'Evening in Paradise - More Stories' by Lucia Berlin

I picked up Lucia Berlin on a whim. I was on the look-out for a new, fun read for a short trip, preferably engaging short stories which one can dip in and out of. Now, one of the libraries I visit has a very interesting way to classify books, they put stickers somewhere close to the lower edge of the book spines with colors and images of the genre, with the key to those sticker signs always stuck somewhere close-by - like romance, sci-fi, mystery, short stories. Instead of going through the book names and author names, when in the mood to stumble across something new, one can just glance or scan through the shelves for the genre one is looking for.  I can always carry a list and search the database, but more often than not, I am disappointed since what I seek, I often do not find there. Hence, this approach to serendipity. 

And see where it got me! While scanning the shelves for unread 'Short Stories', I came up on this new book by Lucia Berlin. (New, as in this is a 2018 book, collected posthumously. The author died in 2004). I read the foreword: 'The Story is the Thing', by Mark Berlin, Lucia Berlin's eldest son, who passed away in 2005. Quickly googled her, and got the book home. The title 'An Evening in Paradise - More Stories' suggests that this is perhaps a follow on version, and I need to read what is not here too. Which is 'A Manual for Cleaning Women and other stories'.*

Her short stories are very vivid. As Mark Berlin says, 'Ma wrote true stories'. I didn't understand the significance of that statement until 4 or 5 stories deep in the book, I went to the last pages to read a note on Lucia Berlin, and found echoes of the author's life in the stories. It is not true stories of other people. It is true story of her life. May be not the same characters, or the places, may be different names, different professions, but the thread, or the life recounted in those stories through other characters as instruments, was author's own. Written perhaps as independent episodes, one off short stories, collected here in sequence, making this book very autobiographical. Except perhaps one story (An Evening in Paradise), where we don't see her in any protagonist, all other stories take her life's backdrop.

It is a very interesting and full life that she had. A mother at a very young age, she married thrice, and lived in different places - in the US itself different places, and then outside in Mexico, in South America. As Mark Berlin notes, perhaps never in the same place for a year. And the stories take you to all those places. And they are told from the vantage point of the author at those different ages. The initial two stories have the protagonist at six or seven years old. Moving into early teens, and then first husband, and so on.

Not sure why but the analogy that comes to my mind is that of caramelised onions. if the facts of her life were raw onions, what you have is flavor enhanced, caramelized onions. Delectable. A bit at a time, and savour some more in a bit.

The writing is very engaging. Vivid, colorful. But still sparse, essentials only. No dwelling for long on what she's going through. Perhaps the reader has to do the dwelling on.

How do I feel about the writing? I am no expert, but going by who and what she evoked in my head. Very much like Katherine Mansfield. Just that she wrote of NZ and Europe. And Lucia Berlin writes of herself, and the places she lived in. Also, somehow, kept thinking of Jennifer Egan, and her 'A Visit from the Goon Squad'. Or the Pakistan of Daniyal Mueenuddin's  'In Other Rooms, Other Wonders'. Stories of lives in current times, but still, quite different from the average life. Books I read and then immediately wanted to read more from the author. Really engaging read!

Now hoping to soon find 'A Manual of Cleaning Women and Other Stories', and have queued up my Instapaper reading list with all things Lucia Berlin. And Ali Smith too. And Borges. And so much more.



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*May be I didn't find this book on the shelves. My memory deceives me. May be it was displayed in the New Books section. After all this is Nov 2018 release. They can't put it up already in the shelves. But then, how does it matter, the story is the thing.