A spoiler-filled review on bestselling author Kristin Hannah’s latest novel about the Vietnam War and the women who became heroes
Hello hello! Happy Wednesday and also happy May! What on earth, it’s May already?
Sorry for missing last week; my family and I were on vacation and just got back a couple of days ago. We went on a cruise! It was a first for me and I had such an amazing time. Cruise ships are huge and full of so many fun things to do! Plus the days we went to port and could explore around… basically there’s never a dull moment on a cruise vacation. Because of this, I have been pretty exhausted for the last few days and have been taking every advantage to take naps and drink a lot of water to make up for all the fun sunburns I’ve gotten! I’m going to have the most random tan lines, y’all.
Today I’m going to talk about a new novel called “The Women” by Kristin Hannah. I have heard of this author a lot. Like, a lot a lot. She has other bestselling novels such as “The Nightingale” and “The Four Winds,” but I haven’t read any of her previous novels until now. The main reason I picked this book up was because I loved Ariel Lawhon’s novel “The Frozen River” and when you google “other authors/books like Ariel Lawhon,” Kristin Hannah’s novels pop up. So I figured I’d give her latest one a shot.
Here’s a quick synopsis: “The Women” follows Frances “Frankie” McGrath, a young affluent woman from Coronado Beach, California. Studying to be a nurse, her future is filled with going to nursing school, finding a good job at a local hospital, marrying a young man from another rich family, and quitting that nursing job she worked hard for to stay home and pop out a bunch of babies. Ah, the ‘60s. When her older brother, Finley, joins the Navy and is shipped off to war in Vietnam, Friankie feels a pull to join the military as a nurse and follow him, much to the chagrin of her parents. According to them, “there are no women in Vietnam.”
Once she arrives in Vietnam, Frankie finds out very quickly that there is nothing but chaos, blood, and broken bodies. During her tour she works hard to save the brave American boys that come through her medical tent, but she also finds new friendships that stand the test of time, as well as love, loss, and how much her life is going to change once she gets home.
Here’s my star rating: 4 out of 5 stars.
Since this is my first Kristin Hannah novel, I had no idea what the heck I was getting into. I know she writes historical fiction, and I chose this specific novel because I haven’t read a whole lot of books about the Vietnam War. But Holy Crabapples, Batman!
I took a Melodrama in Media class when I was in college, and lemme tell you this right now: this book is rife with melodrama. I’m going to go into some plot points and events in “The Women,” so I’ll give you the spoiler warning now.
**MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD**
The very first melodramatic moment that happens in this book is within the first twenty pages of this 464-page book. Frankie’s older brother Finley is following in the McGrath family footsteps and joins the Navy. The story starts at Finley’s going away party, the day before he leaves for Vietnam. Six months later, Frankie decides she wants to follow her brother and joins the military as a combat nurse. She couldn’t join the Navy like her brother unless she wanted to do two years of training at a hospital at home, so she joined the Army because they send nurses out after basic training.
She does this; she signs up for basic training and as she’s at home telling her parents, the doorbell rings and wouldn’t you know it? There are two Navy officers with grim looks on their faces, about to tell the McGrath family that Finley’s helicopter was shot down in combat and is presumed dead. No remains. Here’s a flag, so sorry for your loss.
Frankie’s parents tell her to not go; get out of the Army, she can’t go now, Finley’s dead. But she made a commitment. She signed the papers, she’s got BT in a month. After that, Vietnam.
Next melodramatic event: Frankie gets to Vietnam, and everything’s shit. The weather is horrible, the disgusting smell never goes away, and there are soldiers on top of soldiers being carted in with broken bodies, lost limbs, or are already dead. Frankie’s in over her head, she can’t handle it. But then a handsome doctor helps her through her first day. He manages to keep her calm and get her head on straight to help the brave soldiers fighting for our country. The doctor – Jamie – and Frankie have a connection, but he has a wife and kid stateside, and Frankie’s not that kind of girl. However; their connection is hard to deny, but they try anyway.
Since it’s war, and everything tends to go horribly wrong in war, Jamie’s helicopter gets hit by enemy fire, and the last time Frankie sees him is when he’s being MedEvac’d away just as his heart stops beating, presumed dead. Frankie loved, and she lost.
Next up! Blast from the past: Rye Walsh, a member of a covert unit of pilots, and Frankie’s brother’s best friend from back home in California. A hunk of a man, a James Dean type. There’s – yet again – a connection. But he’s engaged; he’s got a girl back home he promised to marry. But his feelings for Frankie are just too strong. Still, Frankie’s not that kind of girl.
Over time though, Rye comes to Frankie and tells her he’s not engaged anymore. He only has eyes for Frankie. They fall in love and are together for a good long while; almost all the way through her second tour in ‘Nam.
However, it’s now time for Frankie to go home. Her tour’s over. But don’t worry! Rye’s tour ends a month after hers. He’ll finish up and come to her. How romantic. How beautiful…
…Until Frankie finds out from Rye’s father that Rye’s helicopter was shot down in the Vietnam jungle and he was never recovered. No remains. Presumed dead. Here’s a flag, so sorry for your loss.
