerful and, in most cases, the least formal, oftentimes sounding more like memoir or remembrance than fiction. Like a lot of Black Sparrow books, this one is a little bloated with stories repeating themselves in weaker versions periodically but that's a minor gripe. I loved the hard-living women, as honest with themselves as with their husbands and lovers. Few things must be as difficult as writing about your failings as a parent and Berlin allows her characters into the corners where the darker truths make for the most powerful moments and the brightest of lights.
So Long is mostly brilliant stories about women in crisis, sisters caring for each other, damaged mothers hating their daughters, families so confused they barely look like families. In here jazz musicians love their wives and ignore their wives, and the wives of jazz musicians leave their horn-playing husbands for other jazz musicians. I've seen Berlin compared to Carver and Grace Paley, but these stories remind me of the messy domestic situations of Andre Dubus and Alice Munro. Pain is everywhere but so is joy and sometimes responsibility is the only gate dividing the two. The narratives about growing up in South America and caring for the narrator's dying sister in Mexico were the most powerful and, in most cases, the least formal, oftentimes sounding more like memoir or remembrance than fiction. Like a lot of Black Sparrow books, this one is a little bloated with stories repeating themselves in weaker versions periodically but that's a minor gripe. I loved the hard-living women, as honest with themselves as with their husbands and lovers. Few things must be as difficult as writing about your failings as a parent and Berlin allows her characters into the corners where the darker truths make for the most powerful moments and the brightest of lights.
April 5, 2018
This is the second book by Lucia Berlin that I had read. The first, in a Spanish translation, was "Manual para mujeres de la limpieza" and it was a great experiencie. But reading Lucia Berlin in English is another level. The language, the meanings, everything is more intense.
And, I repeat it, Lucia Berlin is my favorite short story writer.
And, I repeat it, Lucia Berlin is my favorite short story writer.
May 23, 2018
Sigh. Lucia Berlin will always hold a special place in my heart. Her stories are so familiar
December 5, 2018
A masterpiece
August 24, 2015
This is a stunning story collection. I want to read everything she's written. I know there's a new collection (posthumous) with a Foreword by Lydia Davis (A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories). There's some overlap between this collection and the new one, but many other stories. Incredible writing by a long-overlooked writer.
December 18, 2016
I'm still reading these stories but about six stories in, I had to post a 5-star review for this talented yet unknown (to me) writer. I was wandering aisles in the bookstore when I saw the collection, picked it up to browse, and was immediately hooked. Berlin ranks with the top of today's short story writers for her lovely prose, interesting characters, attention to unique details.
November 19, 2024
Lit crits and writers love Berlin's short stories, and I have been meaning to read them for years. OTOH, it has been hard to pick them up (this was read as an ebook, which is now no longer available for purchase from the publisher - an odd choice once it has been offered in an ebook format, IMHO), as I am not a big short story reader, or fan (a dislike which I understand seems to be a trend for the past couple of decades). I recently started to read one or two of her stories every night in this collection of her early work. Her stories here are over-all rather short - usually 10-20 pp long, most often closer to the 10 pp.
And, as this is earlier work, it means initially it takes awhile to feel comfortable with the stories in the collection, and to recognize her talent.
Berlin lead quite a life. And her writing (1977-2004) is auto-fiction. Many of the stories here are built around her going to Mexico to be with her sister as she dies from cancer.
The best story of the bunch for me was "Panteon de Dolores", which is pretty much her life story in about 20 pp!
The stories are built around every day life, but often with alcoholics and drug users. Dead end jobs. Chile (where she grew up, her father was in the fossil fuel industry - and while they started out quite poor, by the time they moved to South America, they were quite well off), Mexico, New Mexico, NY, ID, and many other locations - wow!
I do wish the publisher would have given the year of publication at the end of each story. And given us a bibliography at the end oinforming us of where each story had first been published, in both literary journals and book format (her early on Black Swallow book publications go for large sums of money these days).
