2024 #54 The Women (Hannah)

 

The Women by Kristin Hannah
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

4.5

This is a really important book that takes as its context the approximately 10,000 women who were in Vietnam during the war as nurses, doctors, air traffic controllers, etc, and focuses it on the life of one Frankie McGrath. Motivated by her brother's service in the Navy, a twenty-year-old Frankie (almost 21!) finds herself at an Army recruitment office, eager to put her nursing skills to use as part of the war effort. She longs to be on her father's "Wall of Heroes" and after a short and successful stint in boot camp, bounds off to serve as a nurse in Vietnam.

The book is as much about what happens upon her return home as it is what happens over there, but Hannah manages to create characters and relationships that are so vibrant and recognizable in their messy truths. Hannah definitely honors these women who were so crucial to helping the injured, and while the narrative does get a bit preachy at times, there are plenty of raw and unadulterated ugly-cry moments. I have not yet read The Nightingale, but I was reminded of Hannah's The Four Winds in how multi-dimensional and real the women characters are. The lack of conflict between Frankie and her two best friends didn't always ring true for me, and I found myself slightly annoyed at Frankie's naivete, but that's a lot of privilege on my part.

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