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The BookBrowse Review
The BookBrowse Review
Published December 4, 2024
ISSN: 1930-0018
The BookBrowse Review
Published December 4, 2024
ISSN: 1930-0018
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From master storyteller Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds, comes the story of a turbulent, transformative era in America: the 1960s.
"Women can be heroes, too."
When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances "Frankie" McGrath hears these unexpected words, it is a revelation. Raised on idyllic Coronado Island and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing, being a good girl. But in 1965 the world is changing, and she suddenly imagines a different choice for her life. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she impulsively joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.
As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction of war, as well as the unexpected trauma of coming home to a changed and politically divided America.
The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on the story of all women who put themselves in harm's way to help others. Women whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has all too often been forgotten. A novel of searing insight and lyric beauty, The Women is a profoundly emotional, richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose extraordinary idealism and courage under fire define a generation.
One
CORONADO ISLAND, CALIFORNIA
MAY 1966
The walled and gated McGrath estate was a world unto itself, protected and private. On this twilit evening, the Tudor-style home's mullioned windows glowed jewel-like amid the lush, landscaped grounds. Palm fronds swayed overhead; candles floated on the surface of the pool and golden lanterns hung from the branches of a large California live oak. Black-clad servers moved among the well-dressed crowd, carrying silver trays full of champagne, while a jazz trio played softly in the corner.
Twenty-year-old Frances Grace McGrath knew what was expected of her tonight. She was to be the very portrait of a well-bred young lady, smiling and serene; any untoward emotions were to be contained and concealed, borne in silence. The lessons Frankie had been taught at home and at church and at St. Bernadette's Academy for Girls had instilled in her a rigorous sense of propriety. The unrest going on across the country these days, erupting on city streets and college campuses, was a distant and alien world to her, as incomprehensible as the conflict in faraway Vietnam.
She circulated among the guests, sipping an ice-cold Coca-Cola, trying to smile, stopping now and then to make small talk with her parents' friends, hoping her worry didn't show. All the while, her gaze searched the crowd for her brother, who was late to his own party.
Frankie idolized her older brother, Finley. They'd always been inseparable, a pair of black-haired, blue-eyed kids, less than two years apart in age, who'd spent the long California summers unsupervised by adults, riding their bikes from one end of sleepy Coronado Island to the other, rarely coming home before nightfall.
But now he was going where she couldn't follow.
The roar of a car engine disturbed the quiet party; car horns honked loudly, in succession.
Frankie saw how her mother flinched at the noise. Bette McGrath hated anything showy or vulgar, and she certainly didn't believe in announcing one's presence by honking a horn.
Moments later, Finley banged through the back gate, his handsome face flushed, a lock of curly black hair fallen across his forehead. His best friend, Rye Walsh, had an arm around him, but neither looked too steady on his feet. They laughed drunkenly, held each other up, as more of their friends stumbled into the party behind them.
Dressed impeccably in a black sheath, with her hair in a regal updo, Mom moved toward the group of laughing young men and women. She wore the pearls her grandmother had bequeathed her, a subtle reminder that Bette McGrath had once been Bette Alexander, of the Newport Beach Alexanders. "Boys," she said in her modulated charm-school voice. "How nice that you are finally here."
Finley stumbled away from Rye, tried to straighten.
Dad motioned to the band and the music stopped. Suddenly the sounds of Coronado Island on a late spring night—the throaty purr of the ocean, the whisper of the palm fronds overhead, a dog barking down the street or on the beach—took over. Dad strode forward in his custom-made black suit, crisp white shirt, and black tie, holding a cigarette in one hand and a Manhattan in his other. With his close-cropped black hair and square jaw, he looked a little like an ex-boxer who'd hit the big time and learned how to dress well, which wasn't too far off. Even among this handsome, well-dressed crowd, he and Mom stood out, radiated success. She was old money and had always been at the top of the social ladder; he had climbed his way up to stand confidently beside her.
"Friends, family, recent academy graduates," Dad said in his booming voice. When Frankie was young, he'd still had a hint of an Irish accent, which he'd worked hard to eliminate. He often touted his own immigrant mythology, a story of bootstrapping and hard work. He rarely mentioned the good fortune and opportunity that had come with marrying the boss's daughter, but everyone knew. They also knew that after the death of Mom's parents, Dad had more ...
Excerpted from The Women by Kristin Hannah. Copyright © 2024 by Kristin Hannah. Excerpted by permission of St. Martin's Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of St. Martin's Press. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.
