The Women by Kristin Hannah
I don’t know if this is a review,
Or a poem,
Or a lament,
Or a letter to Kristin.
It’s all of that and more.
Every page of the book
A commentary on my youth,
All of the moments
And music
And memories, the sadness that comes back to get us at the most
unpredictable of times, the disappointments, the outrage and the rage,
All of it tied to Nam, whether or not we were there –
Because Nam was the theme and the backdrop, and the hopes – all dashed!
Kristin Hannah’s “The Women” brings it all back and brings it all forward
and captures it all
Again.
The bullshit myths we all believed, The War destroyed them all!
Watergate and the Challenger crash , the Church Committee
911 and Iraq and Afghanistan, and January 6 – It just continues,
But the beginning, the turning point, the losses – so many losses!– That’s
where it all began
With Nam.
If you ever foolishly or unthinkingly or stupidly – wondered why there had
to be a second memorial to make the Wall complete, then, Kristin’s book
will tell you why!
I put off reading the book.
I knew it would make me sad,
So much sadness around, everywhere, every day, every news break, every
fucking minute.
Then,
I picked it up and couldn’t stop. I was back in 1966
Friends and profs and dawning awareness nudging me into thinking,
rethinking,
Re-thinking
All of the lies about Nam,
About patriots
About civilians
And loss
And wasted lives and broken promises
Remembering me, marching, marching, marching – infuriating parents and
uncles and adults who couldn’t imagine that an American war wasn’t a noble
cause. I was back on my own R&R in Hawaii, terrified that the boy I loved
He was short
Might not make it home to me,
Back on that endless terrible horrible plane ride home
With the Marines, also flying back home,
Spewing contempt for the hippie girl
Crying
I put off reading the book because I imagined myself sobbing throughout,
but the tears held off until the story came to the Wall – and now, those
tears are likely to be ever present, as they remind all of us,
Post War Babies,
About what
And who
we lost;
How much we cannot forget and how much and How many Americans we need to
tell:
End the war
End the war
End the war
The wars
The mantra repeats
The marches never cease
The losses
Never
End.
Thank you, Kristin Hannah, for writing a beautiful novel. Let it be widely
read. And taken to heart,
The boys
The babies
The fathers, the mothers, the civilians, the docx, the nurses,
The pilots and the bombers and the bombed
The women.
We need your truth
And
You need ours.
