Come in Spinner

Cusack, Dymphna & James, Florence.  Come in Spinner, Pymble, N.S.W. : HarperCollins, 2001.

Come in Spinner explores what life on the home-front was like for Australian women during  WWII and tells the story of three women, Claire, Guinea, and Deb, who are co-workers in the beauty salon of an exclusive Sydney hotel. The story follows a week in the lives of three women, a week in which their decisions change their lives and those of their men and families. These characters are weaved together with their familial and romantic relationships, as they struggle to manage the realities of working for the privileged upperclasses, to whom no rules apply, while their own families cope with wartime deaths and losses, rationing, government Manpower recruitment, and stiflingly conservative attitudes surrounding the role and perception of 'acceptable' behaviour of women. The original novel was published in abridged form as the the topics covered, such as abortion, adultery, prostitution and rape were regarded as too controversial at the time.