I have a couple more collection to read, and I will. It should be interesting to see if her subject matter changes at all. It is a bit confusing, Berlin wrote about 75-80 short stories, and it is not clear if all of them are available in the 3 affordable collections easily accessible these days.
I can see why Lydia Davis is a big fan. Hopefully some day their correspondence will be published.
4 out of 5.
And, as this is earlier work, it means initially it takes awhile to feel comfortable with the stories in the collection, and to recognize her talent.
Berlin lead quite a life. And her writing (1977-2004) is auto-fiction. Many of the stories here are built around her going to Mexico to be with her sister as she dies from cancer.
The best story of the bunch for me was "Panteon de Dolores", which is pretty much her life story in about 20 pp!
The stories are built around every day life, but often with alcoholics and drug users. Dead end jobs. Chile (where she grew up, her father was in the fossil fuel industry - and while they started out quite poor, by the time they moved to South America, they were quite well off), Mexico, New Mexico, NY, ID, and many other locations - wow!
I do wish the publisher would have given the year of publication at the end of each story. And given us a bibliography at the end oinforming us of where each story had first been published, in both literary journals and book format (her early on Black Swallow book publications go for large sums of money these days).
I have a couple more collection to read, and I will. It should be interesting to see if her subject matter changes at all. It is a bit confusing, Berlin wrote about 75-80 short stories, and it is not clear if all of them are available in the 3 affordable collections easily accessible these days.
I can see why Lydia Davis is a big fan. Hopefully some day their correspondence will be published.
4 out of 5.
August 19, 2018
My introduction to the stories of Lucia Berlin was her book, "A Manual for Cleaning Women," which I found in the public library a couple years ago. I loved that book so much & couldn't wait to read more by her. However, I could not find any of them, neither in the public library nor in any stores. Finally, 2 years later, I have found 2 of her other books, & this is one of them.
Ms. Berlin is a wonderful writer, so descriptive that I can visualize everything, as if I were right there, with the characters. Some of her stories are a bit depressing, but very real. She writes about her own life, whether the actual events or just inspired by them, I'm not sure. As I read in the magazine, The New Yorker, one of her sons said, after her death, “Ma wrote true stories, not necessarily autobiographical, but close enough for horseshoes.”
Ms. Berlin's stories feel real, as if she were sitting with you, just telling you about one event at a time. And she ends each story much in that way, also. They often come to a dead stop, & some people may not care for this method, but it feels right to me. There's nothing more to be said about that particular event, so she just stops. Some of the stories end in a way that leaves you thinking about what may have come next.
I first came to realize that she was writing about her own life when I first read one of her books. I noticed that some of the characters were appearing in multiple stories. The same is true in this book &, I imagine, it will be the same in her other books. It feels as if she is writing a novel, but is telling it in short-story form.
I am very glad I have another one of her books to read, "Where I Live Now." I hope to find the rest of her books, too. :)
Ms. Berlin is a wonderful writer, so descriptive that I can visualize everything, as if I were right there, with the characters. Some of her stories are a bit depressing, but very real. She writes about her own life, whether the actual events or just inspired by them, I'm not sure. As I read in the magazine, The New Yorker, one of her sons said, after her death, “Ma wrote true stories, not necessarily autobiographical, but close enough for horseshoes.”
Ms. Berlin's stories feel real, as if she were sitting with you, just telling you about one event at a time. And she ends each story much in that way, also. They often come to a dead stop, & some people may not care for this method, but it feels right to me. There's nothing more to be said about that particular event, so she just stops. Some of the stories end in a way that leaves you thinking about what may have come next.
I first came to realize that she was writing about her own life when I first read one of her books. I noticed that some of the characters were appearing in multiple stories. The same is true in this book &, I imagine, it will be the same in her other books. It feels as if she is writing a novel, but is telling it in short-story form.
