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A review by msteasam
The Women by Kristin Hannah
2.0
I don't understand the hype for this book at all. There were several niggling problems that blew out to be extremely frustrating and obnoxious by the end of the book.
1. The writing. Is so bad. Not only is it shallow, rote, and repetitive, it occasionally crosses the line into being melodramatic. The writing can be summed up as "this happened, then this happened, then this happened." Or maybe "chick lit with dead babies". No offence to chick lit, but the style doesn't fit the heavy and poignant tone this topic deserved.
The pacing is completely off and I was never sure how much time had passed.
It felt like every single (female) outfit was described, but most descriptions consisted of "she was wearing an oversized t-shirt and shorts with sandles". Why do I need to know this in every scene?
It almost felt like the author was struggling to convey the time period so she used the easy shorthand of just constantly naming a bunch of songs that would have been popular in the 60s and mentioning peasant tops a lot. It felt lazy and cliche.
By the end of the book we're just being told information we already know point blank? "She'd first begun journaling in rehab, at Henry's urging." "A rap session, Jill at the center had called it." - we saw all of this happen literally one chapter ago.
2. There were three love interests (and three horrible, bland romances) but not a single named Vietnamese character in the book (with the exception of a child that only appears on one page and is rarely mentioned again). Half of this book is set in Vietnam. There are Vietnamese people injured in the hospital, Frankie visits their villages to provide healthcare, she spends a couple of nights in Saigon. There are Vietnamese people in the US when she returns home. But the book completely disregards them. We're given nothing.
At the same time, the book feels incredibly sanitised. I'm sure there was some brand of anti-Vietnamese xenophobic propaganda going on at the time, at least among the US soldiers, but there isn't anything mentioned here ourside of vague references to "Charlies". The North Vietnamese people as a US enemy are almost a non-entity. This could be set in just about any war ever with no changes needed.
3. The plot is basically a terrible soap opera featuring war, affairs, people returning from the dead (x2!!!), miscarriages, drug and alcohol abuse. All it needed was an amnesia plotline. None of these topics were handled in a way that felt legitimate. I'm not surprised at this point that the author was intending to create fictional Vietnamese places to set her book - nothing about this book feels authentic.
4. The other characters barely exist. The other nurses that Frankie befriends, Ethel and Barb, are one-dimensional cut-outs. Barb doesn't want a bar of her and they have a single scene together, but suddenly they're best friends even though Frankie and Ethel had much more time together on the page. It feels like something was cut out for length. We don't actually see these women bonding, we just know that they're ride or die best friends...out of nowhere. I understand that war and trauma cement bonds quickly, but there was next to no effort to develop this on the page.
Once again I'm an extreme outlier in option for a popular book. What I did like:
-This was very readable for such a long book.
-The way the horrible romances all ended was kind of vindicating? But I think the 'twists' were meant to be a surprise and we were meant to find the romances...romantic. so I'm not sure.
-The reaction of the public to Frankie upon returning home from Vietnam was by the most impactful thing in the book. She's expecting to be welcomed back as a war hero but quickly finds out that public opinion has turned. People spit on her and call her a baby killer, and she discovers that her parents had even lied about what she had been doing for two years. Heartbreaking.
1. The writing. Is so bad. Not only is it shallow, rote, and repetitive, it occasionally crosses the line into being melodramatic. The writing can be summed up as "this happened, then this happened, then this happened." Or maybe "chick lit with dead babies". No offence to chick lit, but the style doesn't fit the heavy and poignant tone this topic deserved.
The pacing is completely off and I was never sure how much time had passed.
It felt like every single (female) outfit was described, but most descriptions consisted of "she was wearing an oversized t-shirt and shorts with sandles". Why do I need to know this in every scene?
It almost felt like the author was struggling to convey the time period so she used the easy shorthand of just constantly naming a bunch of songs that would have been popular in the 60s and mentioning peasant tops a lot. It felt lazy and cliche.
By the end of the book we're just being told information we already know point blank? "She'd first begun journaling in rehab, at Henry's urging." "A rap session, Jill at the center had called it." - we saw all of this happen literally one chapter ago.
2. There were three love interests (and three horrible, bland romances) but not a single named Vietnamese character in the book (with the exception of a child that only appears on one page and is rarely mentioned again). Half of this book is set in Vietnam. There are Vietnamese people injured in the hospital, Frankie visits their villages to provide healthcare, she spends a couple of nights in Saigon. There are Vietnamese people in the US when she returns home. But the book completely disregards them. We're given nothing.
At the same time, the book feels incredibly sanitised. I'm sure there was some brand of anti-Vietnamese xenophobic propaganda going on at the time, at least among the US soldiers, but there isn't anything mentioned here ourside of vague references to "Charlies". The North Vietnamese people as a US enemy are almost a non-entity. This could be set in just about any war ever with no changes needed.
3. The plot is basically a terrible soap opera featuring war, affairs, people returning from the dead (x2!!!), miscarriages, drug and alcohol abuse. All it needed was an amnesia plotline. None of these topics were handled in a way that felt legitimate. I'm not surprised at this point that the author was intending to create fictional Vietnamese places to set her book - nothing about this book feels authentic.
4. The other characters barely exist. The other nurses that Frankie befriends, Ethel and Barb, are one-dimensional cut-outs. Barb doesn't want a bar of her and they have a single scene together, but suddenly they're best friends even though Frankie and Ethel had much more time together on the page. It feels like something was cut out for length. We don't actually see these women bonding, we just know that they're ride or die best friends...out of nowhere. I understand that war and trauma cement bonds quickly, but there was next to no effort to develop this on the page.
Once again I'm an extreme outlier in option for a popular book. What I did like:
-This was very readable for such a long book.
-The way the horrible romances all ended was kind of vindicating? But I think the 'twists' were meant to be a surprise and we were meant to find the romances...romantic. so I'm not sure.
-The reaction of the public to Frankie upon returning home from Vietnam was by the most impactful thing in the book. She's expecting to be welcomed back as a war hero but quickly finds out that public opinion has turned. People spit on her and call her a baby killer, and she discovers that her parents had even lied about what she had been doing for two years. Heartbreaking.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and War
Moderate: Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Miscarriage, and Suicide attempt