Deadwood

Rating:
Summary: Pin Drop
Review: ... How come the Wild West is so ...calm in this novel, you ask? Simple. Dexter chooses Charlie Utter as the central character, Bill Hickok's stoic, aloof partner, and it is he and his restrained wit that serves as backbone to this wonderful novel.

The book is split into four parts: Bill, The China Doll (a beautiful Chinese ..), Agnes (Lake, Bill’s wife), and Jane (Calamity). Bill is gone by the end of his section, which surprised me because I thought this book was about Wild Bill. It is and it isn’t. He isn’t physically around after the first part, but his legend is everywhere, and it runs through the book.

I’ve read Paris Trout and Brotherly Love from Pete Dexter before, and enjoyed this one the most, for it is the funniest. Sometimes it’s ha-ha funny; other times it’s more reflective. It’s a fine book, one that makes me wish Dexter will go back to novel writing soon.

- SJW

Rating:
Summary: Pin Drop
Review: ... How come the Wild West is so ...calm in this novel, you ask? Simple. Dexter chooses Charlie Utter as the central character, Bill Hickok's stoic, aloof partner, and it is he and his restrained wit that serves as backbone to this wonderful novel.

The book is split into four parts: Bill, The China Doll (a beautiful Chinese ..), Agnes (Lake, Bill’s wife), and Jane (Calamity). Bill is gone by the end of his section, which surprised me because I thought this book was about Wild Bill. It is and it isn’t. He isn’t physically around after the first part, but his legend is everywhere, and it runs through the book.

I’ve read Paris Trout and Brotherly Love from Pete Dexter before, and enjoyed this one the most, for it is the funniest. Sometimes it’s ha-ha funny; other times it’s more reflective. It’s a fine book, one that makes me wish Dexter will go back to novel writing soon.

- SJW

Rating:
Summary: Weak eyes and pink gin
Review: A great book. It gives such a human dimension to Wild Bill--his blindness at dawn or dusk, his troublesome prostate problems, and his obscession with pink gin. His murder is not the true focus of the book. It is his character, and that of his assassin and Calamidy Jane. It was really good to visit the man behind the myth. In his last days at the No.10 saloon. A very well written book.

Rating:
Summary: Weak eyes and pink gin
Review: A great book. It gives such a human dimension to Wild Bill--his blindness at dawn or dusk, his troublesome prostate problems, and his obscession with pink gin. His murder is not the true focus of the book. It is his character, and that of his assassin and Calamidy Jane. It was really good to visit the man behind the myth. In his last days at the No.10 saloon. A very well written book.

Rating:
Summary: Rich Characters, Colorful Dialogue, Very Entertaining Book
Review: Dexter makes an 1870's frontier mining town come alive. His cast of hapless and miscreant characters are a hoot. You'll certainly enjoy your visit to Deadwood!

Rating:
Summary: Rich Characters, Colorful Dialogue, Very Entertaining Book
Review: Dexter makes an 1870's frontier mining town come alive. His cast of hapless and miscreant characters are a hoot. You'll certainly enjoy your visit to Deadwood!

Rating:
Summary: Not the same as HBO's Deadwood, but a riveting read
Review: I read this book after becoming interested in Deadwood via HBO's series of that name. Since Deadwood is a real place, and since both the book and the television series are based on the real place, many of the characters are common to both. They do not, however, have much more in common besides their names and some shared historic events. Pete Dexter is a fine writer, and in Deadwood he has written a particularly fine novel. Much of the novel centers on the relationship between Wild Bill and his friend Charlie Utter. Other characters whose stories are explored include Charlie's friend, the soft-brained, Bottle Fiend, Wild Bill's widow Agnes Lake, Sheriff Seth Bullock and his partner Sol Star, a beautiful and tragic Chinese singer and prostitute named China Doll, and the always surprising Calamity Jane. Well worth reading, whether or not you like Deadwood, the TV series.

Rating:
Summary: interesting
Review: I started the book and had trouble with the context of the wild west and the characters in the beginning. I began to be swept up by the words of the author somewhere around page 60 and I was a bystander talking and listening to the characters in the book. Dexter's development of characters is very rich and knitting of paralell storylines is extrordinary. I enjoyed it immensely! Especially the conversations between the Bottle Fiend and Charlie.

Rating:
Summary: A rip-roaring good yarn
Review: I was born in Deadwood and was thrilled to discover this book. It brings the town, the times and the characters to vibrant life. And from my knowledge of the history of the area, Mr. Dexter has done a great job of staying true to the historical materials he obviously researched and augmenting those with brilliant flights of imagination. I'm constantly sending this to friends to give them an idea where I came from.

Rating:
Summary: A rip-roaring good yarn
Review: I was born in Deadwood and was thrilled to discover this book. It brings the town, the times and the characters to vibrant life. And from my knowledge of the history of the area, Mr. Dexter has done a great job of staying true to the historical materials he obviously researched and augmenting those with brilliant flights of imagination. I'm constantly sending this to friends to give them an idea where I came from.