Doc

A Novel

By: Mary Doria Russell

Narrated by: Mark Bramhall

Length: 16 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

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 26-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 22: 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.

©2011 Mary Doria Russell (P)2011 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Fact and mythmaking converge as Russell creates a Dodge City filled with nuggets of surprising history, a city so alive readers can smell the sawdust and hear the tinkling of saloon pianos....Filled with action and humor yet philosophically rich and deeply moving - a magnificent read." ( Kirkus)

THIS STORY AND NARRATOR HOOKED ME!

This book was really fun to listen to. The narrator was truly fabulous and for the length of the novel I felt like I was transported to a different time and place. Loved it. Made me smile as well as feel sad. I LOVED listening to this narrator!

it was like going back in time

Doc is an excellent read/listen -- fast and interesting but mark bramhall made it 5 star he is incredible all his voices are unique and you go from the South to the West and sometimes to the East in the blink of an eye. i will look forward to hearing some of his other audio works.

it's a yes

it's a yes and I'm getting the sequel. it's not overly dramatic. historical references were interesting.

A great read!

I bought this book sight unseen because of the author. It is well worth the read. I have never been to the Wild West but the excellently nuanced narration by Mark Bramhall ” took” me there. Highly recommended.

Loved it!

Thoroughly enjoyed the presentation. The narration made me picture the area, people as well as Doc Himself. This was a wonderful adaptation

Allow me to be pithy!

Pretty darn awesome. My compliments to Mary for writing it and Mark for telling it. Thank you!

Emotional and Captivating

I absolutely loved this book from the first word to the very last. Mark Bramhall is an incredible narrator and combined with Maria Doria Russell’s fantastic storytelling, this is a book that I simply could not stop listening to.

In this book, Doc is humanized, well-beyond the glamour and Hollywood stories you’ve heard. He becomes John Henry, a very young man, born to a wealthy Georgian family, with a terrible debilitating disease. While he wants desperately to build a good, respectable name for himself and his dental practice, the fates force his hand, and he is left to choose between dying a quiet, destitute, lonely death, or spend his time enjoying life in any way he can. He is constantly tormented between wanting to be the man his mother envisioned him to be, and the man he is forced to be.

This book is fantastic, intricately woven, and every character feels well-fleshed out. From Belle Wright, the town beauty with a crush on the dentist, to Morgan Earp, the carefree and amiable younger brother to history’s most famous lawman, you will thoroughly enjoy everyone’s story, and how Doc impacted and ultimately steered all of their lives into history books.

Fascinating

A unique look in the life and Times of some American legends, interesting historical settings as well. Very well written, I highly recommend it.

Extremely Well Done

An amazing book that brings to life mythic characters of the Old West - their problems and passions, their character and behavior. It dispels the Penny Dreadful views and the language, especially Doc’s, is marvelous. He was a gifted and caring southern gentleman whose struggle with tuberculosis was so sad.
Mark Bramhall’s performance was exemplary. His pitch, his pacing, his accents - everything but his female voices was spot on and really helped to bring the characters to life.

A wonderful story

This book was informative and entertaining the reader was excellent the characters well-developed at the Ending, as in the authors notes,quite enjoyable