The Women
Publication date February 2024
The short and sweet of my review is that this is now my favorite Kristin Hannah book.
Yes, contrary to some opinions, there were American women in Vietnam during the fighting; American women fighting for their country as nurses in Vietnam.
I lived through the waiting period of that era with “our boys” (my classmates) as they waited to see when their draft number would be called. I heard of local funerals for boys from my hometown. I met and married a young man who luckily was just a little bit older than I who had already served his country. We worked to build our life together, watched the news each night, and became more and more convinced that we should bring our boys home, but not once do I remember thinking about the women over there. Not once, and I’m sorry.
The strong female characters in The Women are smart, vulnerable, wise-cracking ladies I would love to call my friends. They dodge bullets, run from incoming mortar shells, and run to incoming wounded. They slosh around in rivers of blood and hold the hands of dying young men.
They then find a place where they can scream and cry and renew their strength to do it all over again. They find solace with each other and with the soldiers within their theatre of existence.
The great tragedy, however, is the treatment the women received upon their return to the states. We know of the abuse and mistreatment directed to our soldiers, but how many of us have considered the return of the women?
Kristen Hannah has, and she portrays the ugliness of it beautifully. In ways I never would have considered, the women were told to forget about it, pretend it never happened, and get on with womanly things. Our main character is the perfect vessel to show us the injustices the women who went to Vietnam endured.
Yes, there were women in Vietnam.
Our women. Our sisters.
Thank you Kristen Hannah for this much needed education so agonizingly beautifully presented.
Thank you to St Martins Press for offering me this advanced copy to read.
All opinions and thoughts as always are my own.
