Television viewers familiar with the TV show 'MASH' (1972 -1983) - a comedy about an American army hospital in South Korea during the Korean War (1950-1953) - know that female nurses were present in combat zones. In other words, women contributed to the war effort.
The Vietnam War (1955 -1975) largely took place before MASH was on the air, and most people at the time dismissed the notion that American women were in Vietnam. So females that returned from that war-torn country - traumatized and suffering from PTSD - were ignored, dismissed, brushed off, etc.
That reality is at the heart of Kristin Hannah's novel 'The Women.'
*****
As the story opens, the year is 1965 and 20-year-old Frances Grace McGrath (Frankie) lives on Coronado Island in California, home to many proud Navy families.
Frankie's father has a 'heroes wall' in his study, which contains photos of men in uniform, medals for valor and injury, a triangle-folded American flag, and other memorabilia of family members who served their country.
Now Frankie's beloved older brother Finley, who graduated from the Naval Academy, is shipping out to Vietnam, and their dad is as proud as punch.
Frankie, who recently graduated from nursing school, decides to follow Finley overseas and joins the Army Nurse Corps.
Frankie is quickly shipped to the Thirty-Sixth Evac Hospital in Vietnam, where she's one of nine female nurses on staff. The facility smells like jet fuel, smoke, fish, rotting vegetation, and excrement, and Frankie is told she'll see, "very seriously injured....everything from leprosy, to amputations to rat bites to what's left of a soldier after a land mine."
As a new inexperienced nurse, Frankie is initially overwhelmed at the Thirty-Sixth Evac, but is helped to acclimatize by her hooch-mates, Barb and Ethel, who soon become her best friends.
Frankie is also taught the ropes by a kind older doctor in the Neuro ward, which houses paraplegics, patients with pelvic fractures, burn patients, and other men who can't stand much manipulation. Once Frankie gets her feet under her in Neuro, she can move on to triage, first aid, treatment, surgery, and other things.
Author Kristin Hannah provides a vivid picture of Frankie's experiences at the Evac hospital: the heat; being constantly drenched in sweat; the sour-smelling sheets; the boonie hats; the mud; the pounding headaches; the nurses latrines; the outdoor showers; the gunfire and explosions; the sound of incoming helicopters; running to get the injured off the choppers; the horribly mutilated soldiers who have limbs blown off; faces half gone; guts hanging out; and other horrible injuries.
Frankie and her colleagues also treat injured Vietnamese civilians, including babies and children, who are burned by napalm, sick, and hurt.
There's some relief from the horror of the medical wards in a 'recreational' Quonset hut with a plywood bar, a stereo system, and tables to sit at. Here hospital personnel smoke, drink, sing, dance, and socialize.
There are also occasional movies on the grounds, and spontaneous games of football and the like. Of course men vastly outnumber women in the Evac hospital, the doctors think they're gods, and Frankie is warned to to be careful because "Over here, the men lie and they die."
The first part of the book follows Frankie's experiences in-country, at the Thirty-Sixth Evac and then at the Seventy-First Evac, which is smack in the middle of a combat zone. In the midst of war Frankie soon becomes a skilled surgical nurse, able to close up and perform simple operations herself. Frankie also meets all manner of soldiers, helicopter pilots, drivers, doctors, nurses, Donut Dollies (female Red Cross volunteers), and others involved in the war effort. Frankie tries to heed the "men lie" dictum, but things happen when lives can be snuffed out in an instant.
After two tours in Vietnam, Frankie returns home to a country where people are against the war and take it out on the men (and women) who served. Veterans are maligned and disrespected and Frankie's parents - who disapproved of her enlisting - won't even let her talk about Vietnam.
Meanwhile, Frankie is anxious and depressed; she has frequent nightmares; she constantly wakes up on the floor beside her bed; she has PTSD and hits the ground when she hears fireworks; she learns distressing news that sends her into a spiral; and more.
To cope, Frankie smokes cigarettes, drinks alcohol (lots and lots of alcohol), and takes pills (lots and lots of pills). And when Frankie tries to get help from the Veterans Administration, she's told women didn't serve in Vietnam and shooed away. Things get worse and worse for Frankie until a crisis occurs and drastic steps are necessary.
We follow Frankie's struggles throughout the book. Frankie gets little support from people in her home region of Coronado Island/San Diego, but she can count on Barb - who lives in Virginia, and Ethel - who lives in Georgia, to show up when she needs help.
Eventually, the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial is erected in 1982, and Vietnam veterans are accorded the respect they deserve. However Frankie and others who served in Vietnam have to deal with a great deal of contempt first.
As I read the book, I felt completely immersed in Frankie's life, and was dismayed by the treatment she received when she returned to the United States. I was especially annoyed with Frankie's father, who refused to put her picture on the 'heroes wall', because only male veterans were allowed up there. (Can you imagine?)
I empathized with Frankie, but was bothered by her extreme naïvety about men. That said, I understand the need for drama in a novel.
One thing I really like about the book are the songs and lyrics that punctuate many of Frankie's activities. These include ditties like: I Wanna Hold Your Hand; Come On Baby Light My Fire; Like a Rolling Stone; We Gotta Get Outta This Place; Born To Be Wild; I Am Woman; and more.
This is an excellent book that should appeal to men and women alike. Highly recommended.
Thanks to Netgalley, Kristin Hannah, and St. Martin's Press for a copy of the book.
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