Synopses & Reviews
Larry Brown's shattering first novel is the story of two men—strangers—one black, the other white. Both were born and raised in Mississippi. Both fought in Vietnam. Both were gravely wounded. Now, twenty-two years later, both men lie in adjacent beds in a VA hospital. Over the course of a long day and night, they recount their memories, reveal their fears and their dreams, and ponder their fates, until each is irrevocably touched and transformed by the other's life. With great vision, humor, and courage, Brown writes of human tenderness in an unforgettable story about the waste of war.
Review
"An unforgettable, unshakable novel."
Review
"An unforgettable, unshakable novel."
Review
"An unforgettable, unshakable novel."
Review
"An unforgettable, unshakable novel."
Review
"An unforgettable, unshakable novel."
Review
"An unforgettable, unshakable novel."
Synopsis
A powerful story about the waste of war, told with vision, humor, courage, and love.
Synopsis
"A novel of the first order...gripping and virtually seamless....The writing, the characters, and the plot are so compelling that you can't help but stay with the book until its conclusion."--Washington Post Book World
"One sure way to deromanticize tomcat is to show its long-term effects. That's what Larry Brown does in this fine...first novel."--Newsweek
"Brown probes the hard luck of the down and out, the grim realities at the bottom of the scrap....His prose has a dark, horrific urgency. ...a real knockout."--Newsday
Synopsis
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.
About the Author
Larry Brown was born in Lafayette County, Mississippi, where he lived all his life. At the age of thirty, a captain in the Oxford Fire Department, he decided to become a writer and worked toward that goal for seven years before publishing his first book, Facing the Music, a collection of stories, in 1988. With the publication of his first novel, Dirty Work, he quit the fire station in order to write fulltime. Between then and his untimely death in 2004, he published seven more books. His three grown children and his widow, Mary Annie Brown, live near Oxford.