Doc : a novel

Shades of Lonesome Dove! Oh not in terms of “epic” or “saga.” It wasn’t that type of book, but rather a gloriously well written historical novel that happens to include characters you’ve certainly heard of before; that is, not a “Western” per se but it does take place in the Old

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West. For all those Mary Doria Russell fans out there (and I know there are many) she does not disappoint in this tale of the life and times of John Henry (Doc) Holliday, a dentist by trade. She wants to set the record straight about this educated, talented man whose reputation as a gambler and gunslinger is a bit off.

Brilliantly conceived, the book is centered on hope, happiness, poker, and Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto. As a matter of fact, I have the concerto playing as I write this review because of its importance. Doc heard it for the first time as a child, and studied it rigorously until he could play it like a virtuoso, while the Civil War and the South’s lagging chances, raged on. The concerto:

“was serene assurance within gnawing anxiety, splendor in defiance of deprivation and creeping poverty; as the drumbeat of incomprehensible Yankee victories grew louder, it became a bulwark against raw fear and despair.” (Page 10)

Its importance to the story isn’t revealed until much later, towards the end of the book.

Doc is a charming, educated Southern gentleman, born and raised in Georgia, where his beloved family still lives. But most of the book is set in Dodge City during the summer of 1878, where he meets up with the Earp brothers, Wyatt, James and Morgan, Bat Masterson, and is accompanied there by Kate Harony, a prostitute with a high brow background, who stayed at Doc’s side for several years. She surprises Doc with her knowledge of Latin and the classics. But the opening paragraph sets the stage for the misery that is to come. His life will end as his mother’s did:

"He began to die when he was twenty-one, but tuberculosis is slow and sly and subtle. The disease took fifteen years to hollow out his lungs so completely they could no longer keep him alive. In all that time, he was allowed a single season of something like happiness.” (Page 3)

Russell has produced an outstanding piece of work by putting the reader on the dusty streets of Dodge, in the noisy, smoke-filled saloons, on the back of a streaking horse, relaxing in the brothels, and anxiously sitting on the edge of your seat at the faro table. The atmosphere is what sets this book apart. Along with the finely tuned characters, real and fictional, I was there in Dodge, and since every other woman there was a prostitute, I’m wondering why I didn’t feel out of place. Very highly recommended.

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This was a book from the Vine Program. I freely admit that I had no interest in reading
anything remotely "Western" in flavor. I had no interest in John Henry "Doc" Holiday. I
requested this book because it is my opinion that Mary Doria Russell is not capable
of writing anything but a wonderful book.

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I was not disappointed.

We have all heard of Doc Holiday and the the gun fight at the OK Corral. For many of us,
that is as much as we know. Gun fight, shooting, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday. For many
of us, that has been enough. Who cares really, what a couple of gunslingers did during
one of their less then stellar moments?

Let me say that I care a lot more now than I did before. Doc is a novel. And of course a
certain amount of license was taken with the materiel available. This is not to say that
this is a work of pure fiction. Russell states that much of her research was based on a
biography that was written by a member of Doc's own family. That biographer was privy to
much family information and many letters and stories that another researcher might not
have available. This explains how the character of Doc Holiday and those around him are
so rich and full and real. This also explains why Doc is portrayed as so much more than
previous movies and novels suggested. We are shown a good, and in fact, sickly man who had some
bad times. He lived during a time when law was often taken lightly, when in fact there were
laws or lawmen to be found.

John Henry Holiday was well educated. He came from a good family, and he loved and was
loved. He left them, and the relative comfort of his family home in order to try to
keep his health. He like his mother before him suffered from tuberculosis. He was
a practicing dentist when he left home, and continued with the practice of dentistry
over the years, although it was not his main source of income. Doc will introduce you
to a much different man than the one you think you know. This is a page turner like all of
Russell's books. You will find yourself caring about the characters and wishing them well.
I found myself wondering how it would end, and sorry when it did.

Recommended

And you might want to find yourself more books by this author, once the last page has been read.

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I've read three of Mary Doria Russell's previous novels - [The Sparrow], [A Thread of Grace], and [Dreamers of the Day]. I've enjoyed all of them, but with this book, she has become one of my favorite authors.

Two of Russell's previous books - [A Thread of Grace] and [Dreamers of the Day] - could

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be classified as historical fiction, but Doc is much different than Russell's other books. With Doc, Russell takes us to the Wild West and introduces us to Doc Holliday. The book focuses on the early years of Doc's life, before he and the Earp Brothers were involved in the shootout at the O.K. Corral. As Doc tries to establish a dental practice in Dodge City, he makes friends with Wyatt and Morgan Earp, who try to keep order in a town that is filled with rough cowboys and prostitutes. Russell's Doc is historical fiction at its finest. She seamlessly weaves details about the era into a compelling story, sacrificing neither plot nor accuracy. The storytelling alone was enough to make me like this book.

But Russell does two other things that made this book one of my favorites of the year. First of all, the writing is incredible - at times witty and at times beautifully descriptive. In describing advice that Wyatt Earp got from a lawyer, she writes, "The entire criminal code of the State of Kansas boils down to four words: Don't kill the customers." And in describing Doc's friendship with a boy named Johnnie Sanders, Russell writes, “As much as anything, it was the boy’s accent that had drawn him. Johnnie Sanders himself wasn’t from Georgia, but his paternal grandmother was. Her legacy of absent r’s and gerunds with no terminal g had been passed down intact for two generations. For John Henry Holliday, Johnnie’s voice was like a visit home.” I was so carried along by the story that I would sometimes be taken by surprise by a particularly beautiful turn of phrase.

