The Women - Kristin Hannah - ★★.¼

AUTHOR: Kristin Hannah

NARRATOR: Julia Whelan

GENRE: Historical Fiction

PUBLICATION DATE: February 6, 2024

RATING: 2.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: Expected far more from my very first Kristin Hannah book. 😔 Loved the intent, liked the content, disliked the writing. This is, as is obvious, an outlier review.

Plot Preview:

1966, Coronado Island. Twenty-year-old Frances McGrath, known to all as ‘Frankie’, belongs to a wealthy family of navy veterans. At the send-off party for her elder brother who has enlisted for Vietnam, someone tells her, “Women can be heroes, too.” This sparks a desire in Frankie’s mind to serve her country through the armed forces, something she never considered before.

As the only corps willing to take a freshly-graduated nurse is the army, Frankie, against her family’s wishes, registers with the Army Nurse Corps and sets off to Vietnam. There, she sees the true picture of war, where every day is a fight for survival. But will this struggle end with the end of the war? With war protestors becoming stronger by the day, the Vietnam veterans might not be coming home to the open arms of their country. What lies ahead?

The story comes to us in Frankie’s third person perspective.

Bookish Yays:

😊 The intent deserves credit: to focus on the women veterans of the war, to depict what women can do, even if they aren’t allowed to.

😊 The war-related scenes are as gruesome as expected. Felt like I was right there in the war zone with Frankie.

😊 The focus on the importance of and the struggles faced by nurses and the secondary treatment they are given compared to doctors.

😊 The details about the mental struggles and health issues faced by returning veterans, which went much beyond typically shown in fiction.

Bookish Mixed Bags:

😐 Frankie starts as a great character. Even when she is a naïve fresher, she has the right approach towards her work. But as the book progresses, her decisions start turning more and more impulsive and short-sighted. I don’t mind books with unlikeable characters as they add a nuance of realism to the story, but in this case, Frankie’s behaviour, especially in the second half, was more frustrating than understandable.

😐 The Vietnam war is not called the ‘American War’ by Vietnam without a reason. I appreciate the author’s decision to highlight even the American atrocities and the lies spun by American politicians. Though these negatives are not covered in as much detail as I would have liked, they are still enough to shed light on the truth. However, the depiction of the American troops in Vietnam is white-saviour in approach for the most way, focussing more on the medical aid offered by the Americans to the locals than talking about why the locals needed the aid in the first place.

😐 Most war books stop at the end of the war without showing the aftermath. That is one aspect in which this novel excelled; it went much beyond the timeline of the war and shows the reception of the Americans to the returning veterans, and the protests. However, the depiction of these events seems a bit exaggerated. I am obviously not privy to what happened in 1970s America, but I find it hard to believe that not even one person knew about women serving in Vietnam, or that not a single person showed sympathy to Frankie’s mental situation. The author’s note mentions that women veterans often met with dismissal, but ‘often’ doesn’t equate to ‘always.’ The balance is missing.

😐 Frankie’s downward spiral in the second half is, in one way, a good creative call as it shows us the darker side of PTSD. However, the events get tedious and repetitive after a while. Plus, the hyper-drama level is way too high in this section.

😐 While there are some interesting secondary characters in the book, they barely get proper detailing. Most of what we know about their background is the little we get from passing references in conversations. Many characters disappear without a trace as soon as their purpose is served in the plot. The one I am most curious about is the senior nurse who greets Frankie on her arrival in Vietnam. What happened to her? There were at least three skilled nurses that we know of (Ethel, Barb, and the senior nurse), but we hardly get to see them in action. Why does Frankie have to be the one to save the day, every time? The character decisions also induce much eyerolling. Whenever there is a party, the nurses drop everything and rush off, without asking or informing anyone. How is that possible in the army?

😐 For the first time ever, I, a big fan of author’s notes, have mixed feelings about the note in this novel. I appreciate the clarity the author provides about her intention behind this book and her research sources. Two issues, though: 1. She has no first-hand experience of Vietnam (which is very evident in her writing about its weather), and 2. She said that she wanted to change the place names and war unit details for ease of writing, but changed her mind only after veterans told her not to. I find it very odd that an accomplished writer of historical fiction even considered falsifying factual details just for making her task easier.

Bookish Nays:

😣 The writing was the biggest disappointment. This book is much overwritten. At 470+ pages, I thought we would hear multiple women’s perspectives and experiences in the war. But unlike what the title suggests, “The Women” is mainly the story of only one WOMAN – Frankie. Moreover, there is too much of telling in the writing. Every single outfit worn by Frankie and the others is described in elaborate detail. Actions are narrated step by step. Every now and then, we see the time mentioned in army style – “At 20:15” – as if to remind us that Frankie is now a military member. The foreshadowing is too blatant. One phrase that comes up multiple times is “How long had it been since…”. The worst of it was the character resurrections – yes, plural! The effect is repetitive and annoying.

😣 The romance is cheesy and unappealing. Every single guy who has a proper role in the story falls in love with Frankie. We are expected to believe that this is common during the war time because of the low number of American women around, but in that case, how come Ethel and Barb and the other nurses didn’t have anyone falling for them? As it is, I don’t like romance popping in non-romance books, but it is even worse when the writing is so corny and the situations so lopsided. The lack of appeal in the male characters doesn’t help.

😣 There is not a single Vietnamese character of importance in the whole book. Moreover, the representation of Vietnam is, as expected, focussed on the problems: rats, malaria, heat, lack of potable water,… Though the Americans enjoy water-skiing and swimming and so on in the local lakes, the beauty of the location is rarely described. The funniest to me was the finger-pointing at Vietnam’s monsoon for causing Frankie’s travel bag to stay musty and stink even eight years later. Sorry! But if your travel bag is odoriferous, it’s probably because you haven’t washed it, ever. Don’t blame the monsoon!

🎧 The Audiobook Experience:

The audiobook, clocking at almost 15 hours, is narrated by the inimitable Julia Whelan. Need I say anything more? Everyone who knows audiobooks knows that she is among the best narrators. If you still want to try this book, the audio version is definitely a fabulous way to check it out, especially considering its length.

All in all, I do appreciate the author’s efforts and the intention that made her write this book. I even liked certain aspects of the storyline, and loved learning about the nurses who gave so much to the fruitless war. But the writing and the plot development were not to my liking. The problems are exacerbated in the audio version as it feels like an endless journey through monotonous situations.

As is evident from the current rating on Goodreads, mine is very much an outlier opinion. Most other readers have not just loved the book but are positively gushing about it. So please go through their reviews before taking a final call. If you are the kind of reader who prioritises sentiments over plot and writing, you might love this novel way more than I did.

My thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the ALC of “The Women”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook.

Content warning: War-related brutalities and deaths, infidelity, miscarriage, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, PTSD, gender discrimination, racial discrimination.