Soldier Girls: The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War
Helen Thorpe, 2014
Scribner
416 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781451668100
Summary
A groundbreaking account of three women deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, and how their military service affected their friendship, their personal lives, and their families.
America has been continuously at war since the fall of 2001. This has been a matter of bitter political debate, of course, but what is uncontestable is that a sizeable percentage of American soldiers sent overseas in this era have been women.
The experience in the American military is, it’s safe to say, quite different from that of men. Surrounded and far outnumbered by men, imbedded in a male culture, looked upon as both alien and desirable, women have experiences of special interest.
In Soldier Girls, Helen Thorpe follows the lives of three women over twelve years on their paths to the military, overseas to combat, and back home…and then overseas again for two of them. These women, who are quite different in every way, become friends, and we watch their interaction and also what happens when they are separated. We see their families, their lovers, their spouses, their children.
We see them work extremely hard, deal with the attentions of men on base and in war zones, and struggle to stay connected to their families back home. We see some of them drink too much, have illicit affairs, and react to the deaths of fellow soldiers. And we see what happens to one of them when the truck she is driving hits an explosive in the road, blowing it up. She survives, but her life may never be the same again.
Deeply reported, beautifully written, and powerfully moving, Soldier Girls is truly groundbreaking. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1963
• Where—London, England, UK
• Raised—Medford, New Jersey, US
• Education—B.A., Princeton University; M.A., Columbia University
• Currently—lives in Denver, Colorado
Helen Thorpe is an author and freelance journalist living in Denver, Colorado, who has written for major American newspapers and magazines, and has authored two books.
Thorpe attended Princeton University, graduating Magna Cum Laude. In 1989, she attended Columbia University as a gradudate student, receiving a Master's degree in English literature.
Some of her first jobs following following her graduation from Princeton were in Boston, working as a waitress and as an unpaid intern at the Atlantic Monthly. She then worked for a short time at both the New York Observer as a staff writer, and then, having caught the attention of editor Tina Brown, for The New Yorker. In 1994, she was hired by Texas Monthly and moved to Austin. She left the magazine in 1999.
Her stories have also been published in George, New York, Westword, New York Times Magazine, and 5280. She wrote "Talk of the Town" for the The New Yorker, and has written for Slate and Harper's Bazaar.
Thorpe also published two books entitled Soldier Girls: The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War (2014), and Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America (2011), which deals heavily with aspects of immigration into the United States.
She worked in radio, producing stories that were broadcast on This American Life and Soundprint, and is a board member of the Women’s Foundation of Colorado.
Personal life
She was born in London, England and was raised in Medford, New Jersey.[10]
Thorpe's father, Larry, was born in Dublin, Ireland and was an engineer for the BBC Radio in London. Her mother is Marie Brady from Virginia, County Cavan. When she was 18, she left home to study nursing in London, where they met.
When Thorpe was one, the family moved to New Jersey so that Larry could accept a job for RCA. Thorpe remained on her mother's Irish passport holding dual Irish/British citizenship. She became a US citizen when she was 21.
Her husband was John Hickenlooper, the Governor of Colorado. The two met in 2000 at her 37th birthday party while she was living in Texas. Not yet Mayor of Denver, he and had accompanied a mutual friend to the party. The couple married in January 2002 with a Quaker wedding ceremony in Austin. Their son, Teddy, was born in 2002; however, in 2012, the couple announced plans to separate amicably after 10 years of marriage. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 9/4/2014.)
Book Reviews
…compelling…The debate over women in combat; the difficulties faced by women in the military (from sexual harassment within their units to service in countries where women lead highly circumscribed lives); the stress that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars placed on the American armed services and on individual soldiers with multiple deployments—such highly complex matters are all made palpably real through the prism of this book's three heroines' lives…Ms. Thorpe's sharply drawn portraits are novelistic in their emotional detail and candor.
Michiko Kakutani - New York Times
Helen Thorpe's comprehensively researched new book…is a breakthrough work that spans 12 years of these women's lives, beginning just before the attacks on the twin towers…Through minute, almost claustrophobic, detail—using military and medical records, as well as therapists' notes and personal correspondence—Thorpe achieves a staggering intimacy with her subjects…What Thorpe accomplishes in Soldier Girls is something far greater than describing the experiences of women in the military. The book is a solid chunk of American history—detailing the culture's failings, resilience and progress.
Cara Hoffman - New York Times Book Review
In the tradition of Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, Richard Rhodes, and other masters of literary journalism, Soldier Girls is utterly absorbing, gorgeously written, and unforgettable.
Boston Globe
A thoughtful, fascinating and often heartbreaking account... Thorpe manages to burrow deeply into the lives of these women...incredibly intimate.
Miami Herald
(Starred review.) Moving... Highlighting how profoundly military service changed their lives--and the lives of their families--this visceral narrative illuminates the role of women in the military, the burdens placed on the National Guard, and the disproportionate burden of these wars borne by the poor.
Publishers Weekly
Thorpe provides a mass of detail on daily life, so much that it becomes almost mind-numbing despite the appealing humanity of these women. Verdict: [An] intimate narrative...[and] great insight into military life. —Edwin Burgess, U.S. Army Combined Arms Research Lib., Fort Leavenworth, KS
Library Journal
(Starred review.) Thorpe fills this gripping tale with the women’s own words, texts, and letters (from friends and their children, as well), and the story is engrossing and heartbreaking at once.
Booklist
(Starred review.) [A]bsorbing...how wartime experiences shaped the lives and friendships of three female soldiers.... The women would disagree about the value of the time they spent swept up in unexpected wars, yet...none would ever question the ...love and support they gave to each other.... Intensely immersive.
Kirkus Reviews
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