8216;Doc8217;

Before that deadly fracas,Earp was in Dodge City,too,though as a policeman firming up his reputation for no-nonsense law and order. The unlikely friendship that developed between Holliday and Earp,not yet in their 30s when they first met,is a key strain in a narrative that courses through a large set of delightfully rendered characters.

Life has dealt Holliday a bad hand. The tuberculosis that killed his mother is slowly choking him,yet he tries to establish a dental practice in Dodge City even though his skill at dealing faro could earn him far more. Taking money from drunken cowboys doesn8217;t stack up to the pride he feels when helping Earp and others overcome dental problems that,in the late 19th century,could easily lead to death or a lifetime of pain.

Labeling 8221;Doc8221; a Western would be like calling 8221;Crime and Punishment8221; a caper novel. With a friend struggling through Dostoyevsky8217;s tale,the well educated Holliday advises him not to worry about all those Russian names. 8221;Just read,8221; Holliday says. 8221;People are people in St. Petersburg or Dodge.8221;

In Dodge,they range from cowboys and prostitutes to businessmen and society ladies,from lawmen and their women to bankers and merchants,from a Jesuit priest to a Chinese laundryman. Their hopes and desires are no less varied. The constant is Russell8217;s narrative voice _ rich,wise and insightful.

8221;Doc8221; is closer in tone to Larry McMurtry8217;s best novels than to familiar Holliday-Earp films like 8221;My Darling Clementine8221; and 8221;Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.8221; Readers looking for Hollywood-style gunplay between Old West stereotypes best move on. Everyone else can settle in for a compelling study of young men and women playing out their lives as best they can with the cards they8217;ve been dealt.

Daniel is the author of 8221;Tough as Nails: The Life and Films of Richard Brooks8221; University of Wisconsin Press.

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