Almost excellent
'Dirty Work' was not the first Larry Brown novel that I wanted to read. I knew it concerned Vietnam, or at least veterans of the war, and truthfully, I thought I had read all I needed to about the men in that conflict, especially after Tim O'Brien's 'The Things They Carried.' But, I had read 'Big, Bad Love', Mr. Brown's short story collection, and knew I wanted to read more. 'Dirty Work' just happened to be the first novel available.
Let me say first that 'Dirty Work' is a highly engaging, fast paced read. The rat-a-tat-tat of its machine gun chapters kept me turning the pages until I finished it a couple of hours after I began it. As far as capturing aspects of the poor and rural south, I don't know if I've read much better outside of Flannery O'Conner. And, much like Ms. O'Conner, Larry Brown in 'Dirty Work' is also concerned with his character's spiritual journeys. Additionally, the two men in the story were Marine Corps veterans, as am I, and so obviously was Mr. Brown; rarely have I read more authentic details in a novel concerning the Corps.
However, stripped to its bare bones, 'Dirty Work' is neither a novel about Vietnam and its aftermath, nor about the South and race relations. Those elements are part of the setting; what concerns Mr. Brown here are choices - ambiguous moral choices. As such, he presents an environment of highly specialized circumstances and the reader follows along as the character's fulfill the novel's foregone and, in my opinion, telegraphed climax.
Mr. Brown wants to write about a difficult choice but presents it in such a manner that the actual decision is pardoned by the reader anyway. This is not a story that challenges, that raises questions. Instead, Mr. Brown puts everything to bed, conveniently tucked in and resolved. This is not so much a flaw, as it is an out - a more difficult ending may have not found a publisher or an audience.
Though I think that Mr. Brown could have stretched himself and his novel, this is not necessarily a criticism. He may have achieved exactly what he set out to do, which was to entertain and to touch on (lightly or deeply, depending on your view) some murky metaphysical and spiritual questions. In that, he succeeded very well.
Southern Wambaugh
This period of the south and the steamy afternoons of country drama play all the cards for Family, Patriotism, Race, Class and long forgotten prejudices. Joseph Wambaugh took the rural north for a journey and recently departed Larry Brown does the same for the northern reaches of Mississippi. Not an easy book to put down and not an easy set of emotions to find comfort in. Much like the works of author & Tennessee Sheriff David Hunter's works the less pleasant and the un-glossed image of the south remains.
You Will Remember This Book
I'm new to reviewing books on Amazon and have started out with reviews of my newest favorite author, Larry Brown. For great southern storytelling I love Brown's books "Fay", "Joe" and "Father and Son", and if you are a fan of any of those you probably love them for the same reason I do. But it's what is in "Dirty Work" that proves that Larry Brown was one of the very very best. I didn't know where I'd land once I started reading this book, but it took me to places that just astonished me. The narrative changes in its chapters never became stale or contrived and the development of the characters through thoughts and minimal expression is masterful. It's a powerful book.
A most personal, touching story about the tragedy of war
If you're prepared to step into a not-so-well-known zone of emotion, turmoil, introspection, strife, heartbreak, and seemingly infinite, dogged self-questioning, then this story may begin to have a lasting effect on you. It is a brief but powerful exploration into a tumultuous, emotional maelstrom about men who have been at war and live its most personal aftermaths. This novel absorbs you, and if you are so inclined, produces an empathetic connection with you that may take a while, if it ever does, for you to break.
Dirty Work is a glimpse at a pivotal moment in the lives of two men who are seemingly brought together for an important purpose. Both are victims of war through devastating wounds; physical, mental, and emotional; and are also victims of the aftermath of their recoveries. They each lived through their physical injuries but found, alas, that their survival placed them in another type of war; a war waged in the way that people react to them and in how they are expected to act around them.
Being from different races and backgrounds, the main characters, Braiden and Walter, irreparably scarred by the Vietnam conflict, are brought together in the confines of a veterans' hospital and are initially wary of each other. But as they soon discover very quickly through their stories to one another, quickly imparting emotional and unspoken understandings, they are bound to form a special bond for a special purpose.
The short time period covered in the "present" part of this story is told amidst non-stop, brief volleys of story swapping and philosophizing from Braiden and Walter. They speak of times when they were young, while in the war, about times after their war experiences, and about their present circumstances. Their exchanges are gripping, and you come to know each of these men at a level that gives you something akin to an emotional bond with them. They stay with you long after you close the back cover of the book.
Dirty Work Indeed
I'm a stone sucker for gritty Vietnam tales and don't care whether they are fantasy or realism, as long as someone is holding in their innards with a sweaty bandanna or emptying their 60 into the trees. In this novel, Brown goes where other writers like Robert Stone, Thom Jones and Bill Shields also go; things get ugly, they go to hell through nobody's fault, luck and Jesus run out at the same time. On paper, the plot seems somewhat hackneyed - the short-fuse father who ends up in the Big House, the school bullies, the Vietnam ambush scenes, etc. But Brown makes it work. We want to know what both of the main characters are thinking. Even more interesting than any of this is the budding relationship between the protagonist and another wrecked soul who sells him the beer that blunts his pain. Although the early Cuckoo's Nest reference telegraphs the ending somewhat, this book reads quick and rough, like the first elementary school beating I ever took. Recommended.
(10 reviews)
