The Women
- Author: Kristin Hannah
- Published: February 6, 2024
- Type: Fiction
- Finished: September 14, 2024
- Personal Rating: ★★★★★
- Goodreads Rating: 4.63 ★ (773,876 ratings)
This is an enormously popular book; take a look at that Goodreads rating: almost three quarters of a million ratings and it’s been out for less than a year! In 2022 I read – and loved – The Four Winds; Kristin Hannah’s novel about a woman in the Great Depression. A woman in our coffee group mentioned this new book and it took me a minute to place the author’s name. When it clicked I bought the book and it moved straight to the top of my reading list.
Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s family has a history of military services. At a party to celebrate her brother’s deployment to Vietnam, Frankie retreats to her father’s den, where she meets her brother’s friend, Rye.
“How come there are no pictures of women up here, except for the wedding pictures?” Rye asked.
“It’s a heroes’wall. To honor the sacrifices our family has made in service of the country.”
He lit a cigarette. “Women can be heroes.”
Frankie laughed.
“What’s funny about that?”
She turned to him, wiped the tears from her eyes. “I…well… you don’t mean…”
“Yeah”, he said, looking down at her. She couldn’t remember a man looking at her in such a way, so intensely. It made her catch her breath. “I mean it, Frankie. It’s 1966. The whole world is changing.” [Page 7]
So, Frankie takes her nursing education to become an Army nurse. In her crisp nurse uniform she finds herself deposited at a medical station in the middle of the Vietnam War and she has to quickly learn more in an environment starkly different from a stateside hospital. Her bunk mates Barb and Ethel, help her learn and adjust.
Ethel put an arm around Frankie. “Look, Frank. I know how you feel right now. We all do. We’ve been there. You’re thinking you screwed up by signing up for ‘Nam, thinking you don’t belong. But let me tell you, kid, it doesn’t matter where you’re from or how you grew up or what god you believe in, if you’re here, you’re among friends. We’ve got you.”
And they did have each other through it all even after they return from the war. Through their experience they learn the truths behind the lies on the nightly news . After enduring the trauma of being a surgical nurse in a war zone Frankie returns with what we would now call PTSD. Because she is a woman she has a diminishingly small group of peers or professionals who see her for what she is, a veteran returning home to a world that wants nothing to do with her.
Kristin Hannah writes about strong women who are placed in impossibly difficult situations and must find their way. She takes us inside of Frankie to understand her background, “a sheltered ‘good girl ‘ from a conservative family”, and how she adapts – or fails to adapt – through her time in the war and back at home.
It’s a wickedly strong novel about war, the times, and the women who were often invisible on their return. In her Author’s Note Hannah points out that “approximately 10,000 American military women were stationed in Vietnam during the war.” [Page 467] And, “Many of the women keenly remembered being told often that there ‘were no women in Vietnam.’ I am honored to tell this story.” [Page 468]
With over 750,000 reviews on GoodReads I hardly need to add my voice highly recommending this book.