I was also struck by the depth of characterization in this book. Those of you who know the legend of Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp will be struck by the way in which Russell re-imagines these men. Her characterization is believable given the context of the Wild West, while at the same time rising above common stereotypes. Both Doc and Wyatt are portrayed as complex men who are influenced, but not ruled by their surroundings. It is not hard to imagine that Russell’s characters will end up in a shootout at the O.K. Corral, but her descriptions of their early lives led me to see these events much differently.

Doc will be released tomorrow. Pack your bags now and go camp out at your local bookstore. You won’t want to wait to read this one! It was a 5 star read for me.

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I didn't know much about Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp and the rest before reading this. I still may not know much about them, but I feel like I know them. Russell's craft enables her to fully evoke the feel of Dodge City in the second half of the 19th century, not as a one-dimensional western from

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the 1960s, but as a real place where real people strived to live well. She does this well, but where she really excels is in creating complex and interesting characters --- and in storytelling. This tale of Doc Holliday, the gun toting, gambling, piano-playing, hard drinking, consumptive dentist who was friends with the Earp boys, is an absolute delight. I laughed out loud at the Earps' efforts to make sense of the world. I cheered for Doc's firm sense of integrity and stood in awe at the depth of his rage at injustice and ignorance, and his certainty that it would overtake him one day. I wept when he played the piano at the Christmas Eve party, courting death from his seat at the sublime instrument, silencing an entire community of half-drunk revelers. His gracious love for Kate, a blend of need and desire and impatience so familiar to anyone who's truly been in love, plays out with perfect resonance.

Doc is a philosopher, too, and more well-read than I. He can quote Homer and speaks with Kate in Latin, but when it comes right down to it, he's still a guy living in the wild west:

" "Bein' born is craps," he decided. He glanced at Morg and let loose that sly, lopsided smile
of his. "How we live is poker." Doc looked away and got thoughtful again. "Mamma
played a bad hand well." "

Themes of life and death play throughout the novel. What does it mean to live well, even in the face of crazy lawlessness and serious illness. Russell uses Doc's disease to highlight universal themes, to make meaning:

"Certain that if he were to move at all -- even slightly, even to speak -- everything human
in him would be lost to blind, bestial, ungovernable rage, John Henry Holliday sat silently
while in the coldest, most analytical part of him, he thought, If I go mad one day, it will be
at a moment like this. I will put a bullet through the lung of some healthy young idiot just
to watch him suffocate. There you are, I'll tell him. That's what it's like to know your last
deep breath is in your past. You won't ever get enough air again. From this moment until
you die, it will only get worse and worse. Bet you could use a good stiff drink now, eh,
jackass?"

"He has spent his entire adult life dying, trying all the while to make sense of a dozen
contradictory theories about what caused his disease and how to treat it, when his
own continued existence could be used to support any of them. Or all of them, or none.
Because of what he'd done, or not done, or for no reason at all, the disease sometimes
went into retreat, but only as a tide retreats ----"

A great story, wonderful characters (and she doesn't pull punches about what it meant to be a woman, or black, or Chinese, in Dodge City in the 1870s), and real life themes. This novel unfolds like a Beethoven symphony and, if you're listening, it will take you on a similar emotional ride.

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“He began to die when he was twenty-one, but tuberculosis is slow and sly and subtle.”

John Henry Holliday was born in Georgia. An educated and cultured Southern gentleman. A dentist by trade, possessing a sharp mathematical mind, ideal for card-playing.
Due to his tuberculosis, it was

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recommended that John relocate out West, to a drier, warmer climate. After a short detour in Texas, he moves onto Dodge City and this is where he meets Wyatt Earp and company. He sets up a small dental practice and is soon known as “Doc”. The legend begins.
Russell has given McMurtry a run for his money on this one, crafting a beautiful tale of gamblers, cowboys, whores, crafty businessmen and under-paid lawmen, struggling to keep order in this dusty chaos. Her characters, either based on real-life figures or imagined, are all perfectly realized. You will laugh, cheer and possibly cry.
I have not read an official Doc Holliday bio, but I would find it hard to believe, that one could locate a more meticulously-researched and adoring look at a fascinating man, in a nearly mythical place.
Find a copy or get outta Dodge!

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“The Fates pursued him from the day he first drew breath, howling for his delayed demise.” (4)

Dr. John Henry Holliday, an exceptionally well-educated Atlanta-born Southern gentleman is given an ultimatum at the age of twenty-two when he is diagnosed with tuberculosis: remain in Georgia and die

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within months, or move West in the hope that the dry climate will help to restore his health. In 1878, Doc, as he will come to be known, arrives on the Texas frontier – young, lonely, sick, and afraid. His dream of establishing a thriving dental practice is ill-fated. As economic crisis wracks the nation, Doc soon finds himself gambling professionally and is poignantly aware of the depths of disgrace into which he has fallen:

“A conviction of his own disgrace had taken hold of him. He had begun to live down to his opinion of himself. His mother’s devotion, his aunts’ faith, his uncles’ money, his professors’ respect – all that had come to nothing. Worse than nothing, really. There wasn’t a family in Georgia that didn’t own up to at least one male who’d gambled away money, houses, land, and slaves, but John Henry Holliday had done the unforgivable. ‘A man could gamble himself to poverty and still be a gentleman,’ his second cousin Margaret would one day write in her famous book about the war, ‘but a professional gambler could never be anything but an outcast.’” (20)

Doc’s loneliness is abated when he takes up with Maria Katarina Harony, a wily Hungarian whore who can quote Latin classics right back at him. Kate scouts out high-stakes poker games which keep them both in high style, and it is she who persuades Doc to follow the money to Dodge City, Kansas. A cesspit of violence, greed, debauchery, and prostitution, Dodge is where Doc strikes up an unlikely friendship with lawman, Wyatt Earp. They will be disturbingly affected by the suspect death of mixed-blood boy, Johnnie Sanders. And some time later, in Tombstone, Arizona, the gunfight at the OK Corral will forever link their names as halves of an iconic frontier friendship.

