Sorry for the late review but I realized when tidying up my netgalley shelf I had not given my opinion. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. So much so that when i finished it I then found a way to watch the movie. I loved the character development and could relate somewhat as a retail worker lol

"The Women in Black" by Madeleine St John is a charming and delightful novel that offers a glimpse into the lives of women working in a Sydney department store in the 1950s. The writing style is lighthearted and witty, and the characters are quirky and endearing. The book is a charming portrayal of women finding their place in the world during a time of great change, and it offers a nostalgic look at a bygone era. If you're looking for a lighthearted and enjoyable read, "The Women in Black" is the perfect choice. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a charming and nostalgic escape.

This novel was originally published in 1983 and was reissued a couple of years ago. It tells the story of some of the women who worked in a Sydney department store; they are our “Women in Black.” Readers follow Patty, Fay, Magda and Lisa. Each has her own backstory and work experience as they work in the cocktail dress department in the 1950s set story.

The Women in Black is a short novel and a story that was made into a movie. I have not seen the film but will most likely give it a look now.

I enjoyed this novel which gave me the chance to step back in time for a bit. I will never get to shop and be helped by saleswomen like these!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for this title. All opinions are my own.

Rereleased as a tie-in for the movie adaptation, this book is an easy read, and perfect for fans of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel! Revolving around a group of women working in a Sydney department store in the 1950s, which is seemingly their only connection. Until Magda starts pulling everyone together, slowly but surely. A quirky and fun period piece on the lives of women, and the limitations faced in an era where women were still fighting for a seat at the table.

Thank you to Netgalley and Scribner for advanced access to this title!

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley and the publisher.

It's Australia in the 1950s, and dresses are sold to you by women wearing little black dresses. Such a time! I think that this was a beautiful time (except for rampant social problems and polio, neither of which are mentioned in this little book, thankfully) - women dressed up to go to the store to buy more dresses, dinner parties happened for any reason under the sun, everything seemed to be moving forward.

For the women in black, their lives seems like lives women have lived for ever - there is new love, old love, challenges, excitement, boredom. I loved reading about each of them. Everyone had a HEA, but sometimes we need a book like that.

I really liked the ambiance and feel of the time period and the unique way each of the characters were written. The author took the time to really give each of the women a story that resonates with not only the time period, but created a tapestry of something that is just so different and daring in a way. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley. This was the perfect read to bring me into the New Year and a way to remember the past.

Delightful book. Good read. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the arc of this book in return for my review. Receiving the book in this manner had no bearing on this review.

I think this was good. It wasn't to me, like a stand out kind of book but it was good nonetheless. I enjoyed reading and reviewing it, but I think that it wasn't as memorable as some of the others that I've reviewed recently.

I couldn't get into this book and did not finish, which is incredibly rare for me. I hope others enjoyed it more than I did.

Author #Madeleine St. John was an Australian writer,the first Australian woman to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction for her novel ‘The Essence of the Thing’.Todays work is ‘#The Women in Black’ that takes place in Goode department store.This is perfect for fans of ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.These Thank you,
#Netgalley,#Madeleine St. John and #Scribner

I absolutely loved this book. I loved the setting, I loved the characters, and I loved the writing style. Normally when a book has multiple female protagonists like this one, I end up connecting to one over the others. But in this book, I was equally invested in each woman's story. It's charming and delightful to read, and takes you to an entirely different place and era. But the book has a tremendous amount of substance and shouldn't be considered in any way fluff. I made myself wait to watch the movie until I finished the book, so now I can't wait to see how the two compare!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my free copy. As always, all opinions are my own.

This should have been a light read, but it felt like work. Madeleine St. John's characters were caricatures of real people. They weren't developed enough for me to care about them or to a create a decent plot. I was so hoping this would be the behind the scenes of the department store in Colm Toibin's "Brooklyn" - it wasn't.

A few weeks in the lives of several women who work in a department store in Australia in the time leading up to Christmas and shortly afterwards. Lisa is a temporary hire - who just finished her exams and is out from under the thumb of her overprotective mom and somewhat disinterested dad for the first time. Magda is in charge of the evening gown (one of a kind dress area) and takes Lisa under her wing. Patty is in a marriage that has become boring and Fay is looking for love. Over the course of the book, we see how each woman learns more about herself, their relationships with those around them, and how they change over the course of a few short weeks.

The Women in Black is about women working at an Australian department store in the 1950s. Individually these women are fascinating and they are in different stages and stations in life yet their lives intertwine in interesting ways. Over a season at the store their lives change irreversibly. This one was hard to put down.

Thanks Net Galley for the preview!

This was a cute short story about four women working at a department store. I didn't resonate with any one particular character as I had a bit of a hard time with some of the expressions in the book. Overall, it was nice to read but a bit too uneventful for my taste.

A reintroduction of a retro classic…
Madeleine St John’s The Women in Black places you behind the counter and into the lives of the associates of women’s frocks (dresses) at Goode’s, an upscale department store in Sydney, Australia in the 1950s. Their signature black smocks set them apart from the customers. Lisa, a plain and unworldly teenager, is hired on as temporary help for the Christmas rush while she awaits the results of her leaving exams (high school graduation exams) which will determine the course of her future. Lisa’s time is split between the main floor, working with Patty, Fay, and a few other ladies, and helping Magda, the cultured and beautiful Slovenian emigre, with the exclusive glamour gowns. Lisa’s perspective on life and her self-image will never be the same after Magda takes an interest in transforming and refining her into a continental lady. While Lisa’s life is blooming, Fay is tired of the repetitious cycle of similar men through her life, worrying she will never find Mr. Right, and Patty is dealing with the unexpected disappearance of her husband Frank. If only life were as easy as picking a dress!