I am very glad I have another one of her books to read, "Where I Live Now." I hope to find the rest of her books, too. :)
January 2, 2020
Lucia extirpa ternura, melancolía, humor y sabiduría de viñetas de su vida. Las convierte en historias que, por su imparcialidad, no se distingue si son anécdotas o cuentos, memorias o confesiones —quizá lo es todo. A veces, despliega estos elementos en la nostálgica voz de un hombre de 95 años que repasa un pasado violento, pobre, triste, pero mejor; aunque casi siempre lo hace desde la voz de una mujer que parece haber vivido muchas vidas.
No sé después pero, hasta ahora, mis relatos favoritos son los que hablan de la relación con su hermana. En Grief, por ejemplo (que también aparece en "Manual para mujeres de la limpieza"), dos mujeres que están alojadas en el mismo hotel que ellas, en Vallarta, las observan y tratan de adivinar lo qué pasa en su relación: como saben que la madre ha muerto, deciden que Sally, la hermana menor, que llora sin cesar, cuidó a la madre durante años, mientras que Dolores, la mayor, ignoró a la madre y ahora está abrumada por la culpa. Pero la verdad es que la madre se distanció de Sally 20 años antes por casarse con un mexicano. Sally se la vive llorando porque se está muriendo de cáncer y divorciándose de un hombre que la dejó por una mujer más joven. O Fire que va sobre la certeza de la muerte y se sitúa justo camino a reencontrarse con su hermana, ya enferma, con quien se quedará para cuidarla hasta el final. En Mourning muestra cómo los vacíos que deja la muerte a veces se llenan con reencuentros, perdón y ternura (algo sobre lo que también escribe en Panteón de Dolores que es una carta de perdón a su madre). Y en Fool to cry vacía toda la ternura de la que hablaba: la cercanía, la calidez de la vida con su hermana, sus sobrinos e incluso las chicas de la limpieza; la fatiga del 'mansplaining'; llorar sin que te juzguen, llorar en grupo por una telenovela absurda.
Otras historias que se quedaron dándome vueltas fueron: Bluebonnets, que está impregnada de pasión; Our brother's Keeper, en la que se inventa ser una detective que finge ser la señora de la limpieza sólo para terminar aceptando que cuando matan a una mujer, a una amiga, todas nos sentimos culpables; y So long del que saqué que quién sabe qué es el matrimonio, la amistad o la muerte, pero que el amor es eso que nos une desde lo más profundo, es aceptación, es un viaje.
Y pues ya, ¡quiero mucho a Lucia! Me gusta cómo su escritura nos invita a conectarnos con nuestra propia humanidad. (Qué ganas de haber sido su alumna.)
No sé después pero, hasta ahora, mis relatos favoritos son los que hablan de la relación con su hermana. En Grief, por ejemplo (que también aparece en "Manual para mujeres de la limpieza"), dos mujeres que están alojadas en el mismo hotel que ellas, en Vallarta, las observan y tratan de adivinar lo qué pasa en su relación: como saben que la madre ha muerto, deciden que Sally, la hermana menor, que llora sin cesar, cuidó a la madre durante años, mientras que Dolores, la mayor, ignoró a la madre y ahora está abrumada por la culpa. Pero la verdad es que la madre se distanció de Sally 20 años antes por casarse con un mexicano. Sally se la vive llorando porque se está muriendo de cáncer y divorciándose de un hombre que la dejó por una mujer más joven. O Fire que va sobre la certeza de la muerte y se sitúa justo camino a reencontrarse con su hermana, ya enferma, con quien se quedará para cuidarla hasta el final. En Mourning muestra cómo los vacíos que deja la muerte a veces se llenan con reencuentros, perdón y ternura (algo sobre lo que también escribe en Panteón de Dolores que es una carta de perdón a su madre). Y en Fool to cry vacía toda la ternura de la que hablaba: la cercanía, la calidez de la vida con su hermana, sus sobrinos e incluso las chicas de la limpieza; la fatiga del 'mansplaining'; llorar sin que te juzguen, llorar en grupo por una telenovela absurda.
