Book Review: Mrs. Lieutenant, A Sharon Gold Novel

In Mrs. Lieutenant: A Sharon Gold Novel, Phyllis Zimbler Miller tells the lives of four young women who accompany their husbands to Ft. Knox, Kentucky, as the men attend a nine-week Armor Officers Basic (AOB) school.  Set in 1970, in the midst of the war in Vietnam, the couples live with the very real possibility that each man might be sent to fight, and might not return.

The women come from vastly different backgrounds:  Sharon is a Jewish girl from the North side of Chicago who holds liberal social and political views and is accepting of those of other races, religions or family history.  Kim is a Southern Baptist from North Carolina; raised in foster homes, she has been trained to be suspicious of those who are different than she.  Donna was born in Puerto Rico, and grew up as an “Army brat” while her father, an enlisted man, moved the family from one post to another.  Wendy is a black woman from South Carolina; her mother and father, a doctor, have sheltered her from the rampant racial discrimination that has plagued the country.

With the men busy during the days, and with the expectation of the Army that the women will exhibit behavior becoming an officer’s wife, the four struggle to find their place in their new lives.  The realities of off-post housing, one car families and the need to work together on committee bring the four women together for practical and social reasons. 

As they spend more time with each other their relationships gel, they learn to trust one another with their secrets and to rely on the friendships that develop.  Each woman faces a crisis at some point during their time at AOB, and they realize how much they depend on, and appreciate, this support network.

Each chapter is narrated in the third person, in the perspective of one of the four officer’s wives.  Sharon is the thread that binds them together; almost twice as many chapters are devoted to her perspective as to any of the other three women.  In this way, their individual stories blend together into one cohesive novel.  Ms. Miller provides relevant character history as memory or flashback scenes; we get a very clear picture of the experiences that have shaped these women.

The title of the novel, Mrs. Lieutenant, is from a guidebook of the same name, written in early 1970 by Mary Preston Gross.  This booklet was “an invaluable guide for an officer’s wife,” detailing expectations such as proper use of calling cards, acceptable dress for any occasion, and how to host a tea.  Ms. Miller includes a quote from the booklet as well as a true news headline at the start of each chapter; this adds authenticity to the narrative, as well as a sense of urgency as the Vietnam conflict escalates and the casualty rate rises.  

The author herself was a Mrs. Lieutenant at the same time as the fictional Sharon Gold.  Clearly her own observations have added rich detail to the emotions shown by the four main characters.  There are many parallels to our current conflict in Iraq, which will resonate with the general reader, and especially with a reader in a military family.  The book’s website offers discussion group questions, information about how the reader can support military families, copies of authentic documents from Ms. Miller’s time at Ft. Knox, and a glimpse of each main character in out-takes from the book.  Read the first four chapters online; you’ll want to buy the book and read more!

Ms. Miller has previously written a non-fiction Jewish holiday book, Seasons for Celebration, as well as Flipping Burgers and Beyond: Find Your Own Path Through High School, College, and Life.   I was pleased to read in an interview on Fiction Scribe that she is currently at work on not one, but two sequels to Mrs. Lieutenant: A Sharon Gold Novel; the first, Mrs. Lieutenant in Europe detailing Sharon’s time during her husband’s assignment in Germany, the second about her return to civilian life.