Doc is a superb read. Russell is authentic, moving, and witty, and brings to life a host of memorable historical characters. But unquestionably, Doc is John Henry Holliday’s story. I was fascinated with the character whose life was governed by so many contrasts: Fate/science, East/West, North/South, health/illness, professionalism/disgrace, moral/criminal, to name a few. Russell is an author I must revisit. Highly recommended!

"'I know what is waiting for me at the end of this road. I am askin’ you to believe me: I am in no hurry to arrive at my destination. I know you’re scared, darlin.’ I’m scared, too.' He looked away. 'Christ, I am so damn tired of bein’ scared …’” (228)

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A brilliant fictional portrait of Doc Holliday, whose reputation as a gunslinger has overshadowed most other interesting aspects of his life: that he was a well-thought-of dentist and a charming Southerner in a part of the country filled with less savory types, and that he valued friendship,

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loyalty, culture and manners above all else.

Most of the book takes place in Dodge City, before Holliday and the Earps made their ill-fated move to Tombstone. Katie Elder (here referred to as Kate Harony), the Mastersons, and Wyatt, James and Morgan Earp are primary characters, as are several fictional additions used to illustrate Holliday's habits and personality. Other than Holliday's own, the fullest treatment is given to Wyatt Earp, who doesn't cut nearly as intriguing a figure, but the portrait of their developing friendship is beautifully laid out. Unfortunately, the fictional characters, in particular a young multi-racial murder victim and a Jesuit priest, are two of the most engaging subjects - unfortunate because they were fictional, which called into question the details they represented in Holliday's depiction.

Dodge City comes alive, with its primitive conditions, whorehouses and gambling halls, corrupt politicians, and brutal police (including the Earps and Mastersons), but most vividly and movingly limned are the realities of life with tuberculosis in the 19th century. My view of Holliday will forever be colored by Dennis Quaid's portrayal in the film "Wyatt Earp", for which he appeared in character at about 139 lbs, but [10488467::Doc] has added texture to that memorable figure.

I'd hate to visit Dodge City in its heyday, but to observe the real Holliday, now that would be a treat.

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"Doc" by Mary Doria Russell is a fictionalized account of the time spent by Doc Holliday in Dodge City, where he first met and befriended Wyatt Earp. I found this book deeply disappointing.

Russell's subtitle is "A Novel" and she asserts that this is historical fiction. But it doesn't read like a

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novel; it reads like a biography, except that she has used the liberty of calling this "fiction" to invent dialog and scenes that suit the narrative she wants to tell. Unfortunately, she doesn't have the skill at writing biography that Walter Issacson brought to his biography of Franklin, or Erik Larson applied to "The Devil in the White City." As a result, the chronological jumping around (of the style such-and-such was doubtless due to an incident when he was a child or some years later, he would recount in a letter to his sister that) gets in the way of the story, confusing what a better author would have made straight. And Russell succumbs to the second-rate biographer's compulsion to include seemingly every detail and anecdote that she found in her research, no matter how jejune or irrelevant to the larger biographical tale.

Furthermore, she assumes that we already know the actual history that she's embellishing. I know that there was a gunfight at the OK Corral, and I knew that Holliday and Earp were involved, but honestly I couldn't have told you if they were even on the same side. (The only other thing I remember is that in an alternate timeline Kirk, Spock, and McCoy were involved.) Yet she alludes to it as being destined, and then has an epilogue that refers to its aftermath, without ever telling us what actually happened.

Similarly, the game Faro is critical at several points in the narrative. All I could tell from the book is that it's a card game played against the house, and that a skillful dealer could cheat undetected. If this had been one of Russell's SF novels, an unusual native game might have been explained, or the play of a particularly exciting hand could have been narrated, but instead, she just assumes that we have the cultural knowledge. I know more about the rules of Quidditch than the rules of Faro.

A horseracing scene is similarly disappointing. A horserace, and especially one that's been built up as much as this one in the preceding narrative, is a chance to get the reader's blood pounding in suspense and excitement. But no, the race here is disposed of in a few short sentences. Ho-hum.

What does get a lot of play, over and over and over, is how normal prostitution was. How essentially moral the madams and bordello owners were. Which is all well and good, but after a while it becomes repetitive and boring, and surely that axe has been ground to the sharpest possible edge.

I soon tired of the characters, tired of the writing, and gave up on hoping that the book would illuminate a chapter of American history. In fact, the only reason I stuck with it was because I had a duty to write this review.

Mary Doria Russell can write better than this. Doc Holliday's story can be told better than this. It is a disappointment and a shame that this fictionalized biography -- excuse me, this novel -- lets down both author and subject so badly.

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Before the legendary Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp became infamous for their time in Tombstone, Arizona, they attempted to quietly establish themselves in the Wild West town of Dodge City, Kansas, where they first became acquainted. What happened in this town, during approximately one year of their

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lives, is the basis for Mary Doria Russell’s newest book, “Doc”.