Kristin Hannah's latest historical epic, The Women, is a story of how a war shaped a generation and a tribute to all the women who served in the Vietnam War. Hannah tells the story of Frances "Frankie" McGrath, who, at the age of 20 in 1966, joins the Army Nurse Corps, inspired by a family friend's assertion that women can be heroes, too. After a hopeful, patriotic start, readers are thrown right into the action—bloody uniforms, gaping chest wounds, dying men screaming for their mothers as bombs fall overhead—allowing them to empathize with Frankie's chaotic entry into combat nursing. As soon as Frankie arrives in the war zone, she is repeatedly sent to take care of men suffering from some of the worst injuries imaginable. Although she's wildly unprepared, Frankie does what she can, knowing that even if her nursing skills can't save a man, offering a soothing voice or a hand to hold is sometimes enough. Eventually, Frankie finds her feet, becoming not only an excellent nurse but also a confidante, mentor and friend.
While at war, Frankie is forced to live in the moment, primarily because that may be all she has. None of the service members know if they'll make it out alive, and so they take chances and make decisions that might otherwise seem rash. The dangerous, emotionally intense setting pushes Frankie to form relationships with people with whom she never would have associated in her sheltered, privileged pre-war life in Southern California. The most significant of these relationships are her friendships with fellow nurses Ethel, a white farm girl from Virginia, and Barb, a Black woman from a small town in Georgia. The intense, unyielding bonds among these three women prove to be lifelines for Frankie throughout the rest of the novel.
Upon her return home, Frankie is treated with anger or disdain not only by much of the general public but also by her loved ones. Her service is seen as unladylike rather than heroic, and she's pushed to fit back into a more domestic mold. Although Frankie's rebellions against these expectations are dramatic, they highlight her distance from her former peers. Additionally, the leisurely pace of life contrasts starkly with the constant adrenaline rush of the war, leaving Frankie feeling purposeless. She attempts to find a place in nursing, but her skills are written off by administrators who don't believe combat experience is equal to hospital nursing experience. Further discouraged, Frankie visits a veterans' hospital to get therapy for what readers will recognize as post-traumatic stress disorder, but because she wasn't in active combat, she isn't considered a true veteran and so is ineligible for assistance, instead being told to simply forget about Vietnam the way so many other Americans have seemed to.
Interestingly, although the first part of the novel, set primarily during the war, is traumatic and somber, the second part, which stretches from Frankie's return home in 1971 to the early 1980s, feels much more hopeless. While still suffering from horrific nightmares and internalized shame, Frankie endures several tragedies and betrayals but is repeatedly told to soldier on. Frankie's postwar experiences reflect those of many service members, and, sadly, like many other veterans, Frankie turns to drugs and alcohol to cope. Despite enduring their own struggles, Ethel and Barb are by Frankie's side every step of the way, demonstrating that some experiences can only be fully understood when shared. But Frankie does eventually find support from other, unexpected sources, giving her a long-needed ray of hope.
Frankie takes that hope and passes it on to others, finding relief from her trauma only once she is able to share her story. That is also the reward for readers; having endured Frankie's hardships over many pages, they'll harbor their own hopes that Frankie, after sacrificing so much to help others, will finally find some measure of happiness. The novel ends on an optimistic note, seeing Frankie reunite with other veterans at the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and vowing to find a way to remember all the women who served (see Beyond the Book). Based on years of research and guidance from real-life Vietnam War nurses, The Women vividly describes the horrors of war and the beauty of friendship and forgiveness while honoring the women whose service in Vietnam has been largely ignored.
Reviewed by Jordan Lynch
Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry
Delia Owens, author of Where the Crawdads Sing
Karl Marlantes, author of Matterhorn
Nicholas D. Kristof, Pulitzer Prize–winning coauthor of Half the Sky
Rated 5 out of 5
by Anthony Conty
The History We Need to Hear
Women can be heroes.
It is a simple line to repeat, but it is appropriate in “The Women” by Kristin Hannah. Frankie wants to serve as a nurse in Vietnam to help the way her male relatives had. Like “Platoon,” we see the war through the eyes of the most inexperienced eyes possible, from a well-meaning civilian with good intentions.
Kristin Hannah excels at taking history stories we think we know and telling them in new, engaging ways. The horrors of war have no way of hiding from the uninitiated. Somehow, the author balances romance, violence, and national pacifism to paint the picture for those who did not live through this time. It questions war for all the right reasons.
