Why This Book: I have read many books about the Vietnam War, but almost all from the soldier’s or fighter’s perspective.  A lady friend of mine – also a nurse – told me that this was good and was worth readking.  I had read some good reviews of it, and thought this would be a good different perspective on that war.  It was. 

Summary in 6 Sentences: This novel is about a sheltered young woman who decides to follow her Naval Academy graduate older brother to Vietnam as a nurse in 1965/66. When she finally gets to Vietnam, she quickly realizes that she is completely unprepared for the austere and unpleasant working environment, the long work hours and the horror of the wounds and treatment she’d have to deal with – none of this was covered in nursing school. Over the course of her time in Vietnam she grows up and rises to her many and increasingly difficult challenges, with the support of her more worldly fellow nurses, and is inspired by the sense of mission and duty of the other medical personnel.  The second half of the book is about her struggle to adapt to coming home, having her service and experiences not recognized as being significant, and finding that much of the public blamed anyone who’d been in Vietnam for the immorality of and in the war.  As her life at home spirals out of control, she deals with all the classic symptoms of PTSD before it was recognized as a legitimate reaction to the trauma of war.  The final part of the book is about her difficult journey getting to a place where she finally comes to terms with her experiences in Vietnam.

My Impressions. This is a powerful book that takes the reader back to a window of turmoil and conflict in America -the height of the Vietnam War and its immediate aftermath. Through the eyes of Frankie McGrath, the novel’s protagonist and a nurse in a combat trauma unit, we experience much of the horror of the Vietnam War, then when she returns to the US, the challenges of coming back to one’s home country, and her service being not only unappreciated and unacknowledged, but also reviled by many.  Through her eyes and experiences, we return to this very tumultuous and chaotic time in American history when the country was torn apart by the VIetnam War.  Frankie  makes her own challenges worse by being unwilling to talk about her her experiences and emotions, by trying to deny them, or by numbing  herself through alcohol and pills.  This was not an easy part of the book to read.  

There are a lot of things I liked about this book, and several I didn’t care for.  I am glad I read (listened to) the book -it made a powerful impression on me.    We experience the dramatic culture shift occasioned by this very unpopular war,  from the perspective of a young woman who had grown up pampered in a well-heeled, upper class family in Coronado, Ca,  who volunteers to serve in Vietnam as an Army nurse. She chose  to follow her brother there in hopes of making her patriotic father proud.  She spends two years becoming an extremely competent surgical and OR nurse, treating severe and often mortal injuries of the soldiers who were brought in from combat, and she sees a lot of death, to include some with whom she is close.  And then upon returning to America, we experience her self doubt, insecurities, her anger and her inability to adapt her experience to the very different version of America she returned to.

So, what did I like and not like about the book?  I and my wife lived through that window of American history, and while we both remember the aspects of America she describes, we both felt her version was much more dramatic than our own memories and experiences.  The author seemed to give Frankie McGrath a concentrated experience of the worst of America’s reaction to Vietnam.  Frankie McGrath’s nurse friends adapted to their return to America in a more balanced manner, and represented a less traumatic reaction, so I’m not sure to what degree Frankie McGrath’s dramatic downward spiral upon return to America was representative.  

That said, you’ll see in the following that i found a lot of redeeming qualities in The Women, that in my mind outweigh those aspects of the book that I didn’t care for.   

What I liked – redeeming qualities: The reader experiences: 

