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.
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First line:
The walled and gated McGrath estate was a world unto itself, protected and private.
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Source:
Source:
Kindle ebook
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Publisher:
Publisher:
St. Martin's Press
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Rating:
1.5 MedEvacs out of 5
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I was so excited to read this book going in. A nurse, working in the field hospitals, during Vietnam. Sounds right up my alley for historical fiction. However, this novel really fell short for me, especially with all the praise I've seen for it. I'll break it down by part 1 and part 2 for you and will probably contain lots of spoilers because I have thoughts.
Overall, I think I went into this hoping for more about the nurses in Vietnam. I do appreciate the healing journey that Hannah has portrayed and I liked where Frankie ended up (but I'm not acknowledging that final scene). Mostly, I was frustrated with the lack of explanation of military terms, repetitive storylines (relating to love interests), and all the time jumps that don't allow for readers to properly see relationships develop.
Part 1
Frankie is at the party celebrating her brother graduating from Naval Academy and getting ready to ship out to Vietnam. She and her brother exchange letters while he's there and she finishes up nursing school. She is ambitious and wants to advance her skills, but in a world where nurses eat their young, that's hard to do as a fresh graduate. She wants to make a difference and save lives, so she enlists in the army. Upon landing in Vietnam her world is turned upside down as she learns how chaotic and devastating Vietnam actually is.
My biggest complaint is that these characters all feel so flat in this part. There's lots of time jumps and that robs us readers of seeing Frankie develop relationships with her fellow soldiers. Barb is one of her roommates and when Frankie first meets her in their shared living quarters, she is distant. But then suddenly Barb and Frankie are best friends. Also as her tour progresses, we don't really have new supporting characters introduced as her friends are either going back or home or dying.
It also really bothered me that as Barb, a Black woman, was finishing her tour of duty, that's when Frankie mentions all she learned about race relations from Barb, but we never really saw this played out previously in their relationship. It just felt thrown in there to make sure that the author acknowledged that this was also taking place during the Civil Rights Movement. There are more mentions of the Civil Rights Movement, race riots, and police brutality mentioned in Barbs letters to Frankie after she returns home, but I would have loved to see this fleshed out more than it was.
Hannah also does a terrible job of explaining military accronyms and how things work in Vietnam. And because of the aforementioned time jumps, I was always confused about where I was in the story. In fact, the time jumps get so bad, basically all of Frankie's second tour is skipped over with only a few scenes from that whole year.
Don't even get me started on these love interests. Not one, but two, of her love interests are in relationships as they are pursuing her. And these "romances" all felt very forced. I hated Jamie as a love interest before I even knew he was married. And the whole thing with Rye was just weird. I wish she had just gotten with Coyote. I'm really hoping he comes back in part 2.
I did really like Hannah's portrayal of Frankie coming back from Vietnam and experiencing PTSD. It felt real and visceral. I'm eager to see how this plays out in part 2.
Part 2
I really appreciate that Hannah has portrayed healing from trauma and having PTSD as something that is not linear. I really like where Frankie ended up, minus the implication that she was going to get with Jamie. I honestly wanted her with Donna at the end.
My frustrations with this second half are essentially the same as the first except I'm mad because the Rye and Jamie storylines are essentially the same and I hate it.
Sadly, Coyote never comes back.
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