Thursdays 'til 9

by Jane Trahey

Anyone who's worked in retail knows what a strange and silly world it can be. Thursday's 'til 9 takes you behind the scenes using inter-office memos, letters home, ads, newspaper clippings, and postcards to tell the wacky tale of life at Nevins Markham Department Store.

Genres: Fiction

250 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

Reviews

[Olive Fellows (abookolive) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quite cute epistolary novel told in letters, interoffice memos, and newspaper clippings that stars a witty and ambitious copywriter who charms her way into a job for a swanky Texas retail store. We follow her for a year in this position and surmise through the correspondence the hijinks she gets into with promoting the store, trying to sell a rare fur coat, and navigating interpersonal relationships with her bosses and other coworkers.

Think Helene Hanff's 84, Charing Cross Road meets Peggy from Mad Men (if she was starting her career in 1979). Easy to breeze through over lunch breaks and delivers plenty of smirks.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a fun and funny epistolary novel! Written as letters, memos, etc. we follow Penelope Smith as she moves from Chicago to Texas to take on a job at a “chic” department store. Set in 1979, it illuminates all the pitfalls, rivalries, politics, and also the bonds and camaraderie of office life. This humorous depiction of life in corporate retail job was a joy from start to finish.

[Butterflycager · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love love love this book, especially the format of it (memos, letters, the protagonist's doodlings). Penny Smith is one of my all-time favorite characters because of her cleverness and sense of humor.

[🐴 🍖]

ugh i've got the biggest crush on penelope smith. the wit & confidence launch off the page w/ an almost audible *boing*. fictional char i'd most like to grab martinis w/ 2k24. unlike a lotta these epistolary/bricolage-y type novels, there's wisely no attempt to include every single piece of correspondence -- trahey trusts the reader enough to sometimes leave a memo or a letter implied. fun as well to see how similar office comms were to today's (right down to passive-aggressively CCing people's managers!). last but not least a killer grasp on human idiosyncrasies: penelope's mom's refusal to understand what her daughter does for a living; mrs nevins's fixation on fur storage. should be reissued forthwith obvi, also a huge cross-rec of mary gallagher's spend it foolishly, which could conceivably be penelope smith: the younger years.

[Katie Alender · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adorable. An ancestor to "Where'd You Go, Bernadette?"