• the panorama and wide scope of what was happening in America during a time when I was a teenager and young man, regarding the impact of the Vietnam War on American culture and its people.  For me it evoked a lot of personal memories; 
• the horror of the Vietnam war from the perspective of the medical teams in the trauma units;
• the shock that young people felt when they arrived in Vietnam for the first time;
• the challenges of the environment – the heat, rain, mud, humidity and lack of so much of what we take for granted – hot water, cleanliness, a comfortable place to sleep and relax;
• the incongruity between rural village life and life in Saigon.
• how the men and women engaged in the war were drawn to each other to combat their personal loneliness and need for human connection – both from others of their own gender and  from the opposite sex.
• the sadness and helplessness of being with a wounded man who clearly isn’t going to live;
• how the medical personnel had to harden themselves to the horror and sadness and do their jobs as best they could for each person;
• how the medical people doing Medical Civic Action Programs in the villages were sad and frustrated to find children and others victimized by the war who needed so much more than the CAP Americans  could give..
• the level of dedication of the nurses and medical people to their jobs and patients.  Frankie McGrath “re-upped” for a second year long tour, rather than leave her trauma unit understaffed and with only  inexperienced nurses;
• how women can be quite loyal in taking carer of each other – Frankie’s nurse friends in Vietnam continued to be loyal to her and supported her long after they had left Vietnam, and when all were back in America;
• the challenges that returning soldiers had reintegrating into a civilian society which didn’t appreciate, much less acknowledge their sacrifices.  
• the traumatic effects of the protagonist’s PTSD, leading to self-destructive behavior and an inability to integrate with old friends or other social groups.  
• the turmoil in America of the passionate anti-war marches and protests, and the discord that caused between the generations and between those who supported and opposed the war;
• how the women who served in the war felt unrecognized and even disrespected – this was only a man’s war – women either weren’t there or were not important; 
• the inadequacy of the VA’s response to our protagonist’s outreach for help.   PTSD was not widely accepted as a legitimate concern for those returning from Vietnam, especially not for women who were not directly engaged in combat. 
• how smoking and alcohol were so much a part of recreational life in American culture at that time, and how easy it was for alienated returning vets to use alcohol to numb and self-medicate against PTSD.  
• the power of  campaign to bring PoWs in the Hanoi Hilton home and the powerful impact it had when they finally did return.
• the scope, emotion, and power of the Vietnam Vets Against the War marches against the war- how disparate were the participants.  
• We are reminded that. many years after the war, many veterans were still struggling to cope with their experience and find a positive role to play in society. 
• At the conclusion of the audible version, the author in her own voice shares what inspired her to write the book and named the individuals who were sources for her stories and  advised her on the book.  It is  an impressive list and adds a lot of credibility to the message she is conveying through the experiences of fictional Frankie McGrath.

What I didn’t care for:

• To me it, The Women read like a book written by a woman not just about women,  but also FOR women. The book is almost exclusively from women’s perspectives and in language that made me feel at times like I was not the target reader;
• The men in the book are often cardboard  stereotypes or caricatures, who served as little more than accessories in some way to the life of Frankie McGrath, the protagonist in the story. As a man, I would have liked to see more of their perspective and thought that mattered more than we got from the author. The men mattered too;
• I often felt myself being led down a path that would lead to an emotional response to an upcoming or anticipated event – I could sometimes predict what it would be.  To enjoy the book, I let myself be led – but felt slightly used. 
• I felt the author tried to jam too much about the Vietnam experience into this novel. The dead and wounded anonymous soldiers, the deaths and wounding of loved ones, the dysfunction of families because of the war, PTSD, social alienation, marching and protests against the war, POWs in Vietnam, the sexual revolution, alcoholism and drug abuse  – all are jammed into Frankie McGrath’s experience.
• Poor Frankie McGrath had it all happen to her, except being herself physically wounded in the war. Her experiences with men seemed to be one bad luck event or bad decision after another. With each new relationship,  I just kept waiting for the other shoe to drop – and it usually did.  And each time, her disappointment set her back – WAY back, again.  To be honest, reading about all of her bad decisions regarding her family, the men in her life, her options to move forward, and then her woe-is-me-I’m-a-victim responses to where she found herself, began to exhaust me.   When is this woman going to own her life and take responsibility for herself?!!!  A couple of times I had to force myself to stay with the book.  

But I’m glad I did.  In the end, she finally does get the help she needs (though indeed it is forced upon her) and begins to heal.  It felt to me a bit like seeing the sun come up after a long, dark, cold night – and as I was approaching the end of the book, my hope was revived that things might work out.  I was pretty sure the author wouldn’t end on a negative note.   I was pleased with the end of the book and how the author brought a few loose ends together in a satisfying manner.   

The conclusion  caused me to revise upward my assessment of the book.  Hannah’s  writing is eloquent and compelling, but at least the second half of the book was not an easy read, given the plethora of bad experiences and trauma that she has us wade through.   That said, it made a strong impression on me, and for those interested in understanding the perspective of a woman Vietnam veteran, and that period of American history, Iwould indeed recommend it.  

The Audible is ably read by Julian Whelan, who credibly gives the various characters their own voices.  

OTHER REVIEWS

In looking at other reviews, the majority are very positive, and apparently it was #1 on the NYT combined fiction best seller list for 10 consecutive weeks, and was one of the most borrowed books in American Libraries. It was however panned by the Boston Globe for patronizing its readers with cliches from the era of the Vietnam War.

Many reviews I read,raved about the insights into women’s experiences in the Vietnam War, and during the counter-culture movement during and and immediately following war.  I read a number of reviews that echoed my criticisms of the the second half of the book of the amount and degree of anxiety and emotional trauma we had to experience suffer along with the protagonist.  The reviews I read in Reddit were mixed as well, for the same reasons.   81% of Amazon reviewers give it five stars,  14% gave it four  stars,  and 5% three or less.  

As noted above, I had mixed feelings, and go back and forth between 3 and 4 stars, but believe the positives well outweighed the negatives, and it was definitely a memorable experience.    I would give it 4 stars.