Dirty Work

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 WeeklyTwo 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 )