Otras historias que se quedaron dándome vueltas fueron: Bluebonnets, que está impregnada de pasión; Our brother's Keeper, en la que se inventa ser una detective que finge ser la señora de la limpieza sólo para terminar aceptando que cuando matan a una mujer, a una amiga, todas nos sentimos culpables; y So long del que saqué que quién sabe qué es el matrimonio, la amistad o la muerte, pero que el amor es eso que nos une desde lo más profundo, es aceptación, es un viaje.
Y pues ya, ¡quiero mucho a Lucia! Me gusta cómo su escritura nos invita a conectarnos con nuestra propia humanidad. (Qué ganas de haber sido su alumna.)
March 15, 2017
In this, Berlin's second to last collection while she was alive, she tells tales from all over. Most of the best ones ended up in A Manual for Cleaning Women. But I decided I'd read the rest of the works that appear here so as to get a sense of her other ouevre.
"Luna Nueva" involves a pool in Mexico, where people go to the beach to sunbathe and to feel the water on their skin. There's a kind of miraculous feel to this water, reviving people.
"Sombra" is one of Berlin's better stories and one of the best in this collection (certainly the best of those not collected elsewhere). It brings together descriptions of a bull fight with a fraught moment involving the spectators. What's so profound here is the way that that fraught moment is presented so nonchalant. As Berlin makes clear, people are more interested in the fight than in what's going on in the stands. It's like the people are bulls themselves--little concern for the deaths that are occurring.
"Our Lighthouse" is a description of a little lighthouse and the people who once lived there, while "Daughters" focuses on the people at a dialysis clinic. "Daughters" focuses on a day in a doctor's office among eastern European immigrant families.
"Our Brother's Keeper" is about a woman who was killed by her boyfriend. Or more, it's about her friend, who comes to clean up her house and who, day to day, pretends to be a sleuth, finding others who might have done it.
"Fire" returns to Berlin's recurring characters of sisters Sally and Carlotta. In this story Carlotta goes to the airport to meet Sally, but there's a fire at the airport. The description is droll, as chracteristic of Berlin's writing, which makes the tale work all the more.
"Dust to Dust" focuses on a young race car driver and the families that loved him. Really, it focuses on two young boys who seem both attached and detached from the driver after he crashes and dies. Vaguely, they are aware of a change: his absence. But funerals and the like are also exciting in a way. The story recaptures a kind of child-like innocence.
"Luna Nueva" involves a pool in Mexico, where people go to the beach to sunbathe and to feel the water on their skin. There's a kind of miraculous feel to this water, reviving people.
"Sombra" is one of Berlin's better stories and one of the best in this collection (certainly the best of those not collected elsewhere). It brings together descriptions of a bull fight with a fraught moment involving the spectators. What's so profound here is the way that that fraught moment is presented so nonchalant. As Berlin makes clear, people are more interested in the fight than in what's going on in the stands. It's like the people are bulls themselves--little concern for the deaths that are occurring.
"Our Lighthouse" is a description of a little lighthouse and the people who once lived there, while "Daughters" focuses on the people at a dialysis clinic. "Daughters" focuses on a day in a doctor's office among eastern European immigrant families.
"Our Brother's Keeper" is about a woman who was killed by her boyfriend. Or more, it's about her friend, who comes to clean up her house and who, day to day, pretends to be a sleuth, finding others who might have done it.
"Fire" returns to Berlin's recurring characters of sisters Sally and Carlotta. In this story Carlotta goes to the airport to meet Sally, but there's a fire at the airport. The description is droll, as chracteristic of Berlin's writing, which makes the tale work all the more.