Frankie’s world is chaotic, and we experience several “MASCAL,” or mass casualty incidents that would almost desensitize you…and Frankie, for that matter. She does her job admirably despite the shock. Elements of romance appear, and, as is Hannah’s strength, the reader does not know the outcome since the aspects of war do not guarantee survival. The goal seems more profound.
At the novel's halfway point, we experience what life was like coming home from Vietnam, especially for women. At least now, we thank everyone, not just men, for their service. The lack of support from the nation led to a downward spiral of alcohol, anger, and flashbacks, made worse since no one considered the woman’s role as traumatizing as combat.
You endure a lot of suffering and truly experience the various adjustment periods for Frankie. She never seems ready but always endures what comes up. If you finish reading thinking that the author glorified war or that the protesters did not have a point, you read a different book than I did. Kristin Hannah is one of our better authors.
Rated 5 out of 5
by Janet M.
The Truth
This book is outstanding! I've watched Ken Burns documentary on Viet Nam and Hannah brings it alive. No one has told the story of Nam from the view of the women who served in this war, their experiences and what they encountered coming home.
Rated 5 out of 5
by wincheryl
This book will resonate for a long time.
I grew up during the Vietnam war. I learned so much from this book that I did not know. I shed a few tears and throughly enjoyed this book. Great writing and characters-it will stay with me for a long time.
Rated 5 out of 5
by Jill
Overdue Tribute
The Women by Kristin Hannah
Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC audiobook
Narrated by: Julia Whelan and Kristin Hannah reading authors note
I’ve always enjoyed Julia Whelan’s narrations and she does another excellent read once again.
4.5 Stars rounded up to
1960’s—turbulent times, Vietnam War, a nation divided by war
Kristina Hannah knows how to pull a reader in from the beginning of a book and keeps the pace running through to the end. Frankie, a young naive unrealistic girl, joins the Army Nurse Corps shortly after her brother was killed in Vietnam.
Frankie sees what war truly is and with the comradeship she forms with other nurses is what helps her survive during her tour in Nam. Frankie becomes a rockstar in the OR in Nam, and then….
Upon coming home and having people cussing and spitting and calling you baby killers is something Frankie most definitely wasn’t prepared for. People not believing women were in Nam and dismissing her. The emotional toll of war, death, and people expecting her to be her old self upon coming home, leaves Frankie alienated and unable to cope with things. Frankie could not pull herself back from despair. The naive unrealistic girl she was before is gone.
This is the first book I’ve read about the women in Nam and what they endured during and after the war. Parts of this story resonated with me, having had family members in Nam; losing some of them to cancer that was most likely due to, Agent Orange.
Vietnam—the war no one wants to remember.
Coming-of-age story of war, death, trauma, love, friendship, PTSD, POW/MIA, Agent Orange, addictions, family, and learning to navigate life after war.
Rated 5 out of 5
by Lynda We.chel
Story That Needed Telling - hard to put down!
A story of women in Vietnam, trials, love, the heartbreak of The Vietnam War. The music quotes, protests against the war. All there. Culture and events in the USA to look back on - remember and to learn. “When will we ever learn - war - a long time still passing"
Rated 5 out of 5
by She Treads Softly
Very highly recommended historical fiction
The Women by Kristin Hannah is an exceptional portrait of a nurse serving "in country" during the Vietnam War and then returning home. This is a very highly recommended, emotionally charged historical fiction novel which will certainly be one of the best books of the year. This would be an excellent choice for book clubs and will certainly result in thought-provoking discussions.
After nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears the words "Women can be heroes too," while looking at her father's wall of heroes featuring pictures of the men in their family who served their country during a party for her brother Finley who is leaving to serve his country in Vietnam. After she gets her RN she follows the lead of her older brother, and joins the Army Nurse Corps and begins basic training in 1966. Once she arrives in Vietnam, she is overwhelmed by the smells, sights and chaos, but is shown support and the ropes by fellow nurses Ethel and Barb. She quickly steps up and adapts to the responsibilities of a surgical nurse dealing with horrific injuries under extreme conditions.
After serving two years, Frankie comes home and faces a different kind of battle. Her father is ashamed of her service, the country does not recognize nurses who served and sacrificed as veterans, and the country is in turmoil. The only help and support she can find for her PTSD are from Ethel and Barb who understand what she is going through mentally and help her adapt to civilian life in a changed country.
