The lives of army wives

Press, 5 June 1982, Page 16

The lives of army wives

The Officers’ Wives. By Thomas Fleming. W. H. Allen, 1981. 645 pp. $19.95. The wives of three ambitious graduates from the United States Military Academy at West Point soon learn that there is “a right way, a wrong way, and an Army way” of doing things. Thomas Fleming’s novel traces their experiences through two decades, from the combined wedding day in 1950, through the Korean War and to the height of the Vietnam War. Beginning amd ending with the funeral of the brilliant, but unruly member of the officer trio, the story tells of how the three women -cope (or fail to cope) with

marriage to the Army. “History,”, writes Fleming, “tormented the wives more than the husbands. The men at least had the consolation of duty done, courage proven. . That solace seemed denied to the wives.” Forced to run the gauntlet of ambition, romance, career, combat, death, ’ passion and rejection, each wife cracks under the pressure and strives to pick up the pieces in her own way, while the cogs of the monolithic Army establishment turn relentlessly on. Of obvious interest to military officers and their wives, this book could also be read productively by those interested in fathoming their partner’s dedication to their job, and in turn for the obsessed to understand their partner’s predicament. - Geoff Mein.