DEADWOOD by Pete Dexter

Finished Th 4/19/18

I bought this trade paperback from Amazon after seeing the HBO series 'DEADWOOD' on Amazon Prime. After reading the book, it's clear that the book is much richer and better done, and few of the characters are accurately portrayed in the series.

The book is primarily James Butler (Wild Bill) Hickok's story, and then, his closest confident, Charlie Utter. Of course, the setting of Deadwood, South Dakota is central to the theme.

The book is divided into several sections with a character as the focus, but the book is so rich in detail that it's always very interwoven and interdependent.

Custer's Last Stand occurs June 25-26, 1876 and Wild Bill's murder by James McCall happens on August 2nd the same year.

The novel opens with a man on a horse carrying a human head through the town of Deadwood. On one end of town is 'Badlands'; the Bad Side of Town, also the location of the Asian ghetto. The Chinese are referred to as 'The Celestials'.

Jane Canary (Calamity Jane) is a major figure; drunkard, gun fighter, Indian scout, liar, and 'healer'. In the end of the book she is the only 'medical figure' who treats patients during the small pox epidemic. She claims to have been married to Wild Bill, but Bill is actually married to circus performer, Agnes Lake. They never live together- his excuse is that he will send for her once the city is 'civilized'.

Al Swearingen, the operator/ owner of The Gem Saloon is radically different from the TV show. (famous line from the show, "Get Fucking"!!!).  He rapes Malcolm Nash, Charlie Utter's nephew (his then wife's brother), and lives in fear of this boy. Malcolm becomes spellbound by the local crazy preacher.

The TV show is full of swearing, but the novel's characters (especially Charlie Utter) have a more formal and elegant way of speaking- very 19th century.

Solomon Starr and Seth Bullock- two friends that own the town's kiln. Solomon kills a Chinese prostitute, China Doll, because he's deeply in love with her and probably can't accept her profession; A brutal knife killing.

The epilogue is set in Panama- 1912, but most of the novel takes place over three years beginning in 1876.

From the novel's page at Amazon-

“Unpredictable, hyperbolic and, page after page, uproarious; a joshing book written in high spirits and a raw appreciation of the past.”

"Dexter's strongest suit is his exquisite understanding of the finely meshed engines of greed, appetite, and interest."

“Splendid. . . . Rumor put straight. . . . A carefully researched knitting of events into their most dazzling fabric.”

"Dexter's strongest suit is his exquisite understanding of the finely meshed engines of greed, appetite, and interest."

I loved PARIS TROUT, and I also bought from Amazon- THE PAPERBOY and  TRAIN. Pete Dexter is an amazing writer.