Synopsis – The Women
From Goodreads – An intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided.
Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.
As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over- whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.
But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.
The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.
My Review
The Women by Kristin Hannah
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was the October 2024 bookclub choice.
General consensus was that everyone liked the book.
The Women is the story of a young woman who enlisted in the Army to serve as a nurse in Vietnam during the war. I am a fan of historical fiction, and I am not as familiar with the Vietnam war and certainly not about the women who served so I was very interested to start this book.
I was immediately sucked in and found the graphic descriptions of life in Vietnam to be both interesting and heart breaking. This is an emotional story. Several times reading I did tear up while reading and the subject matter could be very triggering for some people.
The second half of the book follows Frankie after she returned from Vietnam and attempted to reintegrate into society without any assistance. I learned a great deal about how disgracefully the Vietnam veterans were initially treated upon their return to the United States. And, in particular, how the value of women’s service and trauma were dismissed.
I found the book to be very long. I feel that it could have been edited to not lose any of the story but without some of the repetition and detail. It is very clear that the author thoroughly researched this time period. Sometimes it felt as though the author wanted to throw in everything she learned which sometimes made it feel a bit like trauma porn or overkill – every single issue did not need to befall this one character.
I did love the bond between Frankie and her 2 nurse friends. I did also like that the characters were nuanced and layered and that each of the women though close were completely different people.
As a mental health professional, I was interested to read how the trauma they all experienced was so quickly dismissed. It was sobering to think that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which is an established disorder now was not recognized when these soldiers returned and so many of them endured this burden with no competent help.
Overall, if you are a fan of historical fiction then “The Women” is well worth a read. I enjoyed it and learned a great deal and even though I definitely feel it was unnecessarily long that was not enough to detract from the beauty of the story.
4/4.5 stars.
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