Photo: Supplied.
BY ANNE CROWLEY
WHAT THE EXPERTS SAID:
“Women can be heroes. When 20-year-old nursing student Frances ‘Frankie’ McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Coronado Island (off San Diego, California) and sheltered by her wealthy conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.”
Source: inspireuplift.com
MY THOUGHTS:
The first half of the book focuses on Frankie’s time in Vietnam: the formation of life-long friendships and loves and rapidly acquiring trauma and surgical nursing expertise in impossible circumstances – “Damn it, McGrath! We don’t have time for fear. You’re good enough. Do it!” As an ex-nurse, I found her rapid climb to competence in the face of extreme casualties and conditions enthralling, and I really enjoyed this part of the book.
It also traces the authentic historical detail of the war – in-country and in ‘the real world’ – particularly as attitudes supportive of it in the USA began to change. This was all set to a ‘soundtrack’ of familiar ‘60s music, e.g. Doors, Beach Boys, Turtles, and descriptions of contemporary clothing – these may bring back memories for readers of a similar age in the ‘60s.
Frankie’s return to real life added trauma to trauma. She had left hoping to make her family (particularly her father) and her country proud. But she was treated like a pariah, and the dissonance between her pride in ‘making a real difference’ and the denial from both her family and the veterans’ associations from which she sought help that she’d even been to Vietnam contributed to her unravelling. (Her father had told friends Frankie had been studying in Florence for two years, and the veterans’ support groups flatly stated ‘there were no women in Vietnam’).
Following is a very long journey of healing, interspersed with major setbacks – not unusual for thousands of vets facing abuse and denial of their needs on their return. PTSD was not formally recognised as a distinct mental health disorder until 1980, though it began to come into use in the 1970s in response to the very large number of very damaged Vietnam vets.
The research behind this book ensures the experiences of nurses and soldiers in Vietnam are authentically recounted, however the plot twists hint at a Netflix series in the making. I would have stopped short of the final plot twist, but for all that, I found it an enlightening and gripping read, and was pleased to hear the women’s perspective on experience in Vietnam during the war and stateside. BTW, did you know the Vietnamese call the ‘Vietnam War’ the ‘America War’?
