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Doc: A Novel Audiobook
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(3.01) - 4,516 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
The year is 1878, peak of the Texas cattle trade. The place is Dodge City, Kansas, a saloon-filled cow town jammed with liquored-up adolescent cowboys and young Irish hookers. Violence is random and routine, but when the burned body of a mixed-blood boy named Johnnie Sanders is discovered, his death shocks a part-time policeman named Wyatt Earp. And it is a matter of strangely personal importance to Doc Holliday, the frail twenty-six-year-old dentist who has just opened an office at No. 24, Dodge House. Beautifully educated, born to the life of a Southern gentleman, Dr. John Henry Holliday is given an awful choice at the age of twenty-two: die within months in Atlanta or leave everyone and everything he loves in the hope that the dry air and sunshine of the West will restore him to health. Young, scared, lonely, and sick, he arrives on the rawest edge of the Texas frontier just as an economic crash wrecks the dreams of a nation. Soon, with few alternatives open to him, Doc Holliday is gambling professionally; he is also living with Mária Katarina Harony, a high-strung Hungarian whore with dazzling turquoise eyes, who can quote Latin classics right back at him. Kate makes it her business to find Doc the high-stakes poker games that will support them both in high style. It is Kate who insists that the couple travel to Dodge City, because “that’s where the money is.” And that is where the unlikely friendship of Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp really begins—before Wyatt Earp is the prototype of the square-jawed, fearless lawman; before Doc Holliday is the quintessential frontier gambler; before the gunfight at the O.K. Corral links their names forever in American frontier mythology—when neither man wanted fame or deserved notoriety. Authentic, moving, and witty, Mary Doria Russell’s fifth novel redefines these two towering figures of the American West and brings to life an extraordinary cast of historical characters, including Holliday’s unforgettable companion, Kate. First and last, however, Doc is John Henry Holliday’s story, written with compassion, humor, and respect by one of our greatest contemporary storytellers.
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"Who would think Mary Doria Russell could write such a beautiful portrait of hardened Wild West characters like Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp? She says more of the portrait is true than you might think, and I hope so because of how much I liked these heartbreaking characters."
— Barb (4 out of 5 stars)
Awards
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Selected for the May 2011 Indie Next List
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A New York Times bestseller
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Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award
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A 2011 RUSA Reading List Selection for Historical Fiction
Doc Listener Reviews
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" fantastic book, great writing - lots of backstory about Doc Holliday. "
— Martha, 2/11/2014 -
" Really 4.5-5 rating. More after book club meets! "
— Tamsyn, 2/2/2014 -
" I love reading good historical fiction and this is one of the best I have read in a long time. Russell has apparently done a lot of research into the short and tragic life of Doc Holliday. This is wonderful, wise and witty writing. "
— Jo, 1/21/2014 -
" Great story about the real Doc Holliday. "
— Nan, 1/21/2014 -
" Not a big fan of westerns, I was surprised to enjoy this book so much. Revealed much about the man and also about the time period. Worth the time invested. "
— Phhornbuckle, 1/19/2014 -
" Literate and well researched. Higher literature selection. Story of Doc Holliday before the OK Corral. "
— Adrienne, 11/13/2013 -
" Amazing character development as with all of her books I have read. My only criticism is that the climax was a bit awkward and rushed in my opinion. "
— Renée, 11/4/2013 -
" So slow! I gave up. Seemed like it should have been good if it had been 200 pages shorter. Disappointing. "
— Myra, 9/8/2013 -
" Excellent blend of historical detail and story-telling make this a most enjoyable read. "
— Conrad, 8/29/2013 -
" Began reading Mary Doria Russell with Sparrow and loved the author. Doc doesn't disappoint! "
— Scherry, 8/5/2013 -
" I really liked this book. It is sensitive and thoughtful, and I liked the characterization of Doc and the Earps. Maybe a bit less Kate, who I think is not fully-fleshed. Still, a very good book. "
— Mary, 4/4/2013 -
" I actually had this one on audioplayer. It was funny and interesting fictional history of Doc Holiday. You have to get past the cussing, but I truely LOL several times. "
— Jana, 3/15/2013 -
" Compelling reading...but I don't know why. I guess I was waiting for the big shoot out at the OK Corral! "
— Stevemid, 2/23/2013 -
" I loved this book ... just wish it hadn't ended when it did (when they all decide to get outa Dodge). It would have been awesome to be inside the characters' heads during & after the gunfights in Tomstone! "
— Edith, 1/25/2013 -
" makes you think about time and living knowing time is short but then struggling with it. "
— Ben, 9/20/2012 -
" good story- he was quite a guy! "
— Lisa, 8/23/2012 -
" Russell does an excellent job of debunking old west legends and stereotypes and portraying the hardscrabble world of Dodge City--of the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday. "
— Ruth, 2/12/2012 -
" Imagine your grandmother wrote a cowboy book, and made it even more boring than you could imagine a grandmother-written cowboy book would be. You'd be halfway to how dull and tepid this book is. Total clunker. "
— Mike, 11/1/2011 -
" really enjoyed this book about Doc Holiday before Tombstone. "
— Lynda, 8/5/2011 -
" MDR brings the Wild West to life with this entertaining and poignant<br/>story of Doc Holliday. Interesting, heartbreaking, and wonderful. "
— Cindy, 6/1/2011 -
" A slow read, but very interesting to learn the real story of who Doc Holiday Was. "
— melody, 5/31/2011 -
" Very good. But then I've liked very much everything that Ms. Russell has written. "
— Pete, 5/26/2011 -
" An intimate portrait of a young man wrestling with his mortality. Russell shows us the more vulnerable, human sides of Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp. "
— Laura, 5/26/2011 -
" A book that challenges the view of Doc Holiday as a hard, dangerous man, and tries to examine his motivations. OK, but not stellar. "
— Linda, 5/25/2011 -
" So far, I think it's her best book since The Sparrow "
— Mary, 5/25/2011 -
" A wonderful well written book. Entertaining and filled with vivid descriptions of Dodge, its lawlessness and the people who lived there. Would have liked to have met Doc Holliday, the Mastersons and the Earps. "
— Diane, 5/21/2011 -
" An interesting story, subtle use of language, great characters! I still couldn't get Val Kilmer out of my head. "
— Peter, 5/18/2011 -
" I love to read a book where the characters themselves tell the story. In this novel, I swear I could hear all the voices of Doc Holliday, the Earp brothers, Katie and all the others telling me about life in Dodge City--great writing! "
— Marilyn, 5/17/2011 -
" This is the way I like to visit history! Historical fiction is great and this is a good one about Doc Holliday. "
— Pat, 5/16/2011
About Mary Doria Russell
Mary Doria Russell is the author of several books, including The Sparrow, Children of God, A Thread of Grace, and Dreamers of the Day. Her novels have won national and international literary awards, including the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the James Tiptree Award, and the American Library Association Readers Choice Award. The Sparrow was selected as one of Entertainment Weekly’s ten best books of the year, and A Thread of Grace was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
About Mark Bramhall
Mark Bramhall has won the prestigious Audie Award for best narration, more than thirty AudioFile Earphones Awards, and has repeatedly been named by AudioFile magazine and Publishers Weekly among their “Best Voices of the Year.” He is also an award-winning actor whose acting credits include off-Broadway, regional, and many Los Angeles venues as well as television, animation, and feature films. He has taught and directed at the American Academy of Dramatic Art.