THE WOMEN (Kristin Hannah) – Gritty, Heavy Vietnam War Novel

Why I was Drawn to this Novel

I could not wait to read Kristin Hannah’s newest novel, The Women, detailing the story of a nurse serving in the Vietnam War. The premise hooked me from the moment I saw the book on Goodreads. I find the Vietnam War era really interesting, but I have not found many books that tell stories from it. 

Overview of The Women

The Women really centers on one woman: Frankie McGrath. Frankie is raised in a very well-to-do proper family in California. Anxious to make her parents proud, make a difference, and be near her best friend and brother, Finley, Frankie enlists in the Army and prepares to go overseas to serve as a nurse in Vietnam. The second half of the book details her return home and is filled with ups and downs I won’t go into now lest I spoil the book for you. 

Complex Feelings on This Vietnam War Novel

What I Liked

I overall enjoyed this book. Sure, there was some language, sexual content, gross medical stuff, and some subtle mentioning/promoting of ideologies I disagree with; but as a whole, it was a good book.

I’ll detail some of my actual-book-content negatives further down, but that sentence above is a generic summary of the “cons” as it were.

As for the “pros”:

• I appreciated how Hannah portrayed Frankie at the beginning of the book and in her early days in Vietnam. Frankie was so shocked, overwhelmed, physically ill, confused, naive, etc. and I felt that refreshing and relatable (and probably very accurate).
• Hannah does a good job later on shining light on PTSD in a time before that was clearly recognized, putting life to veterans’ return home after such a controversial war, as well as the political/cultural climate of the US in the 60s and 70s.
• She paints what I felt was a summarizing picture in the latter half of the book of life at that time.
• While the book was long, I felt the plot moved at a decent clip for the most part, and I didn’t find it cumbersome to read. 

What I Didn’t Like:

As far as unpacking more of my dislikes…

• Sadly, I found Frankie go from endearing to rather unlikeable as the story progressed. Maybe this was intentional, considering what she went through during the war. But she starts out earnest and endearing and gets pretty miserable and cynical.
  • A big pet-peeve is how kindly and welcomed she was by the nurses when she first arrived and how poorly she returned the favor when she became the experienced one meeting fresh-faced and scared new arrivals.
• The medical stuff was pretty intense. Maybe I’m a little more on the squeamish side than I thought, but I had to skim some of that.
• This is only my second Kristin Hannah book, but I found something similar to the first (The Nightingale). Hannah just likes to make bad things happen to her characters. A lot of tragic stuff happens to Frankie (not just in Vietnam but back in the States).
  • Thankfully, there is some happiness woven into the end (sorry for the tiny spoiler), but Hannah doesn’t hold back from the tragedies. 

Final Thoughts

All that said, this was a good book. I appreciated the light Hannah shone on not only women in the war but also on the reception veterans (especially in this case women) received upon returning home. She doesn’t shy away from PTSD, mental and physical struggles and scars, and the difficulties of reacclimatizing.

I am thankful for the men and women who serve and have served this country, and this book honored them well. 

Meredith

Content Rating: Extreme

for foul language, sexual content (not too graphic), war violence, medical scenes, PTSD, drug misuse, infidelity, etc. A lot of adult content. 

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Copyright Kristin Hannah and St. Martin’s Press. Image from Amazon.