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Dirty Work

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Dirty Work

By: Larry Brown
Narrated by: Peter Francis James, Ed Sala
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About this listen

 This gripping novel is not only one of the best books written about Vietnam; it is also one of the most powerful anti-war novels in American literature.

Walter James has no face. Braiden Chaney has no arms or legs. They lost them 22 years ago, in Vietnam. Now, in the course of one long night in a V.A. hospital, these two soldiers, one black, the other white, reveal how they came to be where they are and what they can only hope to become.

©1989 Larry Brown (P)1998 Recorded Books, LLC Anthologies & Short Stories Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Short Stories

Critic reviews

"A novel of the first order....Gripping and virtually seamless." (Washington Post Book World)
"His prose has a dark, horrific urgency....A real knockout." (Newsday)
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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.
The main attraction for this audiobook is the amazing performances of Peter Frances James and Ed Sala. The writing is excellent, this was a debut novel, the voices of the two main characters are played to perfection and this is a book I will listen to time and time again. Five stars.

SUPERB

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The story was read perfectly; powerful, desperately sad, funny and thought provoking. Didn’t see the ending coming, great writing.

Captivating

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