The Vietnam Novel That Changed What I Thought I Knew

I thought I knew something about the Vietnam War before I read The Women. Kristin Hannah's novel about Frances McGrath, a young woman who enlists as an army nurse after her brother ships out, showed me what I had not known: that women served in large numbers, that they came home to the same indifference and hostility, and that their stories have been almost entirely absent from the mainstream narrative of the war and its aftermath. The research is evident on every page and the emotional commitment is absolute.