It’s rare that a book actually stops the world for a second. We’re used to the hype cycles. You see a bright cover on Instagram, everyone says it’s "devastating," and then two weeks later, it’s in the bargain bin. But The Women by Kristin Hannah is different. It hit the shelves and basically refused to leave the bestseller charts.
Why?
Because it’s not just a war story. It’s an apology. It’s a 400-page acknowledgment of a group of people we, as a culture, decided to ignore for half a century. We’re talking about the nurses of the Vietnam War. Specifically, Frances "Frankie" McGrath, a twenty-year-old nursing student who follows her brother to war because she believes in the "hero" myth, only to find out that myths don't bleed.
The Reality of the "Combat Nurse" Mythos
Most people think of Vietnam and see Platoon or Full Metal Jacket. They see mud, helicopters, and men. When Frankie McGrath tells people she was "in country," they literally don't believe her. The refrain "there were no women in Vietnam" echoes through the book like a haunting, gaslighting chant.
But there were.
Roughly 10,000 American military women served in Vietnam, and the vast majority were nurses. Kristin Hannah spent years researching their specific trauma. These weren't women sitting in safe offices in Saigon. They were in the 36th Evacuation Hospital, the 71st Evac—places where the "Golden Hour" meant the difference between a kid going home or going into a body bag.
Frankie’s journey is brutal. It’s not just the operating room scenes, which are visceral and lean—Hannah doesn't shy away from the smell of copper and burnt skin—it's the psychological whiplash. One minute Frankie is a sheltered girl from Coronado Island who thinks "patriotism" is a shiny medal. The next, she’s up to her elbows in the reality of a war that the world back home is actively protesting.
Why the Homecoming Hurt More Than the War
If you've read The Nightingale or The Great Alone, you know Hannah likes to put her characters through the wringer. But The Women by Kristin Hannah feels more personal. The second half of the book is arguably more painful than the combat scenes.
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Frankie returns to an America that is angry.
She lands at the airport and gets spat on. Not just by protestors, but by a society that has no box to put her in. She isn't a "veteran" in the eyes of the VA. She isn't a "hero" to her parents, who tell her to just "forget it ever happened" and get married.
The isolation is suffocating.
Honestly, the way Hannah describes the PTSD is some of her best writing. It’s not just flashbacks; it's the inability to sleep in a soft bed. It's the way Frankie looks for a bunker when a car backfires. It’s the way she turns to booze and pills because the "men" in her life—both the ones she loved in the jungle and the ones who dismissed her at home—aren't there to catch her.
The Layers of Frankie McGrath
- The Naive Debutante: The Frankie we meet in 1966 is almost annoying in her innocence. She’s driven by a desire to be on a "hero's wall."
- The Surgical Machine: In Vietnam, she becomes "Lieutenant McGrath." She can triage a dozen incoming "dust-offs" without blinking. This is where Hannah's research shines—the technicality of the nursing, the speed of the sutures, the exhaustion.
- The Forgotten Vet: This is the Frankie that breaks your heart. The one who wanders through the 1970s trying to find a place where her service matters.
The Supporting Cast: Barb and Ethel
We have to talk about the friendship. If Frankie is the heart, Barb and Ethel are the spine.
They meet in the heat of the war. Barb is a Black nurse who knows exactly how the country is going to treat them when they get back—she has no illusions about "glory." Ethel is the girl from the mountains who can fix anything.
Their bond is the only thing that feels real in a world that feels increasingly fake to Frankie. Hannah uses these women to show the different facets of the female experience in the late 60s. While Frankie struggles with her upper-class family's shame, Barb is dealing with the Civil Rights movement and a country that double-rejects her.
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It’s messy. It’s not a "girl power" trope. It’s survival.
Fact-Checking the History in The Women
One thing Kristin Hannah is known for is her deep-dive research. For this book, she leaned heavily on the memoirs and accounts of real Vietnam nurses, like Lynda Van Devanter, whose book Home Before Morning caused a massive stir in the 80s for its raw portrayal of the war.
- The "No Women" Lie: This was a real hurdle. Many women who served as nurses, WACs, or in the Red Cross (Donut Dollies) were told by VA doctors that they couldn't have PTSD because they weren't in "combat."
- The Vietnam Women’s Memorial: The struggle to get the statue of the three nurses added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in D.C. is a key plot point. This actually happened. Diane Carlson Evans, a former Army nurse, fought for a decade to make that memorial a reality. It wasn't dedicated until 1993.
- The Gear: The mentions of "dust-offs" (medical evacuations), the Huey helicopters, and the specific surgical techniques of the era are all period-accurate.
What People Get Wrong About This Book
Some critics call it "misery porn." They say Frankie goes through too much.
I disagree.
If you talk to Vietnam vets—especially the women—their stories are often a litany of "and then it got worse." The 70s were a dark time for veterans. The high rates of divorce, addiction, and suicide weren't fiction. Hannah is just refusing to give us the easy out. She’s forcing the reader to sit in the discomfort of how we treated an entire generation.
Also, some readers find the romantic subplots distracting. Without giving away spoilers, Frankie’s love life is... complicated. Some say it takes away from the "war story." But for Frankie, love was a survival tactic. When you’re surrounded by death, you grab onto anything that feels like life.
It’s human. It’s supposed to be messy.
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How to Approach The Women by Kristin Hannah
If you haven't read it yet, or if you just finished and are reeling, here is how to actually process this thing.
Read it with a box of tissues. Seriously. This isn't a "beach read." It’s an emotional marathon.
Look up the Vietnam Women's Memorial. Once you finish the book, seeing the actual bronze statue of the nurses (named Faith, Hope, and Charity, though not in the book) makes the ending hit ten times harder.
Talk to your elders. Many of us have aunts, mothers, or grandmothers who lived through this era. They might not have been in Nam, but they lived through the culture that told women to "stay in their lane."
Check out the bibliography. Hannah usually lists her sources. If Frankie’s story moved you, read the real accounts of women like Cherie Smith or the oral histories collected by the Library of Congress.
Actionable Insights for Readers
- Pacing: The book is long. If you're struggling with the middle "post-war" slump, keep going. The payoff in the final 50 pages is where the "healing" happens.
- Audiobook Note: Julia Whelan narrates the audiobook. She’s basically the gold standard for narrators. If you find the prose too heavy to read, listen to it. She gives Frankie a voice that stays with you.
- Context Matters: Before diving in, maybe watch a quick 5-minute documentary on the "Fall of Saigon" or the "Tet Offensive." It helps to have the map in your head.
The Women by Kristin Hannah isn't just a book you read. It's a book you experience. It forces you to look at a period of American history through a lens that was purposefully cracked for a long time. It’s about the scars we see and the ones we don't.
Next time you see a veteran, remember that they don't all wear ballcaps with ship names on them. Some of them are women who spent their twenties holding the hands of dying boys in a jungle halfway across the world. And they deserve to have their names on the wall, too.
To truly honor the themes of the book, consider visiting the Vietnam Women's Memorial website to learn about the real-life "Frankies" who paved the way for modern military medicine. If you're looking for your next read, Diane Carlson Evans’ memoir Healing Wounds provides the non-fiction foundation for much of what Hannah dramatizes. These stories only stay alive if we keep telling them.