Night Shift Book

I recently discovered and read all three of the Maritta Wolff novels that my library had, first Whistle Stop, then Sudden Rain, and now Night Shift. I really enjoyed them all, as it is quality of writing that means the most to me, and this author's writing is excellent, with her dialogue being particularly outstanding. I think I liked "Night Shift" best of all. It takes place in 1940 and 41 in a factory town, at first centering on Sally Otis and her children, other relatives, friends, and boarder.

The character Sally is so good that one almost gets tired of her after awhile, but just at that point her sister Petey comes for a visit, and the novel for me became very absorbing. Wolff wrote in the 1950s, and yet she created in Petey a strong, independent, intelligent, complex, extremely noncomformist and quite wonderful character that I'm still thinking about a week after finishing the book. Depicting this character in the button-down misogynist society of the time is really amazing. It's also amazing that as I was born in 1954 in L.A. and fast becoming the bookworm I still am today, Wolff was in the same city writing this well.