The Women, a review by Joanna

Frankie McGrath is the only daughter of a successful businessman and his high-society wife. Living a sheltered life on Coronado island off San Diego, the Vietnam conflict seems remote and irrelevant to her, when her projected path is marriage, babies and charity work. Then her beloved older brother is sent over by the navy, and she decides that rather than staying home, she too wants to serve her country. Naive & idealistic, the realities of life in a South East Asian combat hospital are a brutal shock, but her roommates Ethel & Barb take her under their wings, and she’s soon an excellent nurse. Frankie finds meaning, excitement and even love in her new life, despite the horrors she witnesses, but when tragedy strikes repeatedly, it’s her female friends who will save her, again and again.

I haven’t read much about the Vietnam war – growing up in the UK it didn’t have the same cultural impact as in the US, and it was all over by the time I was old enough to know about world events. I’d seen the various movies set there, but stayed away from books about it. This may be fundamentally a love story, but it doesn’t she away from graphic descriptions of the trauma that the medical teams had to deal with, and the suffering not just of the US soldiers, but of all the innocent Vietnamese victims of both sides in an unwinnable war. Frankie’s loss of innocence and faith in her government as she contrasts the daily carnage coming through the operating room, with the news being reported back home is well portrayed. Then she returns home to find no one appreciates her service, or wants her skills, and her parents see her as an embarrassment rather than a hero.

I quite liked Frankie as a main character, although couldn’t understand why so many men kept falling hopelessly in love with her. The romances were somewhat predictable but where this book shone for me was the enduring friendships she makes with two women from completely different backgrounds, who show up for her over and over, even when everyone else lets her down. Some parts did feel a bit repetitive and longer than they needed to be, and Frankie’s self-destructive behaviours stretched my sympathy, but overall this was a worthwhile immersive read that taught me things I didn’t know about a seminal period of American history.