Drawing from meticulous research, Russell sketches the lives of these simultaneously complex and ordinary people, and the folks they associated with, such as Doc’s long-time girlfriend Kate and Wyatt’s younger brother, Morgan. By de-mythologizing Holliday and Earp, the reader begins to understand them not simply as heroes or villains, but as individuals.

Though the book’s first few pages felt a bit awkward, by the end, after I figured out how to read this story, I loved everything about it. Using a series of “asides” to explore the historical context and character back-story, Russell at times interjects some of the story’s details like a nonfictional narrative between threads of fiction. While some reviewers found this method distracting, I loved them. Additionally, she alternates third-person perspectives throughout the telling of the story, which not only enables the reader to get inside the minds of different characters, but also provides a glimpse of how people saw each other.

Russell’s anthropologist’s eye for detail is amazing, in her quest to describe and detail accurate setting creates a bridge between the present and the past; a sympathetic understanding of what daily life in historic Dodge City was like.

Many books are either character-driven or action-driven. We’ve all read these books and understand the distinction. But “Doc”’s narrative is different. Rather than being driven by character or action, it instead seems to be “relationally-driven”. Through its non-fictive asides and careful explanation of character back-stories, “Doc” explores how the relationships between these people formed, what connected them, and how those relationships determined or influenced the decisions upon which history hinges. It isn’t just self-determination or accidental circumstance that shapes our lives, but more than anything – relationship. In this way, “Doc” is not only a historical smorgasbord, but also a meditation on love, family, friendship, and even rivalry.

Don’t read this book expecting “The Sparrow”. Part of Russell’s literary genius lies in her not writing the same book over and over. While perhaps lacking the gut-punch of “The Sparrow”, “Doc” stands strong by itself, and I highly recommend it.

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I received a copy of “Doc” by Mary Doria Russell through Librarything’s Early Reviewer program. “Doc” is an historical fiction book based on the real ‘Doc’ John Holliday. The first forty pages of the book covers Doc’s life from his birth through his mid-twenties when he arrived in

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Dodge City, Kansas. The balance of the book deals with events during the year he spent there and then the final chapter briefly describes the remainder of the lives of the people in the book and how history has dealt with them. Other notables in Dodge City during 1878 were the Earp brothers, with whom Holliday would fight alongside during the famous shootout at the OK Corral; Bat Masterson and comedian Eddie Foy.

Russell makes it clear that Holliday was lucky to be alive in 1878. He was born with a cleft palate that should have killed him as a baby. He was diagnosed with tuberculosis just before he turned 22. He had seen his mother die from the same disease and knew the unpleasantness that awaited him before the disease finally killed him. He moved to Texas in hopes that the climate would be better for him than what his native Georgia provided and the traveling and his never robust health had him bed-ridden by his arrival. He preferred to work as a dentist but wasn’t able to make a living at it so he made most of his money gambling. While in Texas, he argued with another gambler who then shot him leaving him to walk with a cane for the rest of his life. It was at this point that he moved to Dodge City.

Russell uses a few fictional characters and a few fictional scenes in describing Dodge City during it’s boom town period but much of what she writes is based on historical events. She shows Holliday setting up a dental practice, blending into the life in Dodge, making friends with the Earps and others, and again making most of his money at gambling. The end of the book had Holliday recovering from a bad bout with tuberculosis and moving to try a sanatorium in Las Vegas to see if that will help him while the Earps were moving to Tombstone in hopes of better opportunities. Holliday would meet them there again later in his life and become known in history for his part at the OK Corral and for helping to hunt down Morgan Earp’s killer.

This was Russell’s third historical fiction book. I liked the other two but I liked this one better. I think the reason is because I enjoyed Holliday and his personality, in particular his humor. Russell’s “A Thread of Grace” was based in World War II Italy and for obvious reasons had little humor. In “Dreamer’s of the Day” I had a few problems with the main character’s personality and life choices and I had artistic problems with the way the book ended. As I said, I liked both books, but I liked “Doc” much better. I would easily recommend “Doc” to anyone who likes historical fiction or has an interest in the American Old West.

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DOC, Mary Doria Russell's novel of Doc Holliday in Dodge City, a couple years BEFORE the notorious shootout at the OK Corral in Tombstone, was, quite simply, a fascinating read.

Painstakingly researched and beautifully written, it was a book I hated to put down, but since it ran nearly 400 pages, I

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was forced to take breaks occasionally, which gave me time to consider all the historical and biographical information woven so expertly and seamlessly into the story of one year in the life of Dr. John Henry Holliday in wild and wooly Dodge City, Kansas. His early association with the Earp brothers and Bat Masterson is prominently featured, and we learn that Holliday was actually closer to Morgan Earp than he ever was to Wyatt, who is presented here as honest, humorless, stolid, dependable, and maybe just a bit on the dim side, if not illiterate. Younger brother Morgan, on the other hand, enjoyed books and often discussed Dostoevsky, Dickens and other writers with Doc, an educated 'southern gentleman' starved for such talk.

I've seen most of the movies about the Earps and Doc Holliday, and was a kid fan of the fifties TV show, "Wyatt Earp." ("Long live his fame / And long live his glory / And long may his story be told!")

