I discovered Kristin Hannah with this book and it was really a great discovery.
The book tells the story of Frankie, who enrols to go to Vietnam as a nurse during the Vietnam war. She comes from a well to do family and naively thinks that this will make her dad proud and she will have her place on the hero wall at home. Her time in Vietnam is very rough and she witnesses first hand what a horrible conflict it is. But also she makes solid friendships with other women who are there, like her. Then, she returns to the US and it is harder than she had thought. She suffers terrible post traumatic stress and she finds that society is not admiring the heroes of the Vietnam war, but rather the opposite. She also realises that people think there were no women in Vietnam, they were invisible. She sets out to rebuild herself and to contribute to the voices of the courageous women that were in Vietnam.
I really enjoyed reading this book. It is a rough read at times but it is also bringing to life this episode of history through the eyes of our different characters, whether Frankie, her friends, the troops in Vietnam, and others in society like her parents or her employers who did not realise what people returning from Vietnam had gone through and were still going through the rejoin society. The characters are interesting and beautifully written into the story.
It is a well researched book which brings to light the role and situation of women who were in Vietnam. I found the authors’ notes interesting and I learned a lot about the context around the book on Kristin Hannah’s website. This book is a tribute to all these women whose testimonies found their way into this story and to those who worked tirelessly to give them a voice and a visibility, for example at the Vietnam Women memorial founded by Diane Carlson Evans. It was a very moving insight into a complex moment in history and what it meant for the many whose life were shattered by it.
I really recommend browsing through the information of Kristin Hannah’s website and I really enjoyed the interview she gave to Bookreporter readers and Carol Fitzgerald. There is interesting information on the website of the Vietnam Women Memorial too.
Valerie is reading 