Recent Reviews
The Women by Kristin Hannah
Women are heroes is the theme of Kristin Hannah’s newest novel, The Women. Since the experience of men dominate history , women are often absent from the depictions of war. In this novel, Hannah seeks to acknowledge and highlight the courageous and competent women who served in the Army Nurse Corps during the Vietnam War. With a few exceptions, these women who nursed and saved US soldiers have been relegated to the fringes of history.
This story focuses on 21-year-old Frankie McGrath, who enlisted in the Army Nurse Corps in 1965. Frankie is from San Diego, California, and decides somewhat impetuously to follow her brother’s example and serve her country in Vietnam. Had she stayed in her hometown, her conservative parents expected her to find a husband and have children. What Frankie experiences in Vietnam is gruesome and terrifying. But with the support of numerous nurses and doctors, she adapts to the barrage of injured and dead soldiers helicoptered into her evacuation hospital in the jungle.
As harrowing as being a nurse in Vietnam was, her return to the United States was even more treacherous. Many Americans criticized enlisted soldiers for participating in a morally unconscionable war. Even fellow Army vets would not acknowledge that women served in Vietnam. Frankie was traumatized by what she saw in Vietnam, but the dismissive way she was treated when she returned was its own kind of trauma. Her family didn’t want to hear about her experience and even other Veterans refused to recognize her service. Months after her return, she descends into a dark place.
This novel is a quick and informative read. Hannah’s research brings the details of Frankie’s Vietnam experience to life. Unfortunately, many characters are not fully developed and the romantic ending is a bit unrealistic. But those facts don’t diminish the importance of chronicling and celebrating the contributions of the brave women who served in Vietnam and Hannah has done just that. 4/5
beyond that, the sea by Laura Spence-Ash
There is heart and soul in this beautiful novel by Laura Spence-Ash. Her writing is layered with astute reflections about familial love, conflicting loyalties, time passing, and the long road to understanding and forgiveness. The writing is warm and intimate, and there is no violence or treachery. As of April 2024, this is my favorite book of the year.
In 1940, when the German bombing of London became acute, Reg and Millie Thompson sent their only child, Beatrix, to America to keep her safe. After a two-week boat ride to Boston, an angry and frightened 11-year-old Beatrix meets Ethan and Nancy Gregory and their two sons, William and Gerald. She is warmly welcomed, assigned her own room and spends five formative summers with her new family on their private island in Maine. Nancy Gregory bathed her gently when she arrived. Ethan Gregory taught her to swim. William and Gerald seamlessly included her in their adventures. Her initial fear and loneliness gave way to feelings of comfort and inclusion. The Gregory’s come to love Beatrix, whom they now call Bea, and she comes to love them. Her life is changed forever, as is theirs.
Bea's parents hoped their daughter would be safe and happy and far from the danger in London. "They sent her away so she could have a childhood. They hadn't realized, though, that their decision meant that her childhood would, instead, be taken away from them." When the war ends, Bea is back on a boat to London. She doesn't want to return and would rather stay in this happy home with people who pay close attention to her needs. After five years away from London, Bea’s American family's warmth and emotional habits comfort her.
But to her London home, Bea returns.
Each of the Gregory family members feels Beatrix's absence. They leave her bedroom intact. After the war, the Gregory family members send Bea letters, and William visits Bea in London. As they move through their twenties and thirties, both sons miss Bea and struggle to find peace in their adult relationships. Meanwhile, Bea is angry with her mother and strives to establish her life in London as an adult. The war years were a formative and life-changing experience for Beatrix, her parents and the Gregory family. Each of these eight characters shares the narration, a testament to Spence-Ash's writing skills.
Gentle and warm, Spence-Ash combines descriptions of daily activities with an emotional log. The story is told over decades and illuminates the evolving bond between Bea and the Gregory’s, (especially the two sons) and the expanding distance between Bea and her parents. The past persistently hovers in each character's thoughts as they wrestle with their complicated and conflicted feelings. The novel reads like the journals of these eight characters as they each sort out their feelings about that monumental and influential time in their lives. This quiet novel is filled with grace. 5/5
Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neill
Eugene O’Neill won the Pulitzer Prize posthumously for his powerful play Long Day’s Journey Into Night. First performed in the United States in 1956, the play is considered O’Neill’s finest and most autobiographical work. Both critics and audiences praised the play for its raw emotional content.
Long Day’s Journey Into Night takes place in the Connecticut home of the Tyrone family over a day in 1912. Tyrone is the last name O’Neill gave to this family that replicated his own. He retained the names of his father, James, his mother, Mary, and his brother, Jamie Jr., but changed his name in the play to Edmund. When the story begins, the family members are conversing happily and lovingly. Yet two upsetting pieces of information regarding Mary, the mother, and Edmund, the youngest son, change the tone of the family discourse. Instead of tenderness and sympathy, there are accusations and recriminations. Mary Tyrone states, “We’ve loved each other! We always will! Let’s remember only that, and not try to understand what we cannot understand, or help things that cannot be helped-the things life has done to us we cannot excuse or explain.”
As the light of day fades into the darkness of night, each family member articulates grievances, anger, and blame for the family’s fate. Unfortunately, this family does not believe in verbal restraint. The origins of this dysfunctional dynamic are complex, though a few clues are provided. In a different era, therapy might have helped the situation.
Exacerbating the situation, James Tyrone and his two grown sons are alcoholics, and Mary Tyrone struggles with morphine addiction. Like all people, each character has charming characteristics but also fatal flaws. Though not uplifting, the dialogue is immersive and enriched by references to literature, religion and theater. Like Arthur Miller’s Death of Salesman, this book echoes the first family of literature, Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel.
So, why would one want to spend a couple of hours with four dysfunctional individuals? Because the playwriting is excellent and insightful about the human condition. O’Neill illuminates how unprocessed emotions can shape the course of lives without the person’s knowledge. The play moves forward while pulling readers into the past to find clues as to why the characters behave the way they do. Great literature embodies empathy and understanding, and O’Neill is a skilled practitioner.
