I didn't lose any family in the Vietnam War, and I don't really remember much of it at all--I was a small child, born just as it was ramping up. By the time it ended, I was about 6-7 years old. I only remember Walter Cronkite on the evening news, seeing some of the footage in color on my parent's console TV. I don't recall my parents ever talking about it, either. That little I do remember is still pretty sharp in my memory.
This novel, is, you guessed it, about the women who served in Vietnam: the nurses, mostly. Those fierce women who saw some of the most grisly and devastating parts of the war, who toiled through unimaginable scenarios to save men's lives and get them home.
Francis "Frankie" McGrath lives on Coronado Island, California. Her parents are wealthy, and her brother Finley has just signed up to go to Vietnam. In 1966 no one knew the horrors of the Vietnam War just yet, and it was considered honorable and expected of men to join the armed services and go over and end the hostilities quickly. At a party, Frankie meet Rye, one of her brother's good friends, who tells Frankie "women can be heroes, too." That one phrase changes Frankie's life.
Frankie, fresh out of nursing school, decides she wants to follow Finley to Vietnam as a nurse. At twenty, she's sheltered and not happy with the limited choices she has, and the expectations of her parents to get married and raise a family.
Once Frankie steps off the plane in Vietnam, her world is completely shaken. From her first days in camp and meeting her friends Ethel and Barb, to meeting Jamie, a surgeon who is clearly interested in Frankie, she's thrown into a world where there's no time to be afraid. Frankie's experiences in Vietnam shape her into a veteran who cannot shake her experience once she comes home.
The novel is split into two parts: Vietnam, and the return home. It spans 1966-1982, and follows the heartbreak, heartache, and struggles Frankie endures once she returns home and discovers Vietnam Vets are not being welcomed home. Will Frankie overcome her demons?
This was one heck of a read. I started it this past week and power read over the weekend to finish it. I was afraid if I stopped I wouldn't pick it back up; only because some of it is tough to read. Frankie's PTSD, nightmares, and drug and alcohol use are harsh and your heart breaks for her struggles in a world where even the vets don't believe women served in Vietnam. As Frankie tells them, they would only have seen her if they were gravely wounded.
Loved it--I'm glad it wasn't just about Frankie's experience in Vietnam, but also the aftermath at home, and the years it took to overcome the results of her experience.
This novel is released in the U.S. on February 6th in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook. I know it is going to be immensely popular and bring new fans to Kristin Hannah.
Rating: 6/6 for an absorbing, heartbreaking, tough look at the Vietnam War from a nurse's experience on the ground in the harshest conditions. It also examines the aftermath of the war and the mental toll it takes on veterans and how the system failed so many when they needed help and compassion the most. Powerful stuff.
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