Blaine DeSantis's Reviews > Doc

Doc Holliday, a name synonymous with the Old West, Wyatt Earp, Tombstone and so much more. But in this novel we discover more about the real Doc Holiday who suffered from TB from an early age, who had ambition to become a top dentist (attended Dental School in Philadelphia), but was truly a genteel Southerner from Georgia, whose life has rarely been explored and so author Mary Doria Russel takes us along on a tour of his early years, his upbringing, his first love (his cousin), his love of classical music and classical literature, as well as how his TB forced him to continually move onto "better" climates and which took him to Texas and eventually Dodge City, Kansas where a majority of this book takes place. How much is fact, how much is fiction? Well, while Russell does not give us a page by page breakdown, we do find out that she had access to Holiday's relatives, as well as their non-fiction book on Doc. Many of the scenes in this book are factually correct, and she uses this go give us a look at Wyatt Earp (while in Kansas) who Doc admired, Bat Masterson, Morgan Earp (his true friend), Kate Harony (the prostitute better known as Big Nose Kate), and a host of supporting characters who crossed his path while in Dodge City. While not a history, it does help us flesh out Doc, and provide some insight into his life, friendships, loyalties, his illness, his gambling (how else can one support themself if TB kept him from continuing his practice of medicine), and his fascinating attraction to and life with Kate. This is a very fine book with one drawback. At the end of the book the author wraps up Doc's life, along with Kate's and others, and you get the feeling that this will be a one book effort on his life. But no, there is a Book 2 titled Epitaph and which covers the Tombstone years, so I am a bit perplexed as to why she appears to wrap things up at the end of this book. Nevertheless, this is a great book for fans of History, the Old West and those who just want to read a truly fine book!! I shied away from this book for years for fear it would not do justice to Doc. Silly me!!! Not only does it do justice to Doc it shows us the real Doc, the true man behind the myth!!