Overview:
The novel takes place over a period of two days in a VA hospital. Walter James, a white veteran of the Vietnam war, has just been admitted. Walter has a completely reconstructed face and suffers from frequent seizures and blackouts as a result of a fragment of bullet embedded in his brain.
Braiden Chaney is a black man who lost both of his arms and legs from gunfire in the Vietnam War. He has been in the VA hospital for 22 years at the start of the novel. The novel is structured in the stream of consciousness style. Much of the novel takes place in the mind of Braiden as Braiden is forced to construct elaborate fantasies, most of which involve his being a king in Africa, to escape the plight of his physical state.
Most of the novel consists of dialogue between the two men. They tell each other their respective stories, mostly during the course of one night, while they drink beer and smoke pot that Braiden's sister has smuggled into the hospital for him. The novel is ultimately a theodicy as it attempts to explain the paradox of evil in a world created by an omnipotent God. Braiden has several conversations with Jesus throughout the novel, and while the reader is left to determine whether they are fantasies or real conversations, the novel implies that they are real.
The plot of the novel borrows from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which is referenced in the novel. Braiden along with his sister eventually convinces Walter to kill him, effectively ending the miserable existence he has led for the last 22 years. The novel ends with this event, and Walter reflects, "I knew that somewhere Jesus wept."
“A powerful and original work all its own that moves along in short, staccato chapters with indisputably authentic language.”
— The New York Times
“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 of the most powerful antiwar novels in American literature.”
— The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Stunning power…. Dirty Work makes the human cost of war achingly real.”
— USA Today
“Brown continues to probe the hard luck of the down and out, the grim realities at the bottom of the scrap heap…. [His] prose has a dark, horrific urgency…. A real knockout.”
— New York Newsday
“One sure way to deromanticize combat is to show its long-term effects. That’s what Larry Brown does in this fine … first novel.”
— Newsweek
“[Brown] has accomplished that rarest of feats…. This is an unforgettable, unshakable novel. In it, griefs and joys are met head-on, with a force that is both subtle and powerful—and, above all, compassionate.”
— The New York Times Book Review
“An unsparing book, at once brutal and compassionate, horrible, yet funny, too.”
— The Raleigh News & Observer
“A spare and inventive novel.”
— The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Courageous…. It’s hard to imagine a more powerful effect than the one Brown creates with his attentive, unsparing prose.”
— St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Brown has created two fully realized, believable—and often very funny—characters…. No one who reads this book is likely to forget them.”
— The Houston Post
“With nods to Johnny Got His Gun and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the book depicts the horrendous results of war and the insufferable boredom of institutional life. Despite the bleak subject matter, the narrative is sprightly and yields surprising pockets of humor and a powerful epiphany.”
— The Cleveland Plain Dealer
“A raw, unflinching look at how war brings down the strongest men, and the prose of Larry Brown, an ex-Marine, is lean, powerful and effective.”
— The Baltimore Sun
“Powerful and gritty.”
— Richmond Times-Dispatch
“Compelling, even inspiring…. Should go down as one of the classics in Vietnam fiction.”
— Gannett News Service
“A story that hasn’t been told often enough, and seldom as well as Brown tells it.”
— Detroit Free Press
“Brown has staked a large claim among the very finest of the new generation of Southern writers.”
— The State (Columbia, SC)
“Bursts with power and humanity.”
— Chattanooga Times
“A powerhouse novel, a dynamic performance…. Explodes like a land mine and leaves the reader dizzy with shock.”
— The Kansas City Star
“A stunning novel…. It is tough, powerful and full of message and is certain to be dubbed the definitive antiwar book…. But it is, on another level, the story of compassion and faith and love between two men who … transcend the sentimental and ordinary to truly be their brother’s keeper.”
— The Chattanooga News-Free Press
“Larry Brown packs a wallop…. Gripping.”
— Arkansas Democrat Gazette
“A must read for everyone who cares about what makes people, not just war ravaged people but all of us, tick.”
— The Natchez (MS) Democrat
“A novel certainly equal to Johnny Got His Gun.”
— Kirkus Reviews
ENJOYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
And Blessed Are The Ones Who Care For Their Fellow Men!
No comments:
Post a Comment