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dark
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I did not like this book.
Some of that I chalk up to the fact that patriotic historical fiction will never be my cup of tea. I find the "rah-rah" pro-America stance completely unrelatable, especially for a war where our actions were so incredibly abhorrant and our justification so flimsy. While The Women does include some info about the injustices committed by Americans in the Vietnam war, it is done in a way that feels akin to "there were some bad apples but the overall push was righteous" which I do not agree with nor do I accept as historically accurate. I did not stomach the overall patriotism -- the passionate faith in the fundamental goodness and justice in America -- well whatsoever.
Some of the descriptions of Vietnam and the people of the region were casually racist. Very subtle things, easy to miss on both the author and readers' parts. One example is the first time the nurses visit a local hospital. They received a "welcome ritual" -- aka a leader or staffer being a decent host by offering them a drink -- and the narrator's woes that "no one there spoke English." The second part of this feels more disagreeable to me. The assumption or implication that the language barrier was the fault of the locals and that English ought to be the default language seems (definitely subtle, probably unconsiously) racist. Barb, the only Black main character, is hardly a person for about half of the book. She had pictures of MLK Jr, Malcom X, and Mohammud Ali on her wall (no family??) despite the fact all three of those figures were adamantly anti-war. Read as incredibly lazy to me that the author illustrated Barb's Blackness and radical nature (which we don't actually see glimpses of until abiut 3/4ths through the book despite Barb being described quintessentially as "the radical") despite all 3 of those figures' stances. I was not in Voetnam and I am not a Black radical...but if those were the 3 people you cared most about...I can't see how you'd volunteer for a war they were all very clearly against.
On that note. The writing was not good, dude. It was fine, but not "good." There was a lot of explaining in words things we ought to have (or in some cases already could have) discerned from clues and details in the rest of the text. Frankie did not need to call herself "a good girl who had never done drugs, not even in college" -- we could guess it from her family, uptight nature, her internal dialogues about sin.
And on that note. One of the very few things I liked about this book was the way trauma destroyed Frankie's adherence to religion. It illustraded how truly to her core she was shaken by her experiences.
Other stuff I didn't love:
the fact that 2 out of 3 of the people Frankie lost in the war came back from the dead. What? Really?
How apparently irresistible Frankie is to nearly (actually?) Every man in her life. Felt like a weird flavor of the "chosen one" trope.
Frankie's nurse friends Barb and Ethel frequently dropped everything for her, but they never needed her in that way?
These were all just ... unbelieveable aspects of the story to me.
I did not like this book. I will jot reread it. I will not read more Kristin Hannah. I will not recommend this book to anyone, except maybe war veterans with PTSD.
Some of that I chalk up to the fact that patriotic historical fiction will never be my cup of tea. I find the "rah-rah" pro-America stance completely unrelatable, especially for a war where our actions were so incredibly abhorrant and our justification so flimsy. While The Women does include some info about the injustices committed by Americans in the Vietnam war, it is done in a way that feels akin to "there were some bad apples but the overall push was righteous" which I do not agree with nor do I accept as historically accurate. I did not stomach the overall patriotism -- the passionate faith in the fundamental goodness and justice in America -- well whatsoever.
Some of the descriptions of Vietnam and the people of the region were casually racist. Very subtle things, easy to miss on both the author and readers' parts. One example is the first time the nurses visit a local hospital. They received a "welcome ritual" -- aka a leader or staffer being a decent host by offering them a drink -- and the narrator's woes that "no one there spoke English." The second part of this feels more disagreeable to me. The assumption or implication that the language barrier was the fault of the locals and that English ought to be the default language seems (definitely subtle, probably unconsiously) racist. Barb, the only Black main character, is hardly a person for about half of the book. She had pictures of MLK Jr, Malcom X, and Mohammud Ali on her wall (no family??) despite the fact all three of those figures were adamantly anti-war. Read as incredibly lazy to me that the author illustrated Barb's Blackness and radical nature (which we don't actually see glimpses of until abiut 3/4ths through the book despite Barb being described quintessentially as "the radical") despite all 3 of those figures' stances. I was not in Voetnam and I am not a Black radical...but if those were the 3 people you cared most about...I can't see how you'd volunteer for a war they were all very clearly against.
On that note. The writing was not good, dude. It was fine, but not "good." There was a lot of explaining in words things we ought to have (or in some cases already could have) discerned from clues and details in the rest of the text. Frankie did not need to call herself "a good girl who had never done drugs, not even in college" -- we could guess it from her family, uptight nature, her internal dialogues about sin.
And on that note. One of the very few things I liked about this book was the way trauma destroyed Frankie's adherence to religion. It illustraded how truly to her core she was shaken by her experiences.
Other stuff I didn't love:
How apparently irresistible Frankie is to nearly (actually?) Every man in her life. Felt like a weird flavor of the "chosen one" trope.
Frankie's nurse friends Barb and Ethel frequently dropped everything for her, but they never needed her in that way?
These were all just ... unbelieveable aspects of the story to me.
I did not like this book. I will jot reread it. I will not read more Kristin Hannah. I will not recommend this book to anyone, except maybe war veterans with PTSD.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Blood, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death, Miscarriage