Writers tend to be voracious readers. I certainly am. When I come across a good book, one worthy of reading, I'll leave a detailed book review here. Please feel free to leave your comments below. Thank you!!

And with that entry here is a review of a very good book.

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"The Women" by Kristin Hannah. 

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Published in early 2024, "The Women" tells the story of  one woman, Frankie, AKA Frances Mc Grath, a good Catholic girl, who becomes an Army trauma nurse during the Vietnam war. Nothing, however, comes easy for this woman. First, the novel tells the story of what it was like for American women who came of age during the 1960's and 1970's. What society's expectations were of women during that time, which were: find a good husband, get married, have children, take care of your husband, be a homemaker, be a good mother. Put all of your goals, hopes, and aspirations on a back burner, instead be the best wife and mother that you can possibly be. Certainly, this was the opinion of Frankie's parents, with whom she has numerous conflicts.

But when Frankie's brother joined the service and was shipped overseas to Vietnam, Frankie joined the Army, volunteered for Vietnam, with hopes of seeing her brother over there.

But then her brother was killed in action.

When Frankie arrives in Vietnam, she is inexperienced, not yet a good nurse, and certainly not a trauma nurse, in any sense of the word. With the help of two female nurse friends, Frankie slowly learns the ropes amongst the vicious battles, the constant death, with spilled blood and human carnage everywhere. 

She becomes a good nurse, but is slowly traumatized by all the bloodshed, injuries, and death around her on a daily basis.

She falls in love, twice over the period of two years, with soldiers stationed there, but both men are killed in action. The death of these men gut Frankie: she buries her head in her work, and eventually signs up for a second tour of duty and is sent to a trauma hospital on the front lines, where the bloodshed, carnage and death, are significantly ramped up.

When she finally returns home, after spending twenty six months in Vietnam on active duty, she finds a changed America. The Vietnam War is a very unpopular war back in the States and the American public vents it's disapproval of the war by treating the returning veterans very, very poorly. For those of you too young to remember those times, it really did happen. Ms. Hannah accurately depicts the feelings of the era.

Frankie has a tough time adjusting to life back in the states, and like thousands of veterans who served there, returns as a broken woman, who drinks too much and takes way too many drugs. Now, I'm not going to give away the ending, or too much of what happens in the book here, but this novel is a fast paced, action filled, page turner. It will not disappoint. Rated five out of five stars. Give it a try.