Kristin Hannah-home front

I've read a few books by Kristin Hannah and I think, without fail, I've liked every single one.  Of course, she tends to fall into the sort of books I love, some romance, a major conflict of some sort, and family connections.

This one was no exception.  Jolene Zarkades grew up in an alcoholic home with parents who were neglectful.  When they died in a car crash when she was seventeen, she swore that her family would never be like that and that she would never depend on a man the way her mother had.

And she succeeds.  Knowing the choices she has to move up in the world, she picks the best one for her situation, joining the military and becoming a female pilot.  There she meets her best friend, another female pilot who grew up in the exact opposite setting.


They both get married and move into houses next door and both have children.  They both realize that being in the military full time is not conducive to raising a family and so they do what many families do and join the National Guard.  Among the several differences between Jolene and her best friend, Tami, one of the major ones is that Tami's husband is completely supportive of Tami's desire to be in the service and makes a point to pick up the slack on the weekends when Tami and Jolene are at guard duty.

Beyond the fact that Michael, Jolene's husband isn't supportive of Jolene's military service, the two of them are becoming more and more distant.  They have a twelve year old and nearly four year old and Jolene is quickly becoming the primary caretaker for her kids while Michael becomes more and more immersed in his work as a defense attorney.

Towards the end of spring 2005, two major events happen.  The first is that Jolene and Tami are called up to active duty and Michael declares that he no longer loves Jolene.  This happens within two weeks of Jolene and Tami leaving for Fort Hood and then in-country to Iraq.

Jolene is forced to both deal with her daughters as the family prepares for deployment and the unraveling of her marriage.  At the same time Michael has taken on defending a young man who has been accused of shooting his wife.  It comes out very quickly that this young man served in Iraq and had some horrible duties over there.

It's hard to decide who has the more powerful experience while Jolene is in Iraq-her, clearly with the experience of being a soldier in the middle of a war zone, or Michael, who prior to the war had never really bought into the life of being a military family.  He had never been patriotic and never understood what exactly went into a true military family and being a true supportive spouse of a serving military person.

I am always fascinated by the portrayal of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in fiction and think that this novel did a very good job of portraying the difficulties of both the person suffering from PTSD and those who are living with that person.