Madeleine St John weaves a fairytale which illuminates the extraordinariness of ordinary lives.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Although its title suggests mystery and allure, this wry debut instead focuses on the loneliness and ennui of three department store employees. These women, identically attired in black dresses that serve as uniforms, work in the Ladies' Frocks Department at Goode's, a store in Sydney, Australia. Each suffers from long-standing unhappiness revolving one way or another around the opposite sex: Patty is married to "a bastard of the standard-issue variety, neither cruel nor violent, merely insensitive and inarticulate"; Fay has tired of wild parties and longs to settle down with a decent man; Lisa--who keeps her given name, Lesley, secret from the Goode's set--is an intellectually brilliant but mousy teenager whose father believes that women shouldn't attend college. During the frenzied Christmas shopping season, each saleswoman indirectly confronts her problem and attains contentment. Meanwhile, a subplot concerning several glamorous Eastern European emigres adds a certain underground charm. St . John writes in a mannerly, witty style and in spite of her characters' stereotpyical girlishness (i.e., shallow infatuations with pretty "frocks" and "eligible bachelors"), an essentially lighthearted tone sustains this tale.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
About the Author
Madeleine St John was born in Sydney but lived for many years in London. The Essence of the Thing was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Madeleine St John died in 2006.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sydney life, 1960,
By Kate Oszko (Brisbane, Australia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Women in Black Pb (Paperback)
Set in the 1960s in a fictional department store in Sydney, this delightful book is pitch perfect.The story focuses on the women working in Ladies' Cocktail Frocks and in Ladies' Evening Frocks sections of the store. The demarcation relates not only the class of customer, but also to the Aussies (Mrs Williams, Fay and Miss Baines, Patty) in Cocktail Frocks and the very Continental Magda in Evening Frocks. Enter Lesley/Lisa, a naive young thing doing a short stint during the holidays after completing her Leaving Certificate. We learn a little of their private lives and aspirations, and the attitudes of the time (especially how men and women relate to each other, and the education of women) are spot on. If you didn't live through this era, this book will make you feel as though you did. And for those of us who DID live through it, it is a wonderful time capsule - but with the addition of sophisticated wit and humour. Very good
5.0 out of 5 stars
fifties feelgood,
By Cloggie Downunder (Australia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Women in Black (Ulverscroft Large Print Series) (Hardcover)
The Women in Black is first of only four published novels by Madeleine St John. This edition includes a perceptive introduction by her contemporary, Bruce Beresford, and an obituary by Christopher Potter. Under the guise of a story about the staff of the Ladies' Cocktail section at F.G. Goode's (the Women in Black), St John takes us back to Sydney in the late 1950's. St John manages, with very few words, to bring back the feel of those times, the ideas and attitudes, in full living colour. Nostalgia overtakes the reader at the mention of prices in guineas, frocks (as opposed to dresses), men and women in hats, shops closing at 5.30, local calls for four pennies, the school Intermediate and Leaving certificate results posted at the newspaper offices.........the list goes on. With mention of "reffos" and "continentals", and salami as a novel food, Sydney of the late 50's is perfectly depicted. The dialogue is so authentic, it has the reader alternately laughing out loud and cringing ("......don't say anythink......"). St John's characters are convincing and easy to love. It was such fun to be a fly on the wall at F.G.Goode's (which was fairly obviously David Jones) and how lovely to realise that those formidable Women in Black were real people with the same insecurities as the rest of us!The Women in Black has been aptly described as an Australian Classic. It truly was a delight to read!
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