Review: THE WOMEN

Title: The Women by Kristin Hannah

Book Beginnings quote: 

The walled and gated McGrath estate was a world unto itself, protected and private.

Friday56 quote: 

We were the last believers, my generation. We trusted what our parents taught us about right and wrong, good and evil, the American myth of equality and justice and honor. I wonder if any generation will ever believe again. People will say it was the war that shattered our lives and laid bare the beautiful lie we’d been taught. And they’d be right. And wrong. There was so much more. It’s hard to see clearly when the world is angry and divided and you’re being lied to.

Summary: After her brother enlists in the Navy and is sent to Vietnam, Frankie McGrath signs up to be an Army Nurse to prove to herself and her parents that women, too, can be heroes. Her experiences there as a combat nurse taint the rest of her life even after she returns home. She returns to a much changed country, one which refuses to accept that women, too, were negatively impacted by their service in Vietnam which leaves Frankie with nowhere to turn for help.

Review: Kristin Hannah's The Women picked at a lot of scabs I've been wearing since my junior high school days, when the Vietnam war was raging and I found myself on the side of the anti-war demonstrators. When Frankie returned home from two tours in Vietnam as a combat nurse she is met with derision and disgust from Americans she encounters at the airport. One person even spits at her. Citizens have misplaced their anger for the war and placed the blame on the soldiers instead of the government which kept the war going. If I had been older, I might have been one of those angry people spitting on returning soldiers and airmen. But I was a kid watching events like this unfurl on TV and my anti-war sentiment raged inside. To add to my anger, my best friend's father was MIA (Missing-in-action) after the plane he was piloting was shot down. My heart broke for my friend and her family as they awaited news, good or bad, about his whereabouts. I even wore one of the POW/MIA bracelets talked about in the book, in hopes that the money raised by this project would encourage the government to work to free/look for the men on the bracelets. I wore my bracelet for several years, sadly.

Sample POW bracelet

After Frankie returns home to a country not interested in hearing about her heroic efforts to save soldiers' lives, she finds the only people who really understand her are other women who also served as nurses in Vietnam. When she turned to the VA for help she was turned away, eventually causing Frankie to turn to pills and alcohol for relief from the nightmares and flashbacks.

Frankie's story needed to me told, and I am glad Kristin Hannah was able to bring the story of these left behind heroes of the Vietnam war to life. Frankie McGrath was a fully fleshed out, interesting character. Unfortunately, most of the other characters were not so three dimensional: "Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people" (KR) But that aside, The Women is a good book about a topic we need to confront as we consider the ramifications of engaging in wars in the future.

Rating 4 stars.

2024 Twenty Books of Summer Challenge

17 / 20 books. 85% done!

The Women is 471 pages, which qualifies it for 'Big Book Summer Challenge.

-Anne