Strong-jawed actor Hugh O'Brien as Wyatt Earp was presented as a dandy, with black frock coat, flat brimmed hat, string tie and gold brocade vest, etc. Well, according to Russell, that would better describe Dodge's Sherrif Bat Masterson, a short fat dandy who made money on the side by promoting, refereeing and betting on illegal bare-knuckle boxing matches outside the city limits. (And yeah, I remember actor Gene Barry too, tall, slim and miscast as Masterson in that TV show.) About the only thing the TV show got right about Wyatt was his stern, unsmiling demeanor, which, we learn from Russell, was partly because as a child he was brutally beaten by his violent father, leaving him without any front teeth.
Doc fixed this, by making Wyatt a bridge, finally allowing him to smile and even laugh a little without feeling self-conscious. (And didja know that such bridges and dental devices in those times (1878) were often fashioned from real human teeth gathered from the battlefields of the Civil War?) And remember that cool long-barreled Buntline Special six-shooter O'Brien's Wyatt packed? Nope. Pure fiction, according to Russell. (Shucks, all of us kids wanted one of those guns.)

A surprise character here, to me, was comic song-and-dance man, Eddie Foy, who was playing that year at the Comique ('Commie-Q') Saloon in Dodge. His inclusion in DOC brought back memories of that classic fifties film, THE SEVEN LITTLE FOYS, starring Bob Hope as Foy.

So there is plenty of myth-busting by Russell in DOC, but it's handled in a most enjoyable and educational way. And didja know that Doc Holliday was actually a not-too-distant cousin of Margaret Mitchell, and that she actually used parts of the Holliday family history in writing GONE WITH THE WIND? Now THAT I found very interesting.

But the real, beating heart of DOC is found in the portrayal of his off-and-on years-long relationship with the fiery, high-born, highly educated, multi-lingual Hungarian prostitute, Maria Katarina Harony, or 'Kate.' Because the real John Henry Holliday is revealed in this relationship - the delicate boy who lost his mother to tuberculosis, the same insidious disease which would take Doc's own life after years of suffering. Doc and Kate were kindred souls who, by turns, comforted and tortured each other. And the scenes of Doc's 'bad spells' with the disease are disturbingly, graphically grim, as well as heartbreakingly ineffably sad, particularly when you know that it's a battle he cannot win.

But I go on and on, about a book that's already been reviewed and praised hundreds and hundreds of times. And most deservedly so. I absolutely LOVED this book and the way it made frontier Kansas come alive and countless disparate historical figures come together. Mary Doria Russell is one helluva writer. Very highly recommended.

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I've never really been interested in the story of Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, et al. I know there are a zillion movies about them, and they are the iconic representation of the Wild West, but it's just not my thing.

Having said that, though, I'm a big fan of Mary Doria Russell, and once again she has

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crafted a wonderful story. Building on the details of what is (and isn't) known about Doc Holliday and the people he associated, Ms. Russell brings Doc to life as a complicated, difficult man, who spends basically his entire adult life trying to fight off his impending death from tuberculosis. So vividly she describes Doc's Southern-gentleman demeanor and the body-wracking coughs that plague him, you almost find yourself cringing, just as the friends who surrounded him must have done when he let loose that awful cough.

Equal care is given to the character of Wyatt Earp -- a man whose personality has been written and rewritten throughout the centuries at the whim of this or that journalist, author, or screenwriter. Ms. Russell gives Wyatt a plausible backstory and, with a delicate touch, slowly develops the friendship between Wyatt and Doc in a completely believable way. Although she stops the story before the famous OK Corral shootout, you can easily envision her versions of Doc, Wyatt, and Morgan Earp getting into that mess together, and sticking together through it.

With the other characters -- including some who actually existed and some who are invented for the story -- Ms. Russell takes similar care to craft each into a real individual, not just a caricature of this or that stereotype (prostitute, politician, priest).

At the end, Ms. Russell summarizes a bit of what is known to be true, and what is debatable or suspect, about these people's lives. This section amounts to approximately what you could learn from spending ten minutes on Wikipedia, but it's still useful and interesting to see her explain where she found holes or bare spots around which to weave her story.

If I have one quibble with this book, it's the occasional forays into "meta," where the narrative voice addresses the reader directly (e.g. "If he had done xx, you never would have heard of Doc Holliday") or even makes reference to movies that would come along much later. I found these bits jarring, as they took me briefly out of the time-frame of the story. Aside from that, though, it's a beautifully written book about a fascinating set of characters. Highly recommended, even for those who (like me) are not Old West fans.

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I don't know where to begin with this book. Everyone knows the name Doc Holliday. All have heard of the shootout at the OK Corral where Wyatt Earp, his brothers and Doc squared off in Tombstone, Arizona. Heck, I've BEEN to Tombstone and taken the tour. This book tells the tale of Doc Holliday but

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it doesn't tell the tale of Tombstone. It wants to tell the reader the story of the man, not the legend. A legend that was created as all legends are out of part truth, part fear and part fantasy.

John Henry Holliday was born in Georgia prior to the Civil War. He was born with a cleft lip and palate that his uncle, a doctor was able to fix. His world was rocked by the war and then the death of his mother by tuberculosis. He went to live with his uncle who sponsored him to dental college in Philadelphia. He soon learned that he, too had contracted tuberculosis. It was felt that the dry air of the West would be better for his health so he went to Dallas to join the practice of a family friend but after being settled into the family the economy collapsed and he was soon out on his own.

The book tells his tale as he meets a prostitute named Kate - who will mostly stay with him 'til the end - and he moves to Dodge City and tries to work as a dentist but mostly survives as a gambler.

