"The Women in Black" by Madeleine St. John

I'm not sure which happened first. Was I struck by the striking cover, with its black dresses and white type on a red background? Was it the cover blurb from Hilary Mantel, who calls it "The book I most often give as a gift to cheer people up." Or was it the review I spied in the New York Times?

At any rate, I bought "The Women in Black" one of the last times I was in the local bookstore before everything closed down. (If ever there was a time we needed a book to cheer us up, it's right now, right?) I'm finding short, light novels easier to digest right now than some of the heavier political stuff I've been reading (interesting & well written as some of those books can be), and this (along with Nick Hornby's book, reviewed here) seemed just the thing to bring me out of my COVID-related reading slump.

"The Women in Black" was written and first published in Britain in 1993, by Madeleine St. John, who later became the first Australian shortlisted for the Booker Prize, before she died in 2006.  In Australia, it's been adapted into a stage musical in 2015 ("Ladies in Black") and a 2018 movie (also called "Ladies in Black"). The book was reissued earlier this year in paperback in North America. It's a fast 209 pages long.

"The Women in Black" takes place in the late 1950s and revolves around the women who sell frocks (dresses) and gowns at Goode's department store in downtown Sydney during the busy Christmas season.  The time and place are evoked very well -- I must say (with apologies to Mali and any other readers from Down Under) it was somewhat jarring to see the Christmas season described in terms of hot weather (right from the first sentence!) and sunny beaches! ;) 

The four main characters -- the Women in Black (all the women who work at Goode's wear a black dress uniform) -- include teenaged Lisa, hired as a seasonal temp while she waits to receive her school leaving exam marks and ponders how to persuade her father to let her attend university. She becomes the protege of Magda, an immigrant from Slovenia, who runs the glamorous room where the exclusive Model Gowns are sold. Over in Cocktail Frocks, there's Patty, who's stuck in a boring, childless marriage with a man who shows little interest in her, and party girl Fay, who wants nothing to more than to settle down with a nice man but finds nice men in short supply.

The book's tone is light and frothy and it reads very much like a novel of the late 1950s might. And yet there are hints of some serious social commentary lurking under the wonderfully sparkling dialogue, about the restricted social roles of women in the 1950s as well as attitudes towards immigrants. I felt empathy for childless Patty, the subject of speculation and pity among her mother and sisters as well as her coworkers, as well as bookish Lisa, plotting with her mother to get around her father's attitudes about women and education.

(I don't think it would be much of a spoiler to say

(pausing here -- if you think it MIGHT be a spoiler, stop reading NOW, lol...!)

that everyone ultimately winds up with a happy ending. But getting to that point is a fun little trip!)

3.5 stars on Goodreads, rounded up to 4 stars.

This was Book #12 read to date in 2020 (Book #1 finished in April). I'm currently at 40% of my 2020 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 30 books, and am (for the moment, anyway...!) 4 books ahead of schedule to meet my goal. :)