4ā
Genre ~ historical fiction
Setting ~ California, Vietnam, Virginia, Montana
Publication date ~ February 6, 2024
Est page Count ~ 480 (35 chapters)
Audio length ~ 14 hours 57 minutes
Narrator ~ Julia Whelan
POV ~ single 3rd
Featuring ~ nurse, sexism, some graphic scenes, death, miscarriage, PTSD, reckless behavior, substance abuse, suicide attempt, infidelity
My review:
Part 1 ~ 1966 ~ California & Vietnam
21 year old Frankie is missing her brother after he heads off to Vietnam with the navy. She enlists with the Army since they’re the only branch that will get her over there quickly. This part is full on war and all the chaos that it entails.
Oh Frankie, I salute you for your service, but not for your decision making when it comes to men.
Part 2 ~ 1971 ~ 1982 ~Virginia & California & Montana
She has completed her tours and is understandably having a tough time. It really dives deep into how getting back into civilian life is not easy to do. She joins the protests. She tries to look for support, but gets turned away for being a woman and not having actually been in combat. Her journey to get her mental health in check is a long one, but eventually she gets there and uses her experience perfectly in the end.
It was really hard to listen to her father disrespect her time and time again, but different times I suppose. The friendships she made with Ethel and Barb were ones to last a lifetime as they each know what the other has lived through. They’d drop everything to be by her side when she needed them the most (not sure how they were able to get to her so quickly, cuz it’s fiction I guess).
Overall, as expected, it was well researched, but I do think this could have been cut down quite a bit.
Narration notes:
A superb job as usual. She really brought the story to life.
*Thanks to the author, Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the audio copy. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review*
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Iād love to hear your thoughts if you’ve read it.
Book blurb:
The missing. The forgotten. The braveā¦ The women.
From master storyteller Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds, comes the story of a turbulent, transformative era in America: the 1960s. The Women is that rarest of novelsāat once an intimate portrait of a woman coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided by war and broken by politics, of a generation both fueled by dreams and lost on the battlefield.
āWomen can be heroes, too.ā
When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances āFrankieā McGrath hears these unexpected words, it is a revelation. Raised on idyllic Coronado Island and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing, being a good girl. But in 1965 the world is changing, and she suddenly imagines a different choice for her life. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she impulsively joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.
As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction of war, as well as the unexpected trauma of coming home to a changed and politically divided America.
The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on the story of all women who put themselves in harmās way to help others. Women whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has all too often been forgotten. A novel of searing insight and lyric beauty, The Women is a profoundly emotional, richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose extraordinary idealism and courage under fire define a generation.
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