Back in my early blogging days I read a book by Maritta Wolff called Sudden Rain. I wrote about it here, but please keep in mind I had only been blogging about six months, was still trying to find my voice and wasn't quite sure how I wanted to write about books (and hopefully I have improved over time). Sudden Rain had an interesting publishing story. Maritta Wolff was a hugely popular writer in the 1940s and 1950s. Her first novel Whistle Stop portrayed the seamy side of life in a small Michigan town and went into something like five reprintings. She went on to write five more novels, which were bestsellers, but then disappeared from the literary world. The story goes that she didn't like the intrusive nature of the success her books garnered so she packed it in and led a quiet, private life with her husband and son.
No more was heard about her until after her death when it was rumored that the last book she wrote had been stored in her refrigerator from 1972, when it was completed, until her death in 2002. It was published posthumously and her first two books were also brought back into print by the publisher Scribner. I'm not sure if I was more fascinated by the book's history, or whether the story simply appealed to me (probably a combination of the two), but I remember Sudden Rain being a totally engrossing read. I expect "instant commercial success" is a euphemism for books that were "popular", which is how Scribner has marketed these reissues, but they also take pains to note that Wolff received a certain amount of acclaim for her writing and was respected for her ability to vividly portray small town life with a particularly good ear for colloquial American English.
Night Shift was published in 1942 and made into a film a few years later. It begins very dramatically with a rather gruesome accident in a factory where car bumpers are manufactured. Once again the setting is a small Michigan town and the story revolves around three sisters. I thought I'd share a little of the dialog for my teaser today.
"Poor old lady," Sally said. It makes me nervous to hear her. I'm always so afraid she'll fall down up there or something, and get hurt. Suppose she'd fall, coming down those stairs? They're so dark."
"Probably wouldn't hurt her if she did," Fred said. "I see a drunk once fall down two flights of stairs, just rolled right down 'em over and over. Hell, when he got to the bottom he just picked himself up and walked off, looking for some place to get another drink."
"Well, it's different with her. She's an old lady; her bones are all brittle." Sally paused with a pound of butter in her hand before she put it in the refrigerator. "How much did you have to pay for butter, Virgie?"
Virginia was scrubbing on a greasy frying pan. She stopped and rested her arms tracked with soapsuds on the edge of the dishpan. "Let's see. I got the groceries at Rogers'. Butter was thirty-nine cents."
Sally shook her head and put the butter into the refrigerator. "Thirty-nine cents! Wouldn't you know it! You can get it at the A. and P. for thirty-two!"
Sorry, I just dropped you in the middle of that conversation. Sally Otis is married with three children and her younger sister Virginia lives with her. Fred is another boarder in the rooming house. I've yet to meet the third sister, but she's going to enter their lives and throw everyone into an upheaval. I love the description of this novel--"full of tension, excitement, violence, and even bloodshed". When I read Stephen Becker's book (published in 1964) one of the blurbs read: "stinting on neither sex nor violence...a novel that is meaningful". I guess sex and violence do sell--even with something deeper to the story. I'm finally getting to my 2011 reading list, but I would have read this book in any case. As a matter of fact I think I'll be looking for the rest of her novels now as well--it's a pity all her books weren't reissued, but better three than none!