Reviews tagging 'Abortion'

A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories by Lucia Berlin

9 reviews

kickitupanotch7's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Addiction, Animal death, Blood, Cancer, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Death of parent, Racism, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Abortion, Alcoholism, Gore, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Suicide attempt, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Rape, Sexual violence, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Ableism, Lesbophobia, and Abandonment

phoebebird's review

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

Berlin's writing is wonderful, and each story is enthralling. They do tend to get a little repetitive when you read them one after the other, but each one is worth reading nonetheless. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Alcoholism, and Blood

Moderate: Alcohol, Child abuse, Cursing, Drug use, Abandonment, Child death, Drug abuse, Bullying, Abortion, Addiction, Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, and Police brutality

Minor: Sexual content and Sexual harassment

owenwilsonbaby's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

"So what is marriage anyway? I never figured it out. And now it is death I don't understand. Not just Sally's death. My country, after Rodney King and the riots. All over the world, the rage and despair. Sally and I write rebuses to each other so she doesn't hurt her lung talking. Rebus is where you draw pictures instead of words or letters. Violence, for example, is a viola and some ants. Sucks is somebody drinking through a straw. We laugh, quietly, in her room, drawing. Actually, love is not a mystery for me anymore. Max calls and says hello. I tell him that my sister will be dead soon. How are you? he asks."

I keep changing my mind but I think my favourite read of this year is a tie between this collection of short stories and Alexander Chee's most recent essay collection.

Whilst some of Berlin's attitudes and language, particularly around race and orientation, can be hard to read, the stories in this collection are so moving and profound. She's not afraid to write about people often overlooked and marginalised, using truth and keen observation to draw out both the moments of beauty and ugliness in everyday life. Her imagery and use of little details create really evocative episodes. The insight into grief and addiction is incredible. My favourite stories were probably Strays, for its eerie and truthful portrayal of an early rehab programme, So Long, for its very painful portrait of grief and Let Me See You Smile for its stark depiction of addiction, police brutality and love. Berlin has an excellent knack for dialogue which makes her relationships feel organic and gripping - particularly in the titular story A Manual for Cleaning Women, all of her conversations with her husband ("I'll do macrame, punk!") are exquisitely funny and romantic. I'll forever be heartbroken by "Once he told me he loved me because I was like San Pablo Avenue." What a line. What a voice!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal death, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Classism, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Abortion, Medical trauma, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Car accident, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Racism

Moderate: Xenophobia and War

drlove2018's review

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Grief, Domestic abuse, Abortion, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Suicide, Medical trauma, Incest, Emotional abuse, and Drug abuse

sharon_s's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Drug use, Child death, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Abortion, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Pedophilia

lidz_2tc's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Addiction, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Child abuse

Minor: Ableism, Child death, Drug use, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Racial slurs, and Suicidal thoughts

meowrilena's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

For various reasons (let's count in the fact that this book is almost 400 pages long), it took me so long to read this book. I didn't know Lucia Berlin before randomly choosing this selection of her best short-stories. 90% of the books I have in my e-book reader are the result of weird lists of "books to read" I've found on the internet while I was panicking about having an empty e-book reader. So I don't know to which category this book used to belong. Was it in the "book to read written by women"? "Book to read if you want to get into contemporary short-stories"? I digress. It's difficult to me to say "I loved this book" because it sounds rather superficial and not accurate. It's complicated, as they say. I was fascinated by this book. Many narrators take the pen, but they seem to be linked together and a couple of stories in, you understand that it's always her, Lucia, writing about her life. Auto-fiction. You understand it because all these short stories are linked by themes. Alcoholism, the Spanish language, Latin America, working odd jobs... they all come back. Was she even trying to hide it? If after a dozen pages you start to think "I see what you're doing here, Lucia", even style wise, you cannot help but being compelled by her writing. Raw, real. As I am writing this I kinda wish there was more to read about her life, but, at the same time, I feel like I've read it all in this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Abortion, Alcoholism, Death, Child abuse, and Child death

Moderate: Cancer, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

kleptosaurus's review against another edition

emotional reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Alcoholism

Moderate: Abortion

milliebrierley's review against another edition

dark funny reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Moderate: Abortion, Cancer, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Racial slurs, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Violence