If you are looking for a shoot - em - up tale of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday this is not the book for you. If you are looking for a peak into the life of one of the most iconic Western figures then you will be enthralled. I knew very little about Doc Holliday when I picked up this novel and in spite of my "one Western a year" reading habit (which I have already broken as this is my second) I cannot begin to tell you just how good this book was. The writing sucked me in from the very first page and I found myself almost inhabiting the character. To find such empathy for a figure with such a negative reputation and to have him redeemed - wow.

Ms. Russell has a magical way with words and descriptions that just brings scenes to life. Small details are included that enhance rather that bog down the narrative. All through the story you knew Doc Holliday was slowly dying from the tuberculosis and yet when he finally died it was overwhelmingly sad. I wish I had better writing skills so I could do this book justice. If you read only one Western a year make this the one.

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Had this book not been written by one of my favorite authors, I probably never would have picked it up. Westerns and their associated heroes/villains – fiction or not – are a genre I don’t have much interest in.

But with the name Mary Doria Russell on the cover, I had to own this, had to read

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it. And I ended up liking it, it was an enjoyable enough read, but it didn’t consume me the way “The Sparrow” and “Children of God” did.

There is an element, however, in the fictionalized Doc Holliday that brings to mind Emilio Sandoz – the main character of those two breathtaking novels. The best way I can describe it is a doomed civility…that sometimes breaks down into the purest form of human despair. These are men who cherish the small instances of pure goodness that they find in their world, but are filled with the certain sorrow that very little of it lies within themselves.

This Doc Holliday is far from what my very ignorant ideas of the man were. This Doc Holliday is a tortured soul, a far cry from the killer that his name brings to mind.

“In the silence, John Henry (Holliday) searched for the words that would explain what it was like to spend your entire adult life dying – what it was like trying to make sense of a dozen contradictory theories about what caused your disease and how to treat it when your own continued existence could be used to support any of them. Or all of them, or none. Because of what he’d done, or not done, or for no reason at all, the disease sometimes went into retreat, but only as a tide retreats-“

This book, filled as it is with names familiar even to those of us who don’t read/watch Westerns or Western history…still came down (for me) for this man. To Doc Holliday – a man trapped in a purgatory between life and death, between the world he knew and the possibility of a world he may never see.

And there is a tragic beauty in this story…of small elements of wonder and grace in a world turned on its head, in a country just moving from the brink of war…

“For he has never heard anything like it – did not know such music existed in the world – and it was hard to believe that a man he knew could play it with his own two hands. There were parts of it like birdsong, and parts like rolling thunder and hard rain, and parts that glittered like fresh snow when the sun comes out and it’s so cold the air takes your breath away. And parts were like a dust devil spinning past, or a cyclone on the horizon, and all of it cried out for the words that he had read only in books and had never said aloud.”

“Glorious. Magnificent. Sublime.”

In the end, this was a good story, one that I might recommend to those readers that do enjoy the characters, events and legends of the Old West. It was not one, though, that touched my soul in the way that Russell’s previous works have. I look forward to her next novel for that.

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Mary Doria Russell is an extraordinary writer and researcher. I had the privilege of hearing her speak during her promotional tour for this novel and was incredibly impressed by her depth of knowledge, her fastidious sense of fairness and accuracy, and above all her passion. All of these things are

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showcased through the quality of her novels. Though they are sometimes difficult to read -- my experience of 'The Sparrow' was one of both wonder and horror -- Russell's novels are always worth the effort. This particular novel -- a piece of historical fiction centered on one Doc Holliday (you may have heard of him) -- tends to be overly prosy, particularly in the beginning and toward the end. The reader can definitely tell that Russell did enough research to write the definitive biography on Doc Holliday, if she'd wanted to.

Once the story gets moving -- and that happens right about the time that Holliday meets his equally famous confederate, Wyatt Earp -- the pace and prose pick up and one is carried into the American West of the 1870s. The novel -- unlike almost every story ever told about Holliday -- does not focus on the gunfight at the OK Corral, or any time spent in Tombstone. Instead, it builds the reader's understanding of Holliday and his unusual pack of friends by starting with their early histories and the initial days of their friendship. We learn about Doc and Wyatt, sure, but also Wyatt's brothers and -- even more unusually -- the women in their lives, who form key connections and motivations.

The primary narrative plot itself is a bit of a murder mystery, believe it or not, but that mystery is often forgotten as the reader meanders through the fields and plains of the characters' lives. Ultimately, the novel is very much about humanity -- about bonds, about love, and about what humans beings are in spite of what society expects or asks them to be. Perhaps for the first time in fiction, John Henry Holliday comes across as a real person, with real feelings and reasons, real beauty as well as those oft-discussed flaws. Wyatt Earp and his brothers are also fleshed out here -- not just as steel-jawed lawmen with guns, but as people -- men who are sometimes at a loss with their women, boys who remember the abuse of their father, friends who are trying to do right by their fellow men. There is a particular delight in the way that Russell has fleshed out these historical figures. What makes this novel even more special is that you can rely on Russell's detail and accuracy (she even lists all the characters at the beginning of the book and carefully denotes the few who are not actual historical personages), and can therefore feel -- at the end of the novel -- that you truly have learned something.

Though this sometimes reads too much like a biography -- and that may be an issue for some fiction readers -- I can unreservedly recommend this novel to anyone fond of meticulous historical fiction as well as to readers of historical non-fiction. The depth of understanding and realism here are well worth the patience it may take to get through the opening pages. A rewarding experience.

