REVIEW: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

REVIEW

If you are following along, it's evident that I went on a Kristin Hannah kick; I was so curious about the novels that the interwebs kept raving about, so I got on the Libby waiting list for The Nightingale. Here's what I'm starting to understand about Kristin Hannah books: 

• prepare for the emotional rollercoaster
• are set in historically accurate and important time periods
• the novel will be well researched
• there's a twist (because, duh, what novel doesn't have that?), but it's usually not hard to predict

I can definitely see why readers fell in love with this novel: it features a time period that is important, and currently relevant: WWII, has two wildly different sisters who experience the war very differently, has lots of interesting and horrifying details, and spans decades--so it feels like a rich and satisfying read. I, too, enjoyed (if you can say that you enjoy reading about truly horrifying events?) reading this novel, and I'm pretty selective these days about which WWII novels I read. I'll be honest, I was prepared not to like it because I thought it might be overhyped, but it was actually really interesting and I cared about Vianne and Isabelle. They each had such varied and different experiences and handled the hard upbringing and hardships and obstacles of WWII very differently, and yet, the love that they had for each other and the people they surrounded themselves with was deep and abiding, though not always obvious to each other. 

The Nightingale probably won't beat out The Women, but it's probably on par with it. They're both memorable and engaging and will leave any reader with experiences that are hard to forget.

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SYNOPSIS:

In love we find out who we want to be.
In war we find out who we are.

FRANCE, 1939

In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says good-bye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France…but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When a German captain requisitions Vianne’s home, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive.

Vianne’s sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets Gaëtan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can…completely. But when he betrays her, Isabelle joins the Resistance and never looks back, risking her life time and again to save others.

 

REVIEW: The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

 

OUR REVIEW:

After reading The Women by Kristin Hannah, I found myself very curious about her other works, so when this The Great Alone went on sale, I grabbed it. After reading it, I can definitely see that her curiosity about the impacts of Vietnam had to have been piqued, as it feels like the little sister novel of The Women. She explores PTSD via a male secondary character and his family. We see the damage that it wreaks on a family as they learn to survive in the beautiful, but unforgiving, land of Alaska. Leni and her mother try to weather the storms of her father, but as the days get darker and shorter, living with him gets harder and harder. 

The novel is filled with the beautiful and wild landscape of Alaska, as well as the people who migrate there. It's harsh and yet filled with community and love...and paranoia. We follow Leni from her early teen years to her adulthood as she struggles to find herself and what makes her heart sing. It's not the easiest novel to read, and not my favorite of Kristin Hannah's, but it was definitely a compelling read. 

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SYNOPSIS:

Alaska, 1974.
Unpredictable. Unforgiving. Untamed.
For a family in crisis, the ultimate test of survival.

Ernt Allbright, a former POW, comes home from the Vietnam war a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes an impulsive decision: he will move his family north, to Alaska, where they will live off the grid in America’s last true frontier.

Thirteen-year-old Leni, a girl coming of age in a tumultuous time, caught in the riptide of her parents’ passionate, stormy relationship, dares to hope that a new land will lead to a better future for her family. She is desperate for a place to belong. Her mother, Cora, will do anything and go anywhere for the man she loves, even if it means following him into the unknown.

At first, Alaska seems to be the answer to their prayers. In a wild, remote corner of the state, they find a fiercely independent community of strong men and even stronger women. The long, sunlit days and the generosity of the locals make up for the Allbrights’ lack of preparation and dwindling resources.

But as winter approaches and darkness descends on Alaska, Ernt’s fragile mental state deteriorates and the family begins to fracture. Soon the perils outside pale in comparison to threats from within. In their small cabin, covered in snow, blanketed in eighteen hours of night, Leni and her mother learn the terrible truth: they are on their own. In the wild, there is no one to save them but themselves.

In this unforgettable portrait of human frailty and resilience, Kristin Hannah reveals the indomitable character of the modern American pioneer and the spirit of a vanishing Alaska―a place of incomparable beauty and danger. The Great Alone is a daring, beautiful, stay-up-all-night story about love and loss, the fight for survival, and the wildness that lives in both man and nature.

REVIEW: The Women by Kristin Hanna

 

OUR REVIEW:

The minute I saw the title and cover of The Women, I scanned the synopsis and knew I'd have to read it. I've been craving a novel about a woman's experience in Vietnam ever since I read Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried and was hoping to find a novel to be its counterpart in my classes. While The Women most likely won't be paired with The Things They Carried, I do foresee myself recommending it to many.

The Women follows the story of Frankie, a young, naive woman who signs up to be a nurse in Vietnam after her brother volunteers to go. Her hope is to not only join her brother, but to follow in the family tradition of serving in the military, with her ultimate hope that she'll make her family proud. Much to her chagrin, her parents are mildly horrified but she's still hoping to make them proud when she leaves to serve. 

Her first days in Vietnam are foreshadowing her tour there--filled with chaos, nightmarish conditions, horrific injuries, a dawning realization that maybe we shouldn't be there, and the making of lifelong friendships that will help her through the next decades. 

Frankie not only learns that she's made of tougher stuff--through the trials, terror, and harrowing conditions she has to work in--she also learns about love and disappointment and friendship and loss. And with all of those lessons to carry her home, she arrives to the worst thing--U.S. citizens being horrible to her when she arrives on foreign soil, along with her parents being complete assholes. She tries to reacclimate and tries to do all of the right things to help heal her trauma from the last years she's experienced, but she cannot catch a break and it seems that with every good thing that occurs, she has a devastating event to wipe out all positive steps forward. It takes years and years, and truly hitting the very bottom for her to finally find a life that allows her some peace and fulfillment. 

I don't have many complaints about this novel, but if I did, I suppose one of them would be that just when we see her connect with someone very special, it fades to black. It made the ending bittersweet because I think we all want that extra zing of happiness for her after all she's been through. I suppose that's the beauty of this novel--these characters begin to feel like real people and you want so much for them to be happy and healthy and you hate that the novel ever has to end.

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SYNOPSIS:

From the celebrated author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds comes Kristin Hannah's The Women—at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided.

Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her 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.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.

But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.