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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Best of Everything for Vietnam-Era Miltary Wives, May 27, 2008
This review is from: Mrs. Lieutenant: A Sharon Gold Novel (Paperback)
Phyllis Miller sent me this book after seeing my name on an Internet forum. I was a little concerned because many first novels are really amateurish, almost embarrassing to read.
But I really liked Mrs. Lieutenant. Miller is a writer. She knows how to set up her story and make the characters seem real. Her pacing was good: I didn't want to stop reading. The story arc was strong.
As I read, I was reminded of Rona Jaffe's classic, The best of everything, made into a movie that captured the 50s era career woman.
What Jaffe did for the college graduate in publishing, Miller does for the Vietnam era junior officer's wife.
Those women reminded me of my college classmates who married right out of college (even though they weren't all college grads). Women were expected to marry. They had uneasy relationships with their husbands. They worried about what to wear and what to cook. And they lived in those awful apartments! I visited friends with husbands in grad school, living in student housing and eating budget meals...very similar.
Miller captures the freshness and naiveté of those women, all transplanted to an environment that forced them to deal with new challenges. They met people who were really different from themselves in religion, values, child rearing styles and of course accents. They're so nervous when summoned to tea with the commanding officer and they wear gloves...gloves!
We didn't get too much insight into the men's days at Armor School in Fort Knox. They didn't seem to have homework and they didn't talk about getting uniforms ready and other details of their world.
As a survivor of that era, not married myself, I watched my friends grow into the Women's Movement just five years later. They went back to school, finished graduate degrees and told their husbands, "It's my turn now." Some got divorced. Some just went through a rocky patch.
I just watched the PBS series, Carrier. Commentaries noted that officers' wives have their own careers now. They're doctors, lawyers, psychologists and teachers. Watching families join sailors at the end of the cruise, you could see how much the military has changed. For one thing, women are flying planes off carrier decks and running traffic control rooms.
So what I take away from Mrs. Lieutenant is a trip down memory lane. I can remember not just the hairstyles but also the tight social fabric, the awkward social situations when you had to do the right thing, the young women rushing into marriages instead of taking time to have their own lives.
Miller subtitles the book "A Sharon Gold Novel," suggesting she will write more. I hope she does.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A delightful read, May 27, 2008
This review is from: Mrs. Lieutenant: A Sharon Gold Novel (Paperback)
This is a very delightful reading about four women whose husbands are in officer training class down in Kentucky. The women themselves are four different individuals from different parts of the country. There's Sharon, the main character, from Chicago and Jewish and against the Vietnam war, but she supports her husband's decision to be enlisted as an officer. There is Kim, an orphan from the south, married to a votalile man and she has endured more life tragedies than a person should bear in one lifetime. There is Donna, a Puerto Rican who is an army brat and has seen the world through her father's deployment to different bases. She is happily married to her husband, even if he is a white man. Then there's Wendy, a Southern Black woman, faced the prejudices of being a black woman in the midst of the deep South.
Together these women became friends and bonded together during the six-week officer training course. Together, these women learned what it means to be an officer's wife in the midst of a traumatic turmoil that is racking the United States. Together, they faced personal trials and came through it knowing that friendships will endure.
This is a delightful reading from an author who is making her fictional novel debut. It is a quick read and an intense one. The characters' voices will linger long after the last page has been turned.
5/27/08
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mrs.Lieutenant: A thorougly authentic story, December 1, 2011
This review is from: Mrs. Lieutenant: A Sharon Gold Novel (Paperback)
I first became aware of "Mrs. Lieutenant" when it was an Amazon fiction finalist several years ago. However, I didn't read it (on Kindle) until this year. I was an Air Force lieutenant's wife during the same era in which "Mrs. Lieutenant" is set. I so related to many of the social--and emotional--situations Phyllis Zimbler Miller includes in her debut novel. As a new Air Force wife, just out of college, I felt brain-dead when thrown into squadron baby showers and non-stop talk about diapers and formula. The fear of a husband's assignment to Vietnam loomed as large in real life as it does in this novel. A few years later, my husband was assigned to a base in California. Women were not allowed to wear pants to the officer's club, but the all-male O' Club 'casual bar' had strippers every Friday night! The military, especially in those days, could be a contradiction in terms...THIS is one of the things this author just flat-out nailed. This book also reminded me of the active-duty husbands who didn't want their wives involved in any squadron activity with other women--because they were afraid it would cost them money. As the wife of a squadron, and later, a group commander, I came to view that mind-set as more than selfish, I clearly viewed it as emotional abuse, especially overseas. Other wives (and to be PC TODAY) other SPOUSES need that informal support group of friends. In the military, one's friends ARE their family away from home--and sometimes 'home' is a continent or more away. Those vital friends are the ones who will 'be there' in a pinch--especially when husbands are deployed. In the military, friends are as much life-lines as are blood relatives. Women/spouses who haven't had an opportunity or taken the initiative to nourish those friendships can find themselves in precarious situations, not to mention trapped in unspeakable loneliness and even fear. Phyllis Zimbler Miller beautifully portrays the importance of those military friendships. Her story also illustrates how military personnel and their families are thrown together with people from all walks of life, all socio-economic levels, and all faiths. The author of "Mrs .Lieutenant" is not only a fine writer, her psychological reasoning is evident. Her book was obviously written with psychological wisdom that only comes with time and maturity. The jealous husband isn't jealous because his wife has cheated in the past--he's jealous because HE has cheated. It is guilt that drives his jealous rage. This book should be required reading for every contemporary military spouse, the families of our servicemen and women, and civilians who want to understand the lifestyle of our men and women in uniform. The military isn't just a job or career, it is a WAY OF LIFE that can't be fully understood by those who haven't lived it. Phyllis Zimbler Miller's "Mrs. Lieutenant" makes it clear--this is a life she understands at the deepest level. ~Bonnie Bartel Latino
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