Two Hard-Boiled, Noir-Stained Classics by Twentieth Century American Women Writers: Maritta Wolff's Night Shift and Ann Petry's The Street
On last night's edition of the Film Noir Foundation's Ask Eddie livestream, someone asked Eddie Muller and Anne Hockens to recommend writers who are "noir-adjacent"—i.e., writers whose works are not noir proper, but bear a family resemblance. Two twentieth century American women writers whom I've read recently and whose works really knocked me on my ass immediately came to mind.
First off, there’s Maritta Wolff. In the 1940s, Wolff's first two novels were big best sellers that were made into films that may not be noir, strictly speaking, but that you could definitely call noir-stained: Whistle Stop (film here, novel here) and The Man I Love (the latter film was based on her novel Night Shift).
No, I wouldn't say that Maritta Wolff was a crime writer or a noir writer proper. But her work is hard-boiled and tough-minded, sometimes to the point of being absolutely brutal, and it definitely has a mood, settings and themes that are close to noir. And, oh yeah, she is a wonderful writer who is an ace at creating gripping narratives, characters you care about, and snappy, slangy dialogue that practically jumps off the page.
I particularly recommend Night Shift, a spectacularly vivid and hugely enjoyable novel that I couldn't put down and that imo is a lost classic. I kind of fell in love with this novel. One of the reviewers on Goodreads described it well: "Night Shift is just all around marvelous, tragic, sleazy, grimy, full of despair but also full of heart. At times over the top like a wonderful old B film but it's realistic in a way that makes you hurt for the characters."
Night Shift tells the story of a working class family on the eve of WWII and features, in the character of nightclub singer Petey Braun, one of the great feminist heroines in American literature. Raoul Walsh's superb film adaptation starring the great Ida Lupino captures some of the book's spirit, but there are some major differences. Some of the characters have different endings and in general the novel is a lot harsher and more downbeat.
The other Wolff novel I read, About Lyddy Thomas, concerns the difficult relationships in the postwar period between returning WWII GIs and the women they left behind. It, too, is a corking good read, and definitely close to noir in its tone and themes. Wolff deserves to be far better known and I look forward to reading more of her work.
The other writer I thought of in this vein is the African-American author Ann Petry, who is best known for two novels she published in the 1940s and 50s, The Street and The Narrows. I've read The Street and it is extraordinary—in some ways it's like the feminist version of Richard Wright's Native Son.
Again, The Street is not a crime novel per se but it's definitely gritty hard-boiled and dark. It's a riveting read, haunting and brilliant, and I would say it's thematically even closer to noir than the Wolff novels. The ending absolutely gutted me. Tayari Jones wrote insightfully about the novel and its connection to noir here.
Interestingly, when I did some reading about Ann Petry I found out that she was a serious movie fan. I would argue that The Street was strongly influenced by the Hollywood noir films of the 1940s. Read it and see if you don't agree.
In her time, Petry was hugely popular. The Street was the first novel by an African-American woman to sell over a million copies. But today, for reasons I can't fathom, she is much less well-known than her (outstanding) contemporaries like Richard Wright. Petry is a masterful storyteller who is particularly adept at creating compelling, morally ambiguous characters. The Street is a great protest novel that also happens to be literature.
Like Maritta Wolff, Ann Petry is a terrific American woman writer who deserves to be celebrated and much more widely read. You should definitely check both of them out. Let's face it, this pandemic isn't going to be over any time soon and we've all got plenty of time on our hands. It's an ideal time to read all those books you've always meant to get to, but somehow never had the time for.