"Dust to Dust" focuses on a young race car driver and the families that loved him. Really, it focuses on two young boys who seem both attached and detached from the driver after he crashes and dies. Vaguely, they are aware of a change: his absence. But funerals and the like are also exciting in a way. The story recaptures a kind of child-like innocence.
September 18, 2023
a handful of these stories I had already read in her posthumous collection “A Manual for Cleaning Women” but it was nice to re-read them in their original context alongside the other stories that didn’t make the cut. also interesting, without consulting my other review, to see how my ratings changed upon a second read. some hit harder, some not so much, enhanced or muffled by the tragedy and depravity that has seasoned my own life since the first reading. Berlin maintains her status as one of the finest short story writers and one of my personal favorites.
Luna Nueva — 4.5
Sombra — 4
Friends — 4
Our Lighthouse — 4
Unmanageable — 5.5
Teen-Age Punk — 3
Good and Bad — 4.5
Grief — 4.5
Daughters — 3
Bluebonnets — 5
La Vie en Rose — 4.5
Macadam — 3.5
Love Affair — 4.5
Our Brother’s Keeper — 5
Strays — 4.5
Fire — 4
Melina — 5
Step — 2.5
Fool to Cry — 5
Mourning — 5
Panteón de Dolores — 5
Dust to Dust — 4.5
So Long — 5
Luna Nueva — 4.5
Sombra — 4
Friends — 4
Our Lighthouse — 4
Unmanageable — 5.5
Teen-Age Punk — 3
Good and Bad — 4.5
Grief — 4.5
Daughters — 3
Bluebonnets — 5
La Vie en Rose — 4.5
Macadam — 3.5
Love Affair — 4.5
Our Brother’s Keeper — 5
Strays — 4.5
Fire — 4
Melina — 5
Step — 2.5
Fool to Cry — 5
Mourning — 5
Panteón de Dolores — 5
Dust to Dust — 4.5
So Long — 5
June 30, 2019
Read this in German. I was really moved by theses stories. There is a a love of human nature that comes through these short stories. It is as if Berlin writes to understand, writing about the same person, to not to neglect another aspect of the character. The stories contain big things of life: sickness, love, friendship, hope, addiction, imprisonment. We are somehow in the intimate realm. Things happen in a small but meaningful scale. The characters deal what they have been dealt in life. There is no romanticism, more sort of an resilient acceptance. Fragile people in fragile situations. The last story is on of the importance of writing. Berlin shows, how writing, or any other art of as self-expression gives a deep meaning to life, a way to cope, and a way to rejoice.
October 31, 2017
Many of these stories have appeared in the New Yorker but were worth re reading. Berlin is such an extraordinarily generous writer. Some stories center around her dying sister, their newfound closeness and resolution of old hurts, memories. Berlin lived an adventurous, often fearlessly messy life. These stories reflect a life with several permutations. Berlin worked as a cleaning woman, a doctor's assistant, and many other low paying jobs while taking care of four young children and writing when she could carve out the time. The work is infused with such honesty and courage. Falling and getting up and starting over.
November 2, 2019
Lucia Berlin has been billed as the best short story writer that no one has read. Well, with the publication of "", I am no longer one of that crowd. Her prose is just beautiful and her sense of place is mesmerizing. The stories are from her life but crafted as short stories sometimes self-narration, some as an observer but always fascinating providing glimpses into a tragic and interesting life. I am looking forward to reading "Evening in Paradise" next.
May 6, 2017
God bless Black Sparrow for finally putting these collections back into print (and on Kindle!). As wonderful as A Manual For Cleaning Women is (fifteen of the twenty-three stories here are also collected in that volume), it's reassuring to know that, at least for now, the vast majority of Berlin's work is widely available.
August 5, 2017
This is a beautiful story collection. She tells tales from all over.It jumps from the Alaskan mining town of her youth, to the coast of Mexico with her dying sister, to Santiago, Chile, and modern-day Oakland where she fights her alcoholism while raising young children. An interesting read.
