The Women

The Women by Kristin Hannah

📕📕📕📕 Review from @miriamshanna: The Women by @kristinhannahauthor
Thank you to my Secret Santa, Tanya, for this wonderful novel by Kristin Hannah. The Women is set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and is told through the perspective of American nurses, most notably Frankie McGrath.

Frankie is just twenty when she decides to sign up to serve in Vietnam. Raised in a sheltered, Republican, elite Californian household, she has always prided herself on doing the “right” thing - on honour, commitment, and duty. In that context, her decision to enlist feels inevitable, almost moral rather than political.

The novel follows her experience during the war, but just as powerfully, its aftermath. It charts the journey of a young, naïve nursing student who has never encountered real hardship, thrust into a brutal and traumatic conflict. Over time, Frankie begins to grapple not only with what she has endured, but with a deeper and more unsettling question: what does sacrifice mean if you no longer understand what the sacrifice was for?

Her return to the United States is portrayed as its own kind of reckoning. The shifting tide of public opinion at home and the hostility, denial, and erasure faced by returning veterans makes reintegration profoundly difficult. That dissonance between service and recognition is one of the book’s most affecting themes.

I found the novel incredibly compelling and flew through it. The development of Frankie and the other female characters is handled with real care and intelligence, and the pervasive unease of the war’s physical and moral landscape makes for gripping reading throughout. My only critique is that I would have liked to see more engagement with the racial dynamics of the era, which feels like a missed opportunity given the setting.

That aside, I thought this was a brilliant and deeply enjoyable read and I’m always grateful for the chance to experience a female perspective on stories we think we already know.