Doc

Many of the books I've read this year have been set in either Europe or the Middle East (or, in many cases, both); only one book has been set in the wild, wild West of late 19th century America. That book is Doc, an outstandingly true-to-life historical fiction about the life and times of John Henry "Doc" Holliday, about whom I must admit, I knew virtually nothing before reading this book. Following Doc from his childhood in Georgia through the West and his death from tuberculosis at the age of 36, Mary Doria Russell creates a portrait of the hard living ways of Doc, his prostitute girlfriend Big Nose Kate, and the Earp brothers.

While the characters are fascinating (I've ordered Doc Holliday: A Family Portrait from the library to learn more about this rabble-rouser), I most appreciated the passages about Doc's dentistry education and practice and tuberculosis. The research on these areas alone was clearly considerable and, as a reader, I appreciated the painstaking descriptions of practices and diseases that are no longer commonplace. I had no idea, for example, that tuberculosis effectively eats away at the lung, leaving each lobe spongelike as it progresses. Dodge, Kansas, also springs to life from Russell's pages: the thunder of horses pounding into town, ridden hard by cowboys; the rustle of vibrant-hued and silky dresses sported by Big Nose Kate and her competitors; the fanning and flipping of cards at gaming tables. Russell does justice to not only a life, but a place and time.