Mrs. Lieutenant: A Sharon Gold Novel by Phyllis Zimbler Miller Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Mrs. Lieutenant: A Sharon Gold Novel
Book Review: Excellent read
Summary: 4 Stars
I was born in the 60's and I am Canadian - so my take on the Vietnam war is somewhat different than many other people. I have never really had a huge interest in this war, but when I read the description of this book I was extremely curious to find out more about the "unspoken" heroes of this war - the woman (wives, girlfriends, mothers, sisters) of these brave soldiers.
Author Phyllis Zimbler Miller tackles this very subject, in fiction form, in this wonderful novel - that tells us what war was really like - from the perspective of four wives who, although may not be at the front of the war, are certainly living the same fears and emotions as their soldier husband's who have to fight.
In Mrs. Lieutenant, A Sharon Gold Novel, we meet Sharon, Kim, Donna and Wendy who are all army wives with husbands that are about to leave for Vietnam. What I find interesting is that had this been any other time in their lives and not the spring of 1970, chances are these women would never have met.
Sharon, who is the main character is a Northern Jewish anti-war protester, Kim is a Southern Baptist with a jealous husband, Donna is a Puerto Richan who is an army brat and Wendy is a Southern Black who was sheltered for most of her life. At first glance, these woman seem polar opposites of each other - yet the author manages to weave a thread between all of them that will make their friendship and courage bind them together. It is interesting to see that despite all of their differences, they are also incredibly similar.
In Mrs. Lieutenant, these women are all fighting for survival, for the survival of their loved ones and they are all afraid - that one of their own will not make it home.
Written from the points of view of each of these women, we get to see and feel what each woman is feeling, thinking and living - and how each of them deals with their present situation. But more importantly, we get to see how they interact with eath other - which is the crux of this story.
I liked the writing style which is freeflowing and, at times, can be immensely personal. The author pulls no punches on this storyline - this is about Vietnam, its about the war, but its really about 4 strong women who will manage to find themselves throughout all the chaos, fear and pain.
Book Review: Excellent reading...
Summary: 5 Stars
[...]
The setting is 1970, Fort Knox, KY, the Vietnam era. Kim, Donna, Sharon and Wendy were unlikely friends. They had little in common. They came from diverse backgrounds and had very different personalities. Yet these four women join, sharing strength and support for each other. Their husbands are enrolled in nine weeks of officer training.
Sharon is an unlikely officer's wife. She was protesting the war when she met her handsome husband. Wendy is a black woman. In the past, her parents sheltered her from racial prejudice; now she is forced to meet bigotry head on. Donna was an army brat. Kim's husband is extremely jealous. Over a short nine weeks, their friendship grows.
Phyllis Zimbler Miller draws from her own experiences as a Mrs. Lieutenant and creates a fascinating tale of an era I well remember. It was an uncertain time with emotions drawn tight by the war. The officers' wives served their country and citizens just as loyally as their husbands did. "It has been said that when a man acquits a commission the government has gained not one but two the officer and his wife." Miller weaves the voices of each woman into alternating chapters. Miller is a talented writer. The title of this book hints at more books to come, I can only hope. Fans of history and drama will enjoy Mrs. Lieutenant.
Book Review: Well written and well edited
Summary: 5 Stars
Quoting from the back cover:
"In the spring of 1970 - right after the Kent State National Guard shootings and President Nixon's two-month incursion into Cambodia - four newly married young women come together at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, when their husbands go on active duty as officers in the U.S. Army.
"Different as these four women are, they have one thing in common: Their overwhelming fear that, right after these nine weeks of training, their husbands could be shipped out to Vietnam - and they could become war widows.
"Sharon is a Northern Jewish anti-war protester who fell in love with an ROTC cadet; Kim is a Southern Baptist whose husband is intensely jealous; Donna is a Puerto Rican who grew up in an enlisted man's family; and Wendy is a Southern black who parents have sheltered her from the brutal reality of racism in America."
My impression, as I read, was that these four women had more than the fear of becoming war widows in common...they were just plain fearful. After marrying their husbands, they each had made a decision to leave the safety and security of their home to become an officer's wife. They were moving into unknown territory.
Mrs. Lieutenant is written in the third person plus dialogue; each chapter opens with an historical fact ("President Nixon announces he is sending U.S. troops into Cambodia...April 30, 1970) and a guideline for Mrs. Lieutenant ("If the wife is well informed as to what is expected of her, the probability is greater that the officer will have an easier and more successful career.") One aspect of Miller's writing style has a "Dick and Jane" feel about it, i.e. Kim places, Jim leaned, Roberts swats, Kim pulls, Sharon sighs. Otherwise, it reads smoothly, once you're familiar with who's who. It is well written and well edited, and I believe will appeal primarily to women interested in other women's historical experiences and to readers in general interested in the Vietnam period.
Kaye Trout
Reviewer
Book Review: Her Own Private Vietnam
Summary: 4 Stars
When I was a girl in middle school, my homework assignment for one winter evening was to write a Christmas letter to an unknown soldier serving in the jungles of Vietnam.
Vietnam.
