Evening in Paradise: More Stories by Lucia Berlin (2018)

A sequel of sorts to the remarkable collection A Manual for Cleaning Women.

Book Review: Evening in Paradise contains 22 more stories by the recently rediscovered Lucia Berlin (1936-2004). This is both a blessing and a curse (though I won't lie: more Lucia Berlin can only be a good thing). The biographical note states that Berlin wrote 76 stories. Her recent previous collection, the beyond brilliant A Manual for Cleaning Women, contained 43 stories (claiming that they were her "best work"). So of her 76 stories, we now have 65 of them in these two collections. I do not subscribe to the lazy myth that everything a brilliant writer creates is brilliant -- just because we love their writing doesn't make them perfect. No one hits the bulls-eye every time. Not everything that Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, and Toni Morrison did was her best work. Not everything James Joyce, James Baldwin, and David Foster Wallace wrote was incapable of criticism. Some say 90% of everything is crud (Sturgeon's Law). Which leads to the small issue revealed here. Several of the stories in Evening in Paradise are excellent, easily the equal of the stories in the previous collection -- I would've hated to miss the gutting "La Barca de la Ilusión." Some of the stories, however, being collected from a much smaller pool, are not as relentlessly brilliant and this collection isn't up to the previous one. But Lucia Berlin at 75% is better than many writers at their best. Still enjoyable, still worth reading (hell's bells, I'd read her shopping lists), there is more average here, however, there is also more variety in plots and viewpoints and plenty of her stunningly evocative writing. If read in conjunction with the simultaneous publication of Berlin's draft autobiography, Welcome Home, however, many of the stories become revelatory. Evening in Paradise shows how beautifully and intelligently she transformed biography into fiction. There is so much overlap here, word for word, with the stories of her life. In fact, there is even overlap within the stories of Evening in Paradise (the tale of stealing a woman's false teeth makes a couple of appearances). If you loved Manual (as I did) you'll certainly like this; if you liked it you won't regret reading this; and if you only tolerated Manual (can't imagine a lower level of enjoyment) you might not need to read this. Having said that, I'm kinda curious about the uncollected 11 stories ... what am I missing? Could FSG be daring and publish The Worst of Lucia Berlin? I'd read it.  [3½★]