Dirty Work is the story of two men, strangers—one white, the other black. Both were born and raised in Mississippi. Both fought in Vietnam. Both were gravely wounded. Now, twenty-two years later, the two men lie in adjacent beds in a VA hospital.Over the course of a day and a night, Walter James and Braiden Chaney talk of memories, of passions, of fate.
With great vision, humor, and courage, Brown writes mostly about love in a story about the waste of war.
From Publishers Weekly
Two devastatingly wounded Vietnam vets, Chaney, who is black, and James, white, both sons of the South, lie in a veteran's hospital and talk freely about combat, movies, sex, old loves, their boyhoods, how it feels to kill a man and why God allows wars to happen. PW described this novel as "wrenching" and "memorable." Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"There has been no anti-war novel . . . quite like Dirty Work."—The New York Times (The New York Times )
"A novel of the first order. . . . A gem."—The Washington Post (The Washington Post )
"Explodes like a land mine. . . . A marvelous book."—The Kansas City Star (The Kansas City Star )
Description:
Dirty Work is the story of two men, strangers—one white, the other black. Both were born and raised in Mississippi. Both fought in Vietnam. Both were gravely wounded. Now, twenty-two years later, the two men lie in adjacent beds in a VA hospital.Over the course of a day and a night, Walter James and Braiden Chaney talk of memories, of passions, of fate.
With great vision, humor, and courage, Brown writes mostly about love in a story about the waste of war.
From Publishers Weekly
Two devastatingly wounded Vietnam vets, Chaney, who is black, and James, white, both sons of the South, lie in a veteran's hospital and talk freely about combat, movies, sex, old loves, their boyhoods, how it feels to kill a man and why God allows wars to happen. PW described this novel as "wrenching" and "memorable."
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"There has been no anti-war novel . . . quite like Dirty Work."—The New York Times (The New York Times )
"A novel of the first order. . . . A gem."—The Washington Post (The Washington Post )
"Explodes like a land mine. . . . A marvelous book."—The Kansas City Star (The Kansas City Star )
"A real knockout."—New York Newsday (Newsday )