The Women in Black is a classic “comedy of manners”, published in 1993, adapted into a musical and a film, and republished for new audiences this year. It is a charming tale that is filled with terms, styles, and conventions of 1950s Australia. St. John also writes in the style of the time which adds even more authenticity to the story. Because of its retro style, number of characters, and gradual unfolding of the story-lines it takes a few chapters for your brain to adjust and sort everything out. However, the further you go the more entrapping and enjoyable it becomes.

I love how books can be windows into other times and places. The Women in Black is a wonderful piece of history and gives a reader a glimpse into to the lives and thought processes of women in 1950’s Australia. It really demonstrates the notion that while much has changed in society there are many things about relationships that stay the same

I am enthralled by "The Women in Black."

You may or may not have heard of Madeleine St. John, an Australian writer whose novel "The Essence of Things" was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1997. I loved it, but never heard of St. John again.

Simon & Schuster has recently reissued St. John’s charming first novel, "The Women in Black." I gobbled up this brilliant comedy about four employees in the Ladies’ Frocks Department of Goode’s, a department store in Sydney in the 1950s. They are required to wear unattractive, smelly black uniforms. 

Set during the busy Christmas season, when they are run off their feet, a chain of events transforms them. First there is lonely Patty Williams, “a little, thin, straw-colored woman with a worn-out face and a stiff-looking permanent wave,” whose cruel  husband Frank  is usually drunk, criticizes her cooking, and rarely has sex with her. She buys a sexy nightgown at Goode’s (with her employee discount, of course), and accidentally entices Frank into bed. Then he disappears  She grieves, becomes angry, and finally takes charge of her life.

In contrast, Fay Baines, in her late twenties, is buxom, beautiful, and single.  At Goodes, they assume she is free and happy, and they jealously speculate about her wild life.  In reality, Fay spends a lot of time crying because she is tired of parties, and never meets men who consider marriage.   St. John explains: "The men she saw these days were a rag tag and bobtail collection of faces from her livelier past, blind dates organised by her friend Myra Parker (comrade and mentor since Fay’s nightclub days), and men whom she met at the parties to which she was taken by Myra, or by the rag tag and bobtail."

And when Fay refuses to have sex with them, they insult her and call her a bitch, which leads to more crying.

Magda, a sophisticated Slovenian immigrant who met her husband in a refugee camp, is the most generous and well-adjusted of the group.  Her colleagues are intimidated, because Magda manages the Model Gowns department, which sells one-of-a-kind designer gowns. And they are annoyed when they learn they must share the new temp with Magda: “…they were going to have Magda slithering out of her pink cave and sliding over to Ladies’ Cocktail and pinching that temp away from them…”

The temp worker, Lesley Miles, who tells them her name is Lisa, which seems more romantic to her, is just out of school and hopes to go to the university. She reads Anna Karenina on her break.  Through Magda’s kindness, she learns about clothes and makeup and is transformed from an ugly duckling into a swan. Lisa lends Anna Karenina to Fay, who is surprised that reading novels makes the time go faster And Magda invites Fay to a party where charming immigrants don’t stereotype her as a slut.  

Yes, it’s all about happy endings–thank God! We all love light books, especially when they’re as well-written as this.

I only made it to the 4% mark and then I read this "...as she left the surgery, the physician looking idly at her back view thought, she'd clean up quite well with a hairdo, some paint on her face and a black nightie..." Just a few hours ago I read an article about Evelyn Yang being sexually assaulted by her OBGYN. So as you can imagine, I had no interest in supporting this book.

Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC for an honest opinion.

A nice portrait of a group of women, working in a department store in Sydney in 1959. It reminded me a little of "Call the Midwife" in the way that we look at each of these women's hopes and fears, loves and losses. It's a very warm book. I wanted to hug all of the women at once, and let them each help me with a new 'frock.'

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This charming debut novel - originally published in 1993 - is set in 1950's Sydney and centers around four very different women who all work for the fictitious upscale department store Goode's. The book's title comes from the black frocks each of the female employees wear at work (which can vary somewhat in style, though all must represent dignity and elegance befitting Goode's) - in this case the four main characters being: Patty, married to Frank and in her thirties and a mainstay at Goode's for years, who is unhappy and longs to have a baby; Fay, younger and single and trying to find love in all the wrong places, as the men she tends to date don't see her as wife material; Lisa, the young and petite newbie who's only working at Goode's on a break from school, waiting to see if her examination scores are good enough to enter university even though her father is against her going; and last but not least ... Magda, head of the couture gowns department and an immigrant from Slovenia, who looks down her continental nose at nearly everyone until she decides to take Lisa under her wing. How I loved this book, which evokes completely an innocence and naivete of the 1950's that gives the reading experience the warm fuzzies of nostalgia. In that context, the stories of Patty, Fay, Lisa and Magda don't necessarily come off as feminist or "modern," and yet there is a terrific core of strength in each of these ladies you'll grow to admire, even in the interactions - friendships - they build with one another. The book's narrative flows seamlessly between characters, telling each lady's story as the novel itself gears up toward Goode's Christmas and huge post-Christmas sales rush, and with author Madeleine St John's skills at writing in a style completely evoking the period the book is set in, it doesn't take long for you to laugh, love, and care about these four ladies and their journeys. A truly feel-good novel that, in the end, I'd genuinely grown to love. (Available February 11) 4.5/5 stars

NOTE: I received a free ARC of this title from NetGalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.