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The title of Mary Doria Russell’s new book may be Doc, but the book sheds light on the many earthy people intertwined in the life of Dr. John Henry Holliday. These characters will captivate you with Old West jargon and courage as they live in a world of gambling, alcohol, prostitution and horses.

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The author’s background in anthropology illuminates her carousing, caring, and courageous tamers of the Early West.

Doc Holliday was born with a cleft palate. Corrective surgery while a child left no tell-tale signs except a charming crooked grin. This auspicious new lease on life seems a reverse metaphor for how the brightness of his life dwindled into an extended death from tuberculosis. Russell shows us the real man, not just the Doc Holliday from the OK Corral. He was educated, thoughtful, cultivated, and a competent dentist who cared about his patients. We discover the man we knew as a gunslinger understood Latin and French, adored Beethoven, played piano and read The Aeneid. His wheezy laugh, wracking cough, fluid-filled lungs, ulcerated throat and chest pain run like threads through the book. Even after taking to the dry frontier to improve his health, Doc seems always a breath away from death. The author masterfully delineates the truth about Doc Holliday from the myth. He is fascinating.

Kate, his high-strung, often-inebriated fight-picking companion, genuinely loves Doc. It is refreshing to see a different side of Wyatt Earp, normally portrayed as a tough skinned lawman. He loves his disreputable, naughty horse and cherishes the woman in his life. He and Doc are brought together by a strong moral code over the death of an innocent boy of color. Bat Masterson and a Jesuit priest round out the main characters.

Applaud this female writer for aptly capturing the world of men in Doc. Straightforward and punchy, much like the wild frontier, the writing is clear, crisp and replete with historical detail. You’ll sit in saloons with these people, smell cigar smoke and wonder what’s really in their poker hand. Chapter headings not only capture the spirit of the times, but give us hints into the plot movement.

• Stacking the Deck
• The Ante
• Wild Card
• Under the Table
• Playing for Keeps

A bit overpopulated and sometimes windy, Doc is a witty and enjoyable read, especially for fans of the raw American West. Mary Doria Russell hits the nail on the head again. If moved by John Henry Holliday’s story, the author requests readers make donations to organizations such as the Smile Train for surgical correction of cleft palates.

Random House provided the advance release copy. The opinions expressed are unbiased and wholly that of the reviewer.

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A very interesting historical novel that's about just about the most 'Wild West' story there is, but which is not a Western.

John Henry Holliday, better known as Doc Holliday in popular culture, was immortalized as a quick-drawing, drunk, gambling gunslinger in movies like Tombstone and the docu-drama, Wyatt Earp. His been portrayed on screen by actors like Val Kilmer, Kirk Douglas and Dennis Quaid. But how much of Doc

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Holliday - as well as, his relationship with Wyatt Earp - do we actually know? He was made famous because of the shoot out at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, AZ, which only lasted less than a minute. Dime store novelists and Hollywood producers wanted more action, more thrills. Soon the mere dentist, slowly dying of consumption, was turned into a fiend, an anti-hero.

Mary Doria Russell set off on her writing adventure to capture the man, not the legend, unmuddied by media-created lies. And in doing so, she created an image of Dr. John Henry Holliday - the dentist, the good friend, the lost soul, the taker of those abandoned and less fortunate - that we would otherwise never have known - despite the evidence and literature that contradict pop culture.

Mary Doria Russell gives us a look of life before Tombstone, something that is rarely done. She casts away any popular culture depictions of Holliday and the Earps, placing poetic prose in their place.

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3.5 stars

This is historical fiction that focuses primarily on "Doc" Holliday and Wyatt Earp in the late 1800s in Dodge City, Kansas. Doc was a highly educated dentist who lived his adult life with tuberculosis. Wyatt was the law in Dodge City.

I listened to the audio and quite liked the narrator.

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He had a nice voice with an accent that I thought fit the "Old West" setting of the story. He also did accents very well. I didn't know the history of Doc Holliday or Wyatt Earp, beyond having heard of them. I hated Doc's "girlfriend", Kate. I can't stress how much I hated her, but that may have - at least partially - been due to how the narrator read her (this was probably the one thing I didn't like about the narrator). Her voice was annoying and whiny and I wanted to tell her to "shut up" (or worse!) every time she said something. She wasn't exactly the most likeable character, either, so I think it may have been a combination of both in my hating of her. The book was good, better than I expected for a "western", but it just didn't quite live up to the hype for me, although I'm not too sure why.

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I've enjoyed other books written by Mary Doria Russell, and even though I'm not a hugh western fan, I'm really glad I got a chance to read "Doc". Like many people, I'd heard of "Doc Holliday" and the associated OK Corral story but knew nothing about man other than what I had seen in movies.
Ms.

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Russell's story about his life from childhood until his demise was fascinating. Compelling and well written.

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Loved the character of Doc, southern gentleman, educated, philosophical, unapologetic about his love for the south and his home. The writing is exceptional along with character development; I could almost feel the painful cough that plagued Doc until his death. That is a rare skill for any writer,

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(another story, that I can quickly recall, was able to make me feel the pain of the character, The Sky is Gray by Ernest Gaines). I have no idea how close to the real Doc this character is, but I love this version, so I will accept that this is the true Doc

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"You know how people say, Don't borrow trouble? Well," said Morgan, "I guess it's the opposite of that. Doc is borrowing happiness." — Mary Doria Russell, “Doc”

Mary Doria Russell's magnificent 2011 novel “Doc” may be fiction but at times it reads like biography. It reads like truth, or at

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least like a truth we would like to believe. Biographies of John Henry "Doc" Holliday, especially the earliest ones, painted him as more gunfighter than dentist, more drunken gambler than polished Southern gentleman. Russell seeks to set the record straight.

