Publication Date February 6, 2024
I’ve been an off and on fan of Kristin Hannah’s books, but was particularly interested in The Women when I read that the story began in Southern California in the mid-1960’s, then moved to Vietnam. I graduated from San Clemente High School in 1965 and then got married in ’68, right after my husband-to-be returned from a second tour in Vietnam. Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley, I received a copy of The Women in exchange for my honest review, and IT IS TERRIFIC!
Frances “Frankie” McGrath is a 20-year-old nursing student when she and one of her older brother’s friends are looking at the “heroes wall” of photos in her father’s study during a party to celebrate her brother’s departure to join the military. Their conservative parents had raised Frankie and her brother to do the right thing, and for her brother that meant signing up to serve, hoping to earn a place on the “heroes wall.” When Frankie notes that all the pictures are of men, the friend says “women can be heroes,” and this motivates Frankie to join up as a nurse and go where her brother goes. It’s 1965, and their conservative wealthy parents had raised them both to “do the right thing,” but the idea of a woman joining the military is appalling, and they are outspoken in their disapproval, to say the least (in fact they tell people she is off in Europe studying art—clearly there’s no way she could ever be included on the heroes wall).
Frankie is incredibly unprepared for Vietnam, both in terms of the nursing and the war itself. Writing a letter home, she relates her realization that “…no one really knows who the enemy is over here and our boys are being killed by jungle snipers…dangerous to be scared all the time.” And everything clashes with her privileged upbringing: “the horror she saw here every day made the rules of polite society seem unimportant.”
At first, Frankie is rah-rah, believing the fight is to stop the spread of communism, but in time her view changed: “Whatever doubt—or hope—she’d once held was gone now: the American government was lying about the war—betrayal was as shocking as the assassination of Kennedy had been, an upheaval of right and wrong.” When she and her friends return to the U.S., they find protesters who berate them to their faces and a country that doesn’t want to hear anything about Vietnam.
When I read and reviewed Kristin Hannah’s The Great Alone, I noted that “Kristin Hannah’s books are beloved by millions (think The Nightingale), partly for their vivid descriptions of both place and people. They also evoke strong emotional responses to situations and relationships that may not be part of the reader’s everyday experience, but yet seem completely familiar because of the author’s skillful writing.” That is totally true for The Women. Yes, is the story of one woman, but also addresses all the brave women who went to war and were largely forgotten for too long.
Personally, I found Vietnam to be a shock to my entire generation. I’ve never been able to adequately express what the war did to those who were there and those who experienced what the war had done to them AND us, while we were waiting back home. Ms. Hannah’s book definitely captured so much of how it felt: after two tours in Vietnam, Frankie realizes that “We were the last believers, my generation. We trusted that our parents taught us about right and wrong, good and evil, the American myth of equality and justice and honor.”
I’m looking forward to talking with others about this one! Five stars.