You might already know that I like reading hystorical fiction every now and then. One of the well-known authors within this genre is Kristin Hannah. Over the years, I have been reading several books by this author, The Four Winds pretty recently. However, when The Women came onto my radar, I instantly knew that I wanted to read this book. It’s about the Vietnam war, a time period in history I have barely read about. Especially not about women serving in the army as nurses. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Julia Whelan and my expectations were quite high. Were they met?

About the book

The Women by Kristin Hannah
Published by St. Martin’s Press on February 6, 2024
Pages: 480
ISBN: 9781250178633
Genres: Adult, Historical fiction

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

It’s 1965 and twenty-year old Frances “Frankie” McGrath just finished nursing school with the highest grades of her year. However, she hasn’t been able to bring her nowledge into practice as she has to start from the ground, much to her dismay. She wants to keep moving and save people’s lives, that’s where her passion lies. One day, she hears that women can be heroes too and that leaves an impression on her. She decides to sign up for the army to serve as a nurse in Vietnam, to be together with her beloved brother. Once she finishes training and arrives in Vietnam, she is far from prepared for the chaos. However, also her return to the USA is not what she had been expecting since the country is divided by the war and protests against it. This makes Frankie grow as a character, because when she joins the army, she is young and insecure about her capabilities. She is afraid to take action when it’s needed. With the help of her colleagues there, she grows into being an essential member of the team. She has to grow up way too quickly and that’s especially noticeable later on in the book.

The impact of the war is already visible upon returning. Frankie suffes from servere trauma and nightmares. For the outside world, she pretends to be okay, meanwhile she is falling apart. During the progression of the story, we follow Frankie on her journey to accepting her trauma, because healing is impossible. She has to learn how to live with everything she has gone through. She doesn’t get any support from people surrounding her. The only ones she can talk to are her co-workers – who became her best friends – Ethal and Barb. These are strong women as well, especially Barb.

Despite the heavy topic, Hannah’s writing style is pleassant to read. Therefore, the book reads smoothly and never runs stiffly. You are sucked into Frankie’s journey from start to finish and it never gets dull. It has a bit of a slow start, but this all changes once Frankie lands in Vietnam. From here, the pace picks up. The first half of the book is about her time in Vietnam, whilst the second part explores the events upon returning home. If you think the book is finished then, you are totally wrong. In fact, this is the part where the story actually begins. In Vietnam, Frankie and her team lived from emergency to emergency and had no time to process what they endured. They are under constant stress and pressure. Once back home, the real processing begins. Hannah takes the time and space to elaborate the emotions and how to deal with these, which makes the book quite tense. In the second part of the book however, this straight forward tension is less visible on the surface. Time jumps provide insight in how trauma will always linger.

The author explores several themes within this story. Grief, friendship, and love are a few of them. Yes, there even is romance in this novel. Whereas it doesn’t play a key role, it provides grief anyway. The main theme that is being explored however, is shame. When Frankie’s brother serves the army in Vietnam, their dad claims he is a hero serving his country. He can’t process the fact his daughter has served in Vietnam as well. The family chooses to tell everyone that she has been spending time in Florence, to gain work experience. This way, Frankie notices that nobody takes her stories about Vietnam seriously, let alone is willing to listen to her. She doesn’t feel understood and feels invisible. The responses she gets are characteristic for how even her own family acts like Vietnam never happened and she didn’t see the most horrific things there. Even when she seeks help for her PTSD at official veteran clinics, she is outright refused therapy. People tell her that women didn’t go to Vietnam, only men fought there. So, she is dismissed, as wel as the fact that nurses were needed there. This leads to events that cause damage to her life, because Frankie never learns how to process her trauma. The entire country is ashamed of the Vietnam war and the women who have been there pay the price. You can only hope that Frankie finds acceptance for her PTSD.

The Women by Kristin Hannah is an interesting read about a topic I barely knew anything about. Of course I knew about the Vietnam war, but I never learnt about the women who are simply forgotten and the shame the USA felt. This story had me hooked from start to finish and therefore I strongly recommend it. The way the author explores very heavy and controversial themes in depth without the book getting repetitive or dull is remarkable.