I first learned Russell was writing a novel about Doc Holliday when I heard her speak several years ago in Columbus. She mentioned, as she does briefly in the novel, that Margaret Mitchell, author of “Gone with the Wind,” was his second cousin. What's more, Mitchell may have modeled Ashley Wilkes after him, she said. The refined Doc Holliday was as out of place in Dodge City as Wyatt Earp would have been in Atlanta. He settled there under the mistaken belief the prairie air would cure his tuberculosis, from which he was slowing dying. He drank because it relieved his coughing. He gambled because it paid better than dentistry and didn't require as steady a hand. He carried a gun, even if illegally, because he often won at cards and was wary of sore losers.

Russell blames Bat Masterson for starting and spreading the stories about Doc Holliday being a notorious gunfighter. Masterson doesn't fare very well in “Doc.” Nor does Kate Harony, the well educated Hungarian prostitute who was Doc's on-again, off-again mistress. The author blames Kate for much of what went wrong in Doc's life, including the Gunfight at OK Corral, which is not dealt with directly in this novel. It was her idea that they move to the dusty prairie town of Dodge City.

The Earp brothers, Wyatt, Morgan and James, are painted with almost as much affection as Russell paints Holliday. James and his wife run a brothel where the women are protected and treated with dignity. Morgan is a bookish young man, a friend to all, who views Doc as his mentor. Wyatt comes through as tough yet almost saintly. He enforces the law equally for all, whatever the consequences, attends church and avoids liquor. After his first dental appointment with Doc Holliday, he at first refuses the free toothbrush offered, thinking it must be a bribe.

There are mysteries in the plot, yet they are hardly necessarily, for it is the characters that actually move the story along. Even those who know the history will want to read Russell's version of it.

For all his trials with declining health, an often angry Kate and the false stories spread by Bat Masterson, Doc Holliday makes the most of his life in Russell's novel. When happiness eludes him, he feeds off that of others.

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I had the distinct pleasure of hearing Ms. Russell speak last October at the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association's trade show. She freely admitted that she had developed a crush on John Henry Holliday and gave many reasons for why she did so. After reading Doc, one understands exactly

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why she was so giddy. It is definitely deserved.

Through extensive research, including learning how to ride horses, read Greek and Latin, and play classical piano, Ms. Russell dispels all legends and exaggerations told about Doc Holliday and instead shows him to be the well-educated southern gentleman and trained dentist that somehow never gets mentioned in retellings of the story of the O.K. Corral. His struggles to combat his tuberculosis and eventual career as a professional gambler get particular attention. Focusing on his childhood and life prior to moving to Tombstone, AZ, the reader gets a comprehensive picture of the man behind the myth, as well as realizing just how much myth there is around the man.

Holliday's story is one of tragedy. Born right before the Civil War into southern gentility, he watched his life turn upside with the coming of the War. His beloved mother died shortly thereafter. Just as he was about ready to start life on his own at age 21, he was given a death sentence in the form of a diagnosis of tuberculosis - the same thing that killed his mother. Fleeing the humid climate of his home prolonged his life, but it also filled him with a profound sense of loneliness and of desolation that he combated, along with his disease, for the rest of his life.

Ms. Russell's words bring the man to life in a way that is just as vivid as any movie. His southern gentility, wit and grace leap off the page, and a reader is left wanting to be a better person if only because JHH remained one in spite of his slow, agonizing death and rough lifestyle. The poignancy of his relationship with Morgan and with Kate brings another facet to the man, as they become the family he so desperately misses. While this is a work of fiction, there is more history than fiction, and Ms. Russell does an excellent job of not only showing which characters are real and which are not but of blending the two seamlessly. For fans of historical fiction, Doc is definitely this spring's must-read.

Thank you to Ms. Russell and GLiBA for my advanced copy!

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Doc is historical fiction about the life of John Henry "Doc" Holliday, known for his role in the 1881 Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. The events of this novel precede the famous gunfight, covering John's youth, his early career as a dentist and gambler in Texas, and later Dodge City, Kansas, his

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friendship with Wyatt Earp and his brothers, and life with his mistress, Kate.

Author Mary Doria Russell brings Dodge City to life; it's a rough and tumble town that will be familiar to anyone who has ever watched a movie western. Dodge has many colorful characters including corrupt officials, prostitutes, and cowboys. The Civil War is still fresh in everyone's minds, and tempers are never far from the boiling point.

John Holliday was well educated and an accomplished musician, when he decided to study dentistry. Plans to go into joint practice with his cousin Robert fell through when John became ill with tuberculosis. He moved west in search of a more hospitable climate. No doubt this prolonged his life considerably, but it also forced him into working as a dealer in a gambling hall, with dentistry more as a sideline. John's relationship with Kate is volatile, but the two can't seem to live without each other. And when John's tuberculosis flares up and he has a bad spell, Kate is always there for him.

In marked contrast to legend, author Russell portrays Doc as generous and kind, going to great lengths to help a friend in need or avenge injustice. Doc pays for a lavish funeral for a young man who died under suspicious circumstances, and does not rest until he has discovered the truth, at which point he takes care of it in true Dodge City style. His close friendship with Wyatt Earp inspires two life-changing acts of kindness. Russell recently published another book, Epitaph, which covers the gunfight and details of Earp's life, and I will definitely be reading that book soon.

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