I should like to say all the good things. Lucia Berlin, when she's on, writes stories that are perfectly crisp, vivid, funny, piercing, and thoughtful. I'm so thankful for whatever hype and circumstance let to a remaindered edition of the previous collection joining my bookshelf. This collection is not as tight, but the gems are gems and deserve to be treasured. ( )

Great stories, great characters. Similar to the stories in “Manual for Cleaning Women” but maybe a little mor uneven. She clearly had an amazing life and could see deeply into people who are ignored by many writers. ( )

Recull de contes la majoria en l'entorn de Mèxic. Algun una mica difícil ( )

Lucia Berlin's stories always make me feel like I'm there living the narrator's life, too, whether it's running around on the border or raising kids with an alcoholic. I do think this collection suffered from the fact that it wasn't intended by the author to be a collection, which "A Manual for Cleaning Women" didn't, perhaps because they were her stronger stories as determined by the publisher. Even though this collection is kind of a "here are the rest!" kind of grouping, many of the stories were beautiful, and I still recommend it to anyone who enjoyed "A Manual." ( )

Not as good as Manual for Cleaning Women, not as intimate, cohesive or funny. But some real gems, I added a star because I went back and read “Lost at the Louvre” twice, then photocopied parts of it to save. ( )