"The Women" Book Review
I am book nosey. If I see someone reading a book in public, I am determined to find out what they are reading. The other day, I saw a man on a plane reading a book titled something like Russian Literature from the 1700s. You don’t see that one every day, but one I have been noticing in a lot of people’s hands is The Women by Kristin Hannah. Having read this book over the summer, it left an indelible mark on me. I’ve recommended it to readers of all generations and interrupted strangers reading it to ask them their thoughts.
I have read three of Hannah’s other books, and there is one thing for certain about the way she hand-knits a story together...it is unpredictable. The Nightengale is a World War 2 page-turner that left me crippled with anxiety to know what happened next. The Four Winds started slow, stayed slow, and ended slow. I waited for it to get better, and then it ended and put me out of my misery. Magic Hour is an unraveling mystery that I could sink my teeth into and kept my curiosity peaked through its entirety. It’s the book that renewed my hope in Hannah and the one that ultimately nudged me to dive head-first into The Women. My goodness, did it deliver.
Set during the Vietnam War, The Women tells the story of Frankie McGrath who was inspired by the military history in her family to enlist in the Army as a nurse. Hannah does not sugarcoat, nor does she shy away from, the atrocities of war or the trauma that reverberates through the life of a soldier who makes it home and has to find their new normal post-war zone. In great detail and description, Hannah eloquently navigates the reader through life in Southern California in the 60s to Frankie’s first day in the combat hospital in the Vietnam war zone. We get a glimpse into the friendships and camaraderie the women forge in a godforsaken place and the years-long journey to coming to terms with the person the war had made her become.
A prominent theme of the book was grappling with the reverberating message that women weren’t in Vietnam. I was not alive during The Vietnam War, but after reading the Author’s notes and acknowledgments, it seems that Hannah was thorough in her research and went to great lengths to get the history right. The story she told, while fiction, was based on actual accounts from the women who served in the Vietnam hospitals. The women who served were not recognized for their service and were most often told that they weren’t there. Hannah adequately conveys being forgotten to a point where you can feel the pain of living and navigating through post-traumatic stress disorder each day, all while being denied your truth.
I don’t want to give the ending away, but I will say that the ending felt redemptive for Frankie, who finally found a way to put purpose to her pain. The Women is a story of friendship, tragedy, suffering, and healing. It’s tough to call it in August, but it really might end the year, being my favorite book of 2024.
The women had a story to tell, even if the world wasn’t quite yet ready to hear it, and their story began with three simple words. We were there.” ―Kristin Hannah, The Women
We were the last believers, my generation. We trusted what our parents taught us about right and wrong, good and evil, the American myth of equality and justice and honor. I wonder if any generation will ever believe again. People will say it was the war that shattered our lives and laid bare the beautiful lie we’d been taught. And they’d be right. And wrong. There was so much more. It’s hard to see clearly when the world is angry and divided, and you’re being lied to.” —Kristin Hannah, The Women
According to the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation statement, approximately 10,000 American military women were stationed in Vietnam during the war. Most were nurses in the Army, Air Force, and Navy, but women also served as physicians and medical personnel, and in air traffic control and military intelligence. Civilian women also served in Vietnam as news correspondents and workers for the Red Cross, Donut Dollies, the USO, Special Services, the American Friends Service Committee, Catholic Relief Services, and other humanitarian organizations.” —Kristin Hannah, The Women
