Interview with Vernon Brewer II, Author of Frenchy’s Whore

If you were in an elevator with a stranger and had one minute or less to describe Frenchy’s Whore before the doors opened, what description would you give?

I would say it is one of the most powerful and at the same time one of the most subtle book ever written on day to day life in one of the USA’s premier Airborne Infantry Brigades with no punches pulled…while at the same time is an unrequited love story, with powerful writing induced images.  

What part of Frenchy’s Whore was the hardest to write? What part was the easiest?

The hardest part to write was about the Brothers of mine who were killed in action, the battle scenes, and the names are true. The whole book is a true story. The easiest part to write would have been of the interaction between the Brothers in Arms.

What books are on your to-be-read pile right now?

Dak To by Edward Murphey and Giant Killer

What’s your favorite genre to read? 

Biographical books about Vietnam.

Is it the same as your favorite genre to write?

Yes

Do you have any quirky writing habits? Where did you write Frenchy’s Whore?

I do not know of any habits except clearing my mind and focusing on the mental images of what i want to transcribe. I have been writing Frenchy’s Whore in my head since I lived it back in Vietnam in 1968. I started actually writing it on an old typewriter while an English student at Brockport State University of New York where it won the Brockport SUNY’s Writer Forum Scholarship.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

From Professor Bill Heyen: “Less is More”  

If you could choose one thing for readers to remember after reading Frenchy’s Whore what would it be? 

That war is pornographic, that even if you survive the battle part of you will still die. 

Vernon Brewer II is the author of the new book Frenchy’s Whore

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