At that time, just the word conjured up all sorts of morbid illustrations projected onto the big screen inside my head. I could imagine the intense heat, men, no--mere boys, dressed in fatigues carrying canteens slick with condensation, dog tags dangling from silver chains that jingled perilously as they walked stealthily through foliage that grew thick and frighteningly multitudinous like some big banana leafed forest in a Rousseau painting. The teacher at the time, forbidden to express her views about a war that perplexed the American public urged her class to be kind--these boys were far from home, from the pleasures we took for granted--rides in red convertibles with the tops down, the smell of crispy fries from the new hot burger stand--McDonald's, the look and fresh scent of a pretty girl swinging her newly straightened hair as she glanced behind her to see just who was watching her in her plaid miniskirt and dark tights. . . These random mental snapshots typified the American way of life and justified detouring countless American boys from dreams they had dreamed from the time they were old enough to dream.
I wrote my letter; I don't remember the soldier's name. I knew he was nineteen and probably didn't care about what some sixth grader had to say. While I organized my litany of seasonal trivial events in a neat little handwritten format, I could hear the news--the somber voices of Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather recounting the number of American deaths amidst the cacophony of gunfire and chopper blades.
Uncertainty became something familiar--an old friend like the grim reaper--the shadow of his sickle hovering over all our heads like the darkest rain clouds. The persistent feeling of dread penetrated the sanctity of one's inner spirit like the tattoo of the television's images of helicopters, fire and screaming children.
I thought of my cousin, just ten years older than I was--would he be sent away from the huge family dinners of lasagna and laughter? Would men I knew be receiving letters from young adolescents that they didn't even know? And then on a larger level I wondered if I would be able to sleep at night as the world as I thought it should be would never be the same after all the controversy--the peace marches--draft dodgers running to Canada--the anger over Jane Fonda posing with the Viet Cong--Civil Rights protestors raging in faraway places like Alabama. How would all this effect the dawning of the new era--what the flower children called the `Age of Aquarius?'
Would my soldier ever get my letter? I never received a response, yet somehow that event--that writing of the letter--etched in my memory for all time the sensation of losing control. The boys with low draft numbers were devoid of that sense of managing their lives. ROTC became an option, as being an officer was far better than being an enlisted man. I hadn't thought about my personal origin for that dark feeling of `dread' in a long time--that is until I picked up Phyllis Zimbler Miller's novel, `Mrs. Lieutenant.'
In this, her first Sharon Gold novel, Miller addresses the concerns of this era in American history. Written perhaps as a part memoir--Miller was herself a `Mrs. Lieutenant'--the story is cleverly crafted from the viewpoints of four very different young officers' wives whose lives intersect at Fort Knox in Kentucky during their husbands' AOB training. Choosing from America's vast melting pot of ethnicities and cultural backgrounds, Miller selects wisely, yet not stereotypically, succeeding in exemplifying that no matter how diverse or varied all women carry similar burdens that formulate their personal definition of `dread.'
As the northern Jewish girl, Sharon comes close to that which I am most familiar. Sharon has guts; she questions; she holds firm to her belief system yet remains fiercely loyal to family and friends even though their sensibilities may vary from hers. Her strength is tangible and it changes those around her. Pretty head-turning blonde Kim hails from the South--orphaned as a child and broken by the indifference of a series of foster parents, she clings to the security given to her by her jealous husband who cannot stand the thought of any other man looking at her. Wendy, a black girl from South Carolina, sheltered by her parents, knows nothing of the rampant prejudice encapsulated within the societal microcosm of Fort Knox. Seeking nothing but acceptance, she cringes when her husband decides to go regular Army instead of `indef vol' like most of his classmates. Attractive Latino Donna loves her blonde haired blue-eyed husband dearly, but for her, too, the very word `Vietnam' wreaks havoc in her soul, connoting nothing but death, destruction and possible widowhood. The hopes and aspirations of all four women create a semblance of the `every-woman' of that time. For each of them, the idea of Hell and Vietnam becomes synonymous.
Miller uses an alternating third person voice to delineate her chapters and to flesh out each of the women and their motivations. As each of the women enters `her own private Vietnam', the reader journeys back to that time period, empathizing with the plight of these couples while experiencing a more comprehensive slice of American life from the varying perspectives. Miller's use of popular songs and clothing labels from the early 70s titillated this reader--again I haven't thought about many of these iconic items for years. Ms. Miller, I thank you not only for the compelling story, but also for refreshing my memory.
Bottom line? Phyllis Zimbler Miller has fashioned her own remembrance of things past in her novel, "Mrs. Lieutenant." Her main characters sing out against the things that disturb them most about life in the early 70s while trying to adjust to being the wives of new second lieutenants and come to terms with their individual desires. As a one time `Mrs. Lieutenant,' Miller's voice rings true in each of her incarnations. The pages fly by in this introspective novel of friendship told beneath the cloud of Vietnam. Recommended, especially to those children of the 60s and early 70s. For me, this author made this era shake off the dust of the past and again become a viable entity--one that rumbled with turbulence and defined those dark specters of dread that remain with us till this day.
Diana Faillace Von Behren
"reneofc"
Book Review: Best read in years.
Summary: 5 Stars
This book was a wonderful. I could not put it down. I cared about each women. The author kept us involved with the time in history and the struggles of the era for women and minorities. I HIGHLY recommend this novel.