SHIPYARD GALS

In Stoller’s historical novel, the lives of three diverse young women dramatically intersect at a California shipyard in 1944.

Luisa Elena Gonzales Guzmán, called Elena, is from El Salvador. She has fled her country, where her father, the publisher of a progressive newspaper, has been arrested. Ruby Mae Taylor, a Black woman from Baton Rouge, leaves home with her family in search of better work opportunities. Rachel Stern is a Jewish nurse from the Bay Area, the daughter of a local physician. They converge at the Kaiser Shipyard in Richmond, California: Elena, formerly a reporter for her father’s paper, becomes a welder; Ruby Mae and her sister, Peggy, train as riveters; and Rachel works in the shipyard clinic. The dangers of shipyard work keep Rachel busy tending to a plethora of job-related injuries, many the result of insufficient training and lax attention to safety procedures. (Supplies are short, and the pressure is intense to produce more ships quickly). Rachel meets Ruby Mae when the riveter’s father is brought into the clinic with a badly broken leg; she meets Elena when the welder suffers a bad burn on her hand caused by a worn-out glove. The novel follows these three women and their budding friendships through the year as they face discrimination and trauma, especially after the infamous, deadly explosion at the nearby Port Chicago Naval base (“They think the casualties are in the hundreds”). The personal dramas work as a potent vehicle for illustrating the era’s racial segregation in the Navy (only Black sailors were assigned to load the deadly ammunition), antisemitism (amplified by the war), and misogyny. Alternating perspectives among the three central protagonists—a narrative technique that keeps the pages turning—Stoller skillfully fleshes out the characters as they courageously confront their own fears and insecurities. Through these young women, the author draws vivid portraits of Black, Latine, and Jewish cultures, which all face the same bigotry against ‘others.’ Precise details bring readers up close to the processes of riveting and welding, the specifics of wound treatment, and the suffocating environment of the shipyard.

An informative, engaging personal drama with three strong female leads.