The Women

“The Women” was a great book with a perspective I had never read before, which is sometimes rare since I read so much! The story begins in 1965 with 20-year-old Frances “Frankie” McGrath, a California socialite whose father has always emphasized the value of military service, at least to Frankie’s brother. In their world, men go off to war, but women stay home, get married, and have kids. If they feel the need to get a job, the choices were secretary, teacher, or nurse. So Frankie becomes a nurse, but once an alien thought is introduced to her by a family friend, “women can be heroes too,” she decides to enlist in the Army Nursing Corps and head to Vietnam herself. This one decision influences the rest of Frankie’s life.

The book follows Frankie’s time in Vietnam, and then her time coming back to America. Expecting a hero’s welcome like the those received by WWI and WWII vets, she instead comes back to a divided America, where her service in Vietnam is not praised but instead ridiculed and scorned. Couple that with PTSD, and addiction and self-destruction follow. But through it all, Frankie can rely on the other women who she met in Vietnam and who understand her struggles.

I liked this book because I never thought about several of the angles author Kristin Hannah explored: the doctors and nurses who took care of those wounded on the front lines in Vietnam, coming back to America during the riots and tensions of the 1960s, and the struggle for recognition that woman can indeed serve in the military. All of these themes combined into a great book, one I would definitely recommend to others.