Short Story Wednesday, A Manual For Cleaning Women, Lucia Berlin

 

I have been reading at this collection for more than a decade. A great writer but the stories feel too similar to read all at once. "Mourning" is about a woman who cleans houses (mostly empty ones) for a living. Especially houses where people have recently died. She's cleaning the house of a black mailman in this story. His son and daughter arrive and they are trying to decide what to keep, what to give away. Their mourning becomes more palpable as they discuss various objects. The woman is rude to the cleaner; the man is kind. 

There are terrific stories but don't read them all at once.