Book Corner: 'The Women' By Kristin Hannah
By Ann Lindsay
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Kristin Hannah’s “The Women” is a moving and deeply human story that brings a long-overlooked chapter of history to life: the women who served and sacrificed during the Vietnam War.
The novel follows Frances “Frankie” McGrath, a young woman from an affluent California family who grows up in a world that praises men for their bravery but never expects it from women. When her beloved brother ships off to Vietnam, Frankie shocks her family, and herself, by joining the Army Nurse Corps. What begins as a patriotic and personal impulse quickly turns into an experience that shatters her innocence and reshapes her entire understanding of courage, loyalty, loss, and womanhood in America.
Hannah’s descriptions of life in Vietnam are vivid and visceral. The chaos of the field hospitals, the sound of helicopters overhead, and the unrelenting emotional toll of caring for the wounded all come alive through Frankie’s story. Frankie evolves alongside the war, transforming from a timid, inexperienced nurse into an unshrinking, accomplished surgical field nurse as the country she serves quietly conceals what she is witnessing in the jungles of Vietnam.
The novel doesn’t shy away from the horrors of war—quite the opposite, but what sets it apart is its focus on the quiet heroism of women who were often forgotten when the war ended. When Frankie returns home, she faces a country angry and eager to move on. It’s also one that doesn’t recognize her service and importantly, her trauma.
The second half of the book explores her struggle to find her place again, a journey that feels heartbreakingly relevant even today. Throughout Frankie’s journey, she is fortified by the depth of her female friendships, often the only thing keeping her tethered to a quickly unraveling life.
Like Hannah’s other bestsellers “The Nightingale” and “The Great Alone,” “The Women” showcases her gift for creating strong, complex female characters who endure impossible circumstances with resilience and humanity. The characters are messy and complex, and Hannah has a knack for immersing readers so completely in her characters’ inner lives that their experiences feel like your own. By the time you finish, Frankie’s pain, courage, and determination feel personal like you’ve lived them with her.
The story unfolds in a linear, chronological way, which makes you feel as though you’re moving through time right alongside Frankie. And while the novel is heavy and full of tragedy, disillusionment, and the lingering scars of war, it’s also profoundly meaningful.
Having been a student of the American school system, I learned more about the Vietnam War in this book than I did at any point in my schooling. It’s the kind of book that stays with you long after you close it, the characters having been created so robustly that they feel like someone from your past.
Given the subject matter and length, 480 pages, “The Women” is not a light read, but it’s a powerful one. Kristin Hannah’s passion for giving voice to women who’ve been left out of history makes this novel both a tribute and a reckoning. It’s a story of female friendship, loss, and the quiet bravery that often goes unseen—one that deserves to be explored and remembered.
I give “The Women” four and a half stars, and you can find this book at the Elmwood Park Public Library in book, e-book and audiobook formats.