I’m a reader. Well…maybe not a refined reader. Like many readers, I read to escape, to learn, to experience time and history from others’ points to view. I read lots of junk–often intense mysteries and crime novels–maybe as a counter balance to all of the professional reading I do.
I’ve also read my share of war novels, many set in World War II, and to be honest, lately I’ve been avoiding that particular genre. But when I saw that Kristin Hannah had written a new novel set in the Vietnam war with a focus on women who had served, I was interested. I’m trying not to buy every new book that piques my interest, more out of space consideration than monetary expenditure. So I went onto Libby (the online library reserve system for checking out e-books) and put a hold on The Women. In the meantime I continued reading a variety of novels, finishing one last weekend.
And then earlier this week, my hold came up. I downloaded The Women onto my kindle and started reading it midweek. It felt a little stilted at the beginning–stiff, maybe even cliche, but it was set in San Diego (Coronado to be specific) and who doesn’t love a book that refers to places you know well?
It was when the book took a deep dive into the Vietnam experience of nurses “in country” (meaning in Vietnam) that the book turned for me. The characters became multi-dimensional and I became invested. I enjoyed the focus on a women’s experience and the struggles returning home to a time and place that was rejecting the war and those who served…and also finding, even within veterans’ groups and services, that women’s service was barely acknowledged if it was acknowledged at all.
If you have read Hannah’s other novels, you’ll recognize her style and likely enjoy this one too. I appreciated the research and attention to detail in this book and was clearly invested enough that I spent too much of my day reading today, finishing the book this afternoon.
If you’re looking for a sometime’s emotional read in a historical fiction novel about the Vietnam war, pick up The Women. I was engrossed–makes me think about my dad and all the other Vietnam war vets who returned from service, whether or not they were in actual combat on the ground in Vietnam, to mixed feelings about their worth as soldiers in a war that seemed never-ending. I feel like I’ve still got some thinking to do on this one.
Thinking Through My Lens 