Okay y’all. I know I’ve basically been recapping stuff, but I just needed to show the reason I was so torn about this damn book. The melodrama. It gets to a point where it’s very exhausting! After this point in the novel, I almost DNF’d! Don’t get me wrong, I know it’s war, and I can only imagine what this particular war was like, but come on. There’s only so much I can take, or even believe. She loses three men in her life that she loved more than anything, and I’m only halfway through the book. And I haven’t even gotten to all the stuff that happens with her when she’s back stateside!
I know I said I was going to go through a bunch of spoilers, but I don’t want to basically tell you the entire book. This book was a fast read. Maybe not easy, but fast. When I started getting into it, I blasted through the dang thing, even though the subject matter was heavy. The highs were only okay, and the lows were looooow. She goes through a lot when she’s finally home to the point where she hits rock bottom and needs severe help, like a lot of Vietnam vets needed when they got home.
I think my biggest issue is how much the book focused on Frankie’s specific relationships, especially the romantic ones. I did love her friendships with Barb and Ethel, the two women she bunked with when she first got to Vietnam, and the women who stuck by her over the years when they all got back home and were struggling with civilian life. I just wish the author focused more on the relationships she could’ve had in Vietnam. She did, for a bit. There are a couple of scenes where Frankie goes to nearby villages to help the Vietnamese people who are sick or need medical attention. I would’ve liked to see more of that. The Vietnamese people in this book seemed to be passing by in the background, which was unfortunate. She does help one little girl named Mai, but that’s the only local we have a name for. Kristin Hannah does show the horrors of Vietnam during that time very well; it was clear she did a good job researching the war.
Then I think the biggest gripe I had was how the emotion of Frankie losing the men she loved in the war was cheapened by the fact that they… were not lost. (With the exception of Fin, her brother.) Turns out, Rye didn’t die, but was a P.O.W. that finally got released when the war ended. A horrible situation for Rye, but when he came back and was sent home, Frankie couldn’t let it go. Couldn’t let Rye go. Which then turned into a horrible situation that poisoned how Frankie (and myself, the reader) felt about Rye. I just didn’t like that at all. But that’s what melodrama’s all about. The author had to keep kicking and kicking and kicking until Frankie was a shell.
There was a bright light at the very end of the book, when Frankie goes to the unveiling of the Vietnam War memorial in Washington D.C. and sees yet another ghost of Vietnam past. Jamie, the doctor she cared for deeply when she first got to Vietnam (and was presumed dead for almost the entire novel) managed to survive! And he’s right there in D.C. with Frankie! And he lost his leg, had another child with his now ex-wife, and lived his life post-war. He’s now single, she’s now single. How perfect. But again, his “death” and the struggle Frankie went through because of it feels… meh now. Especially because we well know letters can be sent between stateside and in-country. Would a quick “hey I’m not dead” letter have killed you, Dr. Jamie??
So here’s the thing about my rating: while there were so many moments and events I really didn’t like, and there were a few times where I wanted to DNF the book, I’m glad I didn’t. In the end, it was a book that really stuck with me and made me think about the complexities of these characters. All of them were flawed; all of them were unlikeable in some way, shape, or form. I don’t think we were supposed to like Frankie in the traditional sense. I think we were supposed to watch Frankie, a Vietnam Vet, go through so much as a woman in the war. A woman who may not have seen combat, but saw the aftermath of what that combat does to a human body, a human spirit. A woman who kept tumbling down, understood she was tumbling down, and tried to ask for help, only to be turned away because “women weren’t in the war” or “if you didn’t see combat, you don’t get help from the VA.” The United States did not treat our soldiers, our pilots, our combat nurses – anyone – well at all when they came back. I’m not sure how well that’s known; the Vietnam War was not a popular war, especially once it was found out that we “weren’t winning.” Riots and protests in the street, veterans being spit on just for existing. The way these broken people were treated was despicable. I’m all for people’s right to protest; they also have a right to be against the war. But these people come back from hell, and y’all spit on them? Kristin Hannah did a great job telling that story. If men came back from war with no respect or offers of help because of the public’s political beliefs, what happened to the women?
Frankie had to hit absolute rock bottom before she could truly heal from what happened during her time in Vietnam. I’m glad she had Barb and Ethel to help her, because no one else was. Not her family, not the man who supposedly loved her, not the VA. No one. It wasn’t until the 1980’s where America finally accepted the men who fought for their country during that war with a memorial, and it wasn’t until the 1990’s when they finally accepted the women who were there, fighting their own fight to keep the men alive. It’s a dark part of American history, and it shouldn’t be forgotten.
In the end, even with all the drama Frankie went through, this was still a well-written book and it will probably stick with me for a while. Will I read another Kristin Hannah novel? Probably; but I’ll need a bit of a break if all her books are like that.
Have you read “The Women” yet? How did you like it? How did it make you feel about melodrama in books? About the Vietnam war and that part of American history? Let me know down in the comments, I always love hearing from you!
Until next time, my lovelies!
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