December 31, 2019
These stories are so full of love and longing and hurt and restraint and the best kind of nonjudgmental that lets you look closely, intimately at a wreck and see its beauty. Will definitely read more of her work.
January 23, 2022
Haunting and beautiful. My favorite kind of book. Made me cry beautiful and sad tears on more than one occasion. Definitely a book for the sad girls. Lucia Berlin is a master writer. I want to read every word she's ever written.
October 22, 2022
I don't know why, but when I read this, I got a vibe of a sleepy house in a dusty summer morning, Berlin continues to be my favorite short story author. How can she add this much charm and romanticism into such regular and mundane things! I Can't wait to read more by her
September 22, 2021
Really enjoyed reading these short stories by Berlin. Thankful for cousin Brad to loan me his copy.
December 20, 2018
Cannot say enough about how good these stories are. This collection starts with a contemplative little tale about an old woman Luna Nueva, moves into Sombra, which will probably bring tears to your eyes, then it's on to Friends, which may have you thinking it's moving in a familiar direction until it takes a sudden turn. The stories that fill the rest of the collection go up and down from greatness to merely good, but I found none that I would complain about. Lucia Berlin is a hidden treasure these days, having sadly passed away, on her birthday no less, several years ago, but whose work is recently making a comeback. Therefore, some of it may seem dated, but no less brilliant than when first written. Do whatever you can to find her books and indulge in some of the finest short-story telling available.
February 4, 2019
Affecting . . . Compelling . . . Remarkably successful. Berlin places her memorable characters in gripping situations, plumbing their messed-up lives for pathos and allowing us to see deeply into their souls. –Publishers Weekly
Most of the twenty-three stories in this collection are very short and very simple. They are set in the places Berlin knows best: Chile, Mexico, the Desert Southwest, and California, and they have the casual, straightforward, immediate, and intimate style that distinguishes her work. They are told in a conversational voice and they move with a swift and often lyrical economy. They capture and communicate moments of grace and cast a lovely, lazy light that lasts. Berlin is one of our finest writers and here she is at the height of her powers. –Molly Giles, San Francisco Chronicle
Most of the twenty-three stories in this collection are very short and very simple. They are set in the places Berlin knows best: Chile, Mexico, the Desert Southwest, and California, and they have the casual, straightforward, immediate, and intimate style that distinguishes her work. They are told in a conversational voice and they move with a swift and often lyrical economy. They capture and communicate moments of grace and cast a lovely, lazy light that lasts. Berlin is one of our finest writers and here she is at the height of her powers. –Molly Giles, San Francisco Chronicle
February 24, 2016
What if we don't, as Didion suggests, tell ourselves stories in order to live? But, in fact, live life through our stories. The gap between these two seems slight, but I think these stories dwell in that space.
It is clear as light on water that Berlin's writing is autobiographical to the marrow, but when a life is so full and so multifaceted, this is no limitation at all.
These stories do not unfold so much as narratives, but instead as unspooling webs of memory and emotion, dipping in out of different temporal modes to bring us close to the vibrations of lives swelling and emptying.
Its own sort of nature writing. The human landscape.
It is clear as light on water that Berlin's writing is autobiographical to the marrow, but when a life is so full and so multifaceted, this is no limitation at all.
These stories do not unfold so much as narratives, but instead as unspooling webs of memory and emotion, dipping in out of different temporal modes to bring us close to the vibrations of lives swelling and emptying.
Its own sort of nature writing. The human landscape.
December 7, 2015
I can't believe I didn't know Lucia Berlin until just now. Her writing is phenomenal. her short stories piercing. I literally had to take deep breaths after finishing each one ....you're so transported by her writing and then snapped right out of a world that you need to pause and catch your breath. Wow! I want to read everything she's ever written.
October 30, 2016
This collection has some of the same stories I've read in her other books but that's alright bc they are just as good the second time around. Her writing is lovely, some of the stories are heartbreaking.
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