The writing is phenomenal and manages to create an emotionally charged, realistic, and vivid portrait of Frankie's service and her struggles. I was completely immersed in The Women from start to finish. Part of my complete captivation with the narrative was based on my memories from that time period. I was young, but have vivid memories of events from the sixties and certainly more from the seventies. Hannah managed to create a complete portrait of the women and the times (including clothing).
The experiences the characters experience is heart-breaking. Frankie is a completely fully-realized realistic character who garnered my compassion and empathy. Her treatment when coming back from war to work in a hospital is eye-opening and in many ways disgusting.
This is the best kind of historical fiction as it takes a long sweeping view covering years of a character's life as society, information, and point-of-views constantly change around the characters. It covers an era and a turbulent time. The narrative is broken into two parts. The first deals mainly with the war and the second with trying to reenter civilian life after the war.
The Women by Kristin Hannah is a must read novel. I expect it to be on many lists for the best novels of 2024. Thanks to St. Martin's Press for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.
Rated 4 out of 5
by Lynda
Was this a rewrite of A Piece of my Heart?
I have not finished the book at this point, but was in the play A Piece of my Heart and everything I am reading, is so similar to the script. Even being handed a boot with a foot in it. I am curious if she did a rewrite from this script.
In Kristin Hannah's The Women, nursing student Frances "Frankie" McGrath joins the Army Nurse Corps and is shipped overseas to serve as a combat nurse in the Vietnam War. Upon returning home, Frankie spends years running from her trauma until she eventually finds a way to share her experiences. At the end of the novel, she stands before the newly unveiled Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and vows to find a way to honor the women like herself who served. Frankie's vow is similar to that of Diane Carlson Evans, who dedicated more than a decade of her life to the creation of the Vietnam Women's Memorial.
Evans served in Vietnam as an Army Corps Nurse from 1966 to 1972. After the establishment of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 1982, Evans conceived of a memorial for the 265,000 military and civilian women who served during the Vietnam War, including the 10,000 to 11,000 nurses who were stationed on the ground in Vietnam. In 1984, she formed the Vietnam Women's Memorial Project and began working to get the memorial approved by Congress. Opposition arose almost immediately; Evans, like Frankie in the novel, was repeatedly told that since women hadn't been in combat, they hadn't suffered like their male counterparts and thus didn't deserve their own memorial. Others argued that a statue honoring women would encourage other minority groups to advocate for their own specific memorials, while still others agreed with Evans that a memorial was deserved but believed it needed to be placed somewhere other than near the existing Vietnam memorial.
In 1984, the Three Soldiers statue was added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a monument meant to serve as a symbol for everyone—including the women—who had served during the war. Evans disagreed, and she and the Project volunteers, many of whom had themselves served during Vietnam, continued their efforts, eventually getting the chance to share their story on 60 Minutes in 1988. The segment garnered national attention for the Project, prompting many viewers to donate money and write letters to the editors of papers nationwide. Despite winning over the American people, it would still be another four years before the Women's Memorial would be added to the National Mall. Sculptor Glenna Goodacre's 2,000 pound, 6'8" bronze statue was dedicated on November 11, 1993, as part of a three-day celebration of patriotism and courage.
More than 25,000 people attended the dedication of the statue, which portrays three uniformed women, one of whom is tending to a wounded soldier. Another woman scans the sky as if searching for help from a medivac helicopter while the third is kneeling, staring at an empty helmet. Goodacre stated that her work is meant to pay tribute to "[the women's] compassion, their anxiety, their fatigue, and above all, their dedication." It is the first and only memorial to military women on the National Mall and is dedicated to all the women who served in Vietnam, be they nurses, air traffic controllers, military intelligence or members of civilian organizations such as the Red Cross, the United Service Organizations or the American Friends Services. Nearby stand eight yellowwood trees, a somber memorial planted to honor the eight nurses killed in Vietnam whose names also appear on the wall of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
In The Women, Frankie is repeatedly told there were no women serving in Vietnam. Everyone knows this is a lie, but that doesn't stop them from trying to dismiss her pain and anger. Diane Carlson Evans was told the same thing, yet she refused to let her service and the service of more than 200,000 other women go unrecognized. For Evans and other women who served in Vietnam, the statue is a symbol of pride, a way to let go of the hurt and anger they felt about their treatment upon returning home after their service. It's also a testimony to the skills, determination and love that served them during the war and their subsequent efforts to establish the memorial. The memorial is a beautiful reminder to the public that women service members were in Vietnam and that their bravery and dedication deserve to be honored.
Vietnam Women's Memorial, courtesy of U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Filed under People, Eras & Events
By Jordan Lynch
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