Dress Whites
And Other Stories
A freshly made Marine Corps officer, with his new bride in tow, has a last visit with his family before shipping out to Vietnam. A group of wayward souls living seedy in a Las Vegas hot-sheet motel find solace in each other, only to be devastated when one of them is unable to escape his demons. A teenager tries to convince his mother that his Amerasian girlfriend is worthy of the American Dream. A boxer returns from the war to try to make a name for himself and enough money to look for his daughter. A storefront deacon living with an ex-hooker hits on a new widow. A brother left behind seeks his own, random, brutal revenge
They are some of the characters of “Dress Whites,” a debut short-story collection by John Phillips whose powerful fiction has been described as both “muscular” and “sensitive.”
They are the stories of people who have been left behind in the years during and after the Vietnam War. Whether they served or remained at home, they are haunted by the far-off war that many still struggle to understand today.
Among Phillips’ previous lives were bartender, union rep and sports writer, much of which he mines for his stories. Phillips weaves his characters in and around this collection of connected stories, chisling rich glimpses into the journey of a nation, its people and a time.
