Book Discussion Group: A Manual for Cleaning Women

The Commonwealth Club's newest book discussion series kicks off with A Manual for Cleaning Women, by Lucia Berlin, this year’s California Book Awards Gold medal winner. The discussion group will be devoted to the best of California literature, as determined by our CBA jury.

A Manual for Cleaning Women compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin. With the grit of Raymond Carver, the humor of Grace Paley, and a blend of wit and melancholy all her own, Berlin crafts miracles from the everyday, uncovering moments of grace in the laundromats and halfway houses of the American Southwest, in the homes of the Bay Area upper class, among switchboard operators and struggling mothers, hitchhikers and bad Christians. Readers will revel in this remarkable collection from a master of the form and wonder how they'd ever overlooked her in the first place.

Please reserve your space; enrollment is limited. It is expected that you will have read the book so you can actively participate in the discussion.

June 6, 2016