The Women in Black

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. (Oct.)