Cheap Deadwood (Book) (PETE DEXTER) Price

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Customer Reviews of Deadwood

You need not like Westerns to love this book
Peter Dexter's western Deadwood is a work of American Literature that stands up on its own. Calling it a 'western' unfairly limits the scope of its appeal. Like Dexter's other works, Deadwood is a book about America and Americans. Through course and revealing dialogue Dexter Dexter illuminates how we think grandly, why we act poorly, and why we continue to struggle for hapiness, joy, and a good lay. Dexter's characters also speak plainly and to the point. There are wonderful points in this book, for example, when you can hear the characters lying to themselves. There are other points when you can see them flailing against a recognizable and tragic fate. All in all, this is a fine book, written by a fine writer. After you read this you'll need to read Brothery Love and God's Pocket, which are Dexter's next two best books.

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Not the same as HBO's Deadwood, but a riveting read
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.

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A rip-roaring good yarn
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.