The Women

This book apparently very popular, places our protagonist a 20-yo Frances “Frankie” McGrath novice nurse, in 1965 Vietnam treating GIs. I got to the part where Frances and her colleagues go out to the local village to treat the natives before I bailed out. Frankie goes through a tough time, but she is supported by a plucky older nurse and a surgeon. My problem with this book is that Frankie does not really have a conflict that she must overcome: yes she has to learn to really practice as a nurse in the harsh, traumatic conditions of the war, but that is the conflict faced by all of the people at the hospital and indeed in all the soldiers in Vietnam. So what makes her problems special. To me this book was just too anodyne - the war sucked, the american women who served in Vietnam were doubly challenged as they were on the cutting edge of women’s equality and were somewhat invisible relative to the men but Frankie with her super-supportive female colleagues would overcome! blah blah blah. This felt like an After-School Special about a very important, very woman-positive, patriotic topic and who can disagree with that? Well I don’t disagree but I still felt that the book was just too heavy-handed in its message and therefore it was just not for me.