Kristin Hannah’s new novel The Women is a bizarre mix of A Field Guide to Dressing War Wounds and a Harlequin Nurse-n-Doctor Romance:
“She looked up from debriding the soldier’s sucking chest wound—he was just a boy!— to meet the surgeon’s smoldering eyes… And yet, she knew that under the sterile medical gloves sensitively holding a Kelly clamp, a wedding ring graced his manly hands .”
—not an actual quote, but close!
[UPDATED with actual quote at the end, so you know I wasn’t exaggerating ]
[UPDATED with actual quote at the end, so you know I wasn’t exaggerating ]
The author has done her research – – and is a little too eager to pile it on. Did you remember Tab diet cola was stylized T small-a capital-B?
“Back in her hooch, she relished an ice-cold TaB.” Did anyone actually spell it that way?
Still, it’s an acceptable distraction it is, stuck home with a bum knee and below-zero temps.
First, an old friend from the art college library, RMcG, is in town and I’m going out for coffee, but the rest of the day it’s me and “Frankie”, naive plucky daughter of the country club set, as she holds the hands of dying young African American soldiers, ponders the US’s role in SE Asia, and leans her tired head on the blood-stained scrubs of the disturbingly handsome Dr What’s-His-Name in a steamy (“steamy”, get it?) MASH unit in Vietnam.
Quote UPDATE
Okay, here’s what I mean—
Nurse (Frankie McGrath) goes into a tailspin about her feelings for Doctor (Jamie) after a shift that ends with them bonding over the body of a dead soldier.
[click to embiggen, ya know]
How’s a girl to know???
i am not reading that book!!! i just want to pound my head on the table........nooooooooo! and you know i collect many books about the vietnam war but that won't be one of them.
ReplyDeletek
I’m not sure I’m going to be able to finish it. I added some quotes to the op.
DeleteThe good thing is, I guess this 2024 book is directing attention to the overlooked role of US women in the war.
there was an earlier book Healing Wounds: A Vietnam War Combat Nurse's 10-Year Fight to Win Women a Place of Honor in Washington, D.C. that talked about the fight to get the statue on the mall. the statue was designed by glenna goodacre (mother of Jill goodacre who is the wife of harry Connick, jr). see https://vietnamwomensmemorial.org. I can guarantee very few of them thought like this book is written. from the dialogue it makes women to be simpering idiots who can only think about the male in a sexual way. can you tell I don't like this book. the same reason I won't read romance novels. read one Barbara Cartland and that was enough. I saw why women liked it but that is not me........
Deletek
To give this book credit (though it is ridiculous in many ways)
Delete– the nurse hero does start to care about nursing and politics and latter part is about her efforts for the Vietnam women’s memorial, (I was shocked that there was opposition to it—and such fierce and ugly opposition too!)
—and in the author’s note at the end, she credits the one you recommend, “healing wounds”.
It’s not a book for me and you! 😄
but I suppose many people (women) who read this author want and expect the ludicrous romance – – so she’s probably reaching a audience that otherwise wouldn’t read anything about women in Vietnam.
Yes indeed I well remember the opposition first to Maya Lin's Vietnam war memorial, and then to the Vietnam women's memorial. Misogyny is a powerful force for evil.
ReplyDeleteCeci
all hail the patriarchy!
DeleteThe look on your face is right on target! "REALLY????" I can not believe that got published into a real live book with pages and everything. Sorry you don't have something better to keep you and your knee company.
ReplyDeleteANNNNDDDD your hair is the prettiest brightest silver ever on a human head!
That book…gag…
ReplyDelete