Deadwood

The most satisfying book I've read in a long time.

The people that made the TV series claimed they had never heard of this book. The guy that wrote the book never had enough money to sue them. Never having seen the TV series, I have no idea how true that was to the book or if that matters, I guess it does only if you haven't seen the TV series because you can come to this book without preconceptions.

A narrative that starts and just keeps moving. It is cinematic in its execution, each frame clear and truthful, everything is always revealed and nothing is hidden. You may think this leaves nothing to be deduced, which is true, but what it does do is leave you to focus on the detail, for the story here is in the detail.

Unlike other stories show more where the main characters keep living as the incidental characters die off one by one, in this story the main characters die off as the story moves along and it is the incidental characters who reveal that they had been the main characters all along but in a way you have missed but also seen without seeing the whole time.

It put me in mind of the Homesman and The Shootist by Glendon Swarthout, another person who wrote a stories that transcended the genre.

I guess this book could also be framed as historical, but only in the way you'd frame an innocent person for a crime they never committed.

A book to be devoured and savoured at the same time, a book that sees past the morals and judgements to show people as they really are. It is the most human story I have read in a long time. show less

Creative, witty writing. From Charles Utter's pov. He's perpetually mystified about the decisions of men, and women, preferring to let things be when he can. Wild Bill more of a caricature - but Utter's simple depth makes their relationship interesting

A Masterclass in using sentences to accurately describe and create characters.

"To Charley's knowledge, Jack Crawford was the only man in the West who spoke in footnotes."

"He was carrying a leather bag, and smelled like everything he touched or eaten in two months."

"He looked at a story about a new gun they had out in California that spit seventy rounds in four seconds. They called it the "Peace Conservator." They were always doing some damn thing in California that nobody had thought out the consequences."

A little heavy on the Peeders though. I think the word is used every third page.

Very entertaining - close to 5 stars. The dialogue is great, at times reminiscent of Beckett. The author was, of course, restricted by the actual events in Deadwood, so I wished that some relationships could persist, but I guess that's the point. As Agnes Lake says, Things don't care how they happen, that's left for us, to care.

Had no idea the TV show was based on this until I listened to Backlisted. A rich, grimy stew of a book that makes you feel the gritty, sordid daily life of the West through several linked lives. A novel that's incidentally a Western. Maybe not the Great American Novel but will do until something better comes along.

I loved this tale of Wild Bill Hickok and Colorado Charlie and Calamity Jane Cannary. I'm sure the author embroidered his story very much along with the basics of history. But that's just fine, because it makes for some very enjoyable and entertaining reading.
Colorado Charlie decided to accompany Wild Bill Hickok to Deadwood, South Dakota, just to take a road trip, more or less, in covered wagons. Charlie's brother-in-law came along, with Charlie's wife Matilda making Charlie promise to take care of him. They ended up staying in Deadwood, with all kinds of things going wrong, and not much going right, for any of them. Pink gin, bad local whiskey, whorehouses, gunfights, smallpox, gonorrhea, rape, wife beating, you name it, Deadwood's show more got it, and Dexter knows how to make you finish the book feeling sad to say goodbye to these hoary characters that he let you get close to. show less

I watched every episode of the Deadwood series, and was so disappointed when it ended so abruptly after only 3 seasons. When I saw that this book was actualy the book that David Milch built his series around, I had to read it. The book is similar in many ways to the excellent series, but it is different too. It's actually much deeper and Charlie Utter (one of my characters in the series) is the main character in the book. He is the glue that holds everything together. The book is totally surprising, and there is so much depicted in it. Utter is the voice of reason in the wilds of Deadwood. He's a man who is best friend to the legend, Wild Bill Hickok, and he's a man who studies and examines humankind all around him, and even if he's not show more surprised at the depravity he encounters, his ability to mediate and provide a voice of reason even under the most shocking circumstanes, helps his friends and acquaintenances through difficult times. Charlie is very much a man of his time (1870's), but he's also a modern man in a changing world. The book is hilariously funny in spots, and totally shocking in others, but through it all we have Charlie making his way through it, and his experiences are so well depicted that it helps us assimilate the multitude of humanity and the multitude of viloence in Deadwood, USA. I didn't think I'd find another book about the old west that I would like as much as Lonesome Dove, but this book can hold its' place beside Lonesome Dove and even rises above in many aspects. show less