The women in black by Madeleine St John
Date: 14 October 2009
This novel is set in 1960 in a department store in Sydney named Goodes, which is a fictionalised version of the Elizabeth Street store David Jones. The story is very character focused and centres on four females who work in the ladies’ cocktail frocks section. Patty and Fay are ordinary young women who have rather unsatisfactory personal lives. Gorgeous Magda is a recent immigrant from the Balkans and she enriches the lives of the other women with her generosity and grace. Lisa is a temporary worker helping out over the Christmas period before hopefully passing her exams and entering university. Their uniform is a black dress, hence the title.
The characters are observed with wonderful perception and tenderness and it was disappointing to reach the very satisfying and positive ending. A later novel, The Essence of the Thing, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1997 and is also a satisfying read.