Customer Reviews

Mrs. Lieutenant: A Sharon Gold Novel

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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.

"Mrs. Lieutenant" presents the vivid, personal stories of four young wives as they learn to cope with military life, against the backdrop of America at war--both in Vietnam and at home--in 1970. The four "Mrs. Lieutenants" (they are defined by their husbands' roles) embark on their individual journeys into womanhood, providing us with an intimate, detailed perspective on one of our Nation's most dynamic, unsettling and influential eras.

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

My older brother was at Kent State in 1970 so I well remember both the time and the temper of the nation then. I loved the excerpt and cannot wait to read more.
What a wonderful read, what a wonderful remembrance.

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

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is an author with guts. She tackles the tough topics of race, religion and rank in her novel about four young rookie officers' wives in 1970 while the Vietnam War rages on. And don't forget about the "Rules." While men are dying in an unpopular war overseas, these four young women with very different backgrounds are thrown together into a world where white gloves and the right outfit are expected attire for the proper officer's wife. If only white gloves could protect Sharon, Kim, Wendy and Donna from the harsh realities of military life and the cruel dark places that sometimes exist in the human heart.

Although this story takes place almost 40 years ago, it is so relevant today. Rank still has its privileges, soldiers still die in battle, and some people still cling to outdated rules and old prejudices. Despite some of the unsavory aspects of military life, this novel captures how quickly friendships are made and how most military spouses learn the ropes quickly and are stronger women for it. "Mrs. Lieutenant" is well written and these four main characters will grab your heart and you will come to think of them as friends. You will care about them long after you've finished the last page and closed the book.

Kathleen M. Rodgers ~ author of the award-winning novel "The Final Salute: Together We Live On"

The first few pages give a taste of what's to come in the lives of 4 women from different backgrounds who all end up at Fort Knox shortly after the Kent State shootings. Like all good appetizers, these few pages left me eagerly awaiting the main course.

Phyllis Zimbler Miller's novel, Mrs. Lieutenant: A Sharon Gold Novel, takes a unique look at how young men seeking alternatives to the draft opted for Armor Officer's Basic (AOB) training, while their wives tagged along to Ft. Knox, Kentucky, where the training was held.

Unlike many of the other novels and non-fiction books I have read about the Vietnam War, including those examining the politics of the war, this novel sheds light on how wives, especially new wives, deal with the commitments of their husbands to the military. The novel provides a varied examination of how these women--one Jew (Sharon Gold), one Puerto Rican (Donna Lautenberg), one African-American (Wendy Johnson), and one Southern White Woman (Kim Benton)--struggle with their own convictions regarding the war, their husbands' decisions about their role as soldiers, and how their ethnicity impacts their actions and decisions.

From Sharon's feelings against the war to Donna's experiences as an "army brat" turned officer's wife, this novel takes the reader inside these women's lives and the emotional roller coaster they experience beginning with Day 1 at Ft. Knox. Whether it is dealing with racial discrimination or anti-semitism or just the basic human need to belong, these women struggle against their own biases to find friendship with one another.

The bond these women create at a turbulent time in history is admirable not only because the bond crosses racial lines, but also because it transcends their own fears about their roles as Mrs. Lieutenants and wives.

The novel also sheds light on the thought processes of army officers' decisions to either extend their obligations with the army as part of involuntary definite or the regular army.

Miller's writing technique draws the reader into each character's plight easily, and it is hard not to be pulled into their triumphs, sorrows, and fears. As a former Mrs. Lieutenant herself, it is not surprising that this novel is emotional. The way in which Miller incorporates elements of actual events into her fictional novel is admirable, and it is wonderful to see excerpts from the manual provided to AOB wives, also called Mrs. Lieutenant by Mary Preston Gross.

This novel is about four young army officers wives who meet when their husbands are all assigned training at Ft. Knox, Kentucky in the summer of 1970. They are very different women from very different backgrounds but the circumstances they find themselves in help them to draw together and form unique friendships that they would not have dreamed of in their pre-army life.

Sharon Gold is a Jewish girl from Illinois with a journalism background. She is an anti-war protester but couldn't resist falling in love with an ROTC cadet while she was at Michigan State.

Kim Benton is an orphan from North Carolina who, with her younger sister, was raised in foster care. She has no self-confidence and is married to a controlling, jealous young man.

Wendy Johnson is an African American from South Carolina whose father is a physician. She has been sheltered by her parents her whole life and has little idea of the amount of prejudice in the world.

Donna Lautenberg is Puerto Rican but has lived all over the world because her father is enlisted in the army. She is having trouble adjusting from enlisted life to different social strata of an officer.

These women are only together for nine weeks but in that time they experience situations and deal with issues that break down the barriers of race, religion and class to allow them to form bonds of friendship and trust. In that short time they all grow, change and learn important lessons.

It's a compelling story that seems so real it made me wonder how much is based on actual experiences. I'm looking forward to reading the next Sharon Gold novel!

Mrs. Lieutenant: A Sharon Gold Novel follows four women who spend nine weeks in Fort Knox, Kentucky, as their husbands complete Armor Officers Basic (AOB) training. The book takes place in early 1970, just after the Ohio National Guard kills several Kent State University students during the volatile times of the Vietnam War.

As a former Mrs. Lieutenant herself, Phyllis Zimbler Miller writes from experience, and that experience shines through in a moving novel that showcases the struggles of officers' wives during the Vietnam War. Zimbler Miller does a great job showing the fears of these women as they contend with the fact that their husbands likely will go to war.

I've read novels about serving in the war and the psychological impact of the war on returning soldiers, but until Mrs. Lieutenant, I never read a book about the wives of those men who served. Zimbler Miller's novel is important because it preserves a part of our history, a part that often is overlooked. She also does a marvelous job detailing the anti-war sentiment, racial and religious discrimination, and social divisions within military ranks. Not only did I enjoy reading each woman's story, but I also learned a lot about the military and the expectations of officers' wives.

Read my full review at Diary of an Eccentric.