Epitaph

Doc Holliday #2

by Mary Doria Russell

From the bestselling, award-winning author of Doc, The Sparrow, and A Thread of Grace comes Epitaph, a richly detailed novel of the infamous gunfight at the O.K. Corral and the making of the mythology that surrounds it to this day.
A deeply divided nation. Vicious politics. A shamelessly partisan media. A president scorned by half the populace. Smuggling and gang warfare along the Mexican border. Armed citizens willing to stand their ground and take law into their own hands...
That was America in 1881.
All those forces came to bear on the afternoon of October 26, when Doc Holliday and the three Earp brothers faced off against the Clantons and the McLaurys in Tombstone, Arizona. It should have been a simple misdemeanor arrest. But thirty seconds and thirty bullets later, three officers were wounded and three citizens lay dead in the dirt.
Wyatt Earp was the last man standing—the only one unscathed. The lies began before the smoke cleared, but the gunfight at the O.K. Corral would soon become central to American beliefs about frontier justice in the Old West.
Maria Doria Russell has unearthed the Homeric tragedy buried beneath 130 years of mythology, misrepresentation, and sheer indifference to fact. Epic and intimate, Epigraph gives voice to the real men and women whose lives were changed forever by those fatal 30 seconds in Tombstone. At its heart is the woman behind the myth: Josephine Sarah Marcus, who loved Wyatt Earp for almost half a century and who carefully chipped away at the truth until she had crafted the heroic legend that would become the epitaph her husband deserved.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Westerns, Historical, Audiobook, American History, Literary Fiction

581 pages, Hardcover

First published March 3, 2015

About the author

Mary Doria Russell is an American author. She was born in 1950 in the suburbs of Chicago. Her parents were both in the military; her father was a Marine Corps drill sergeant, and her mother was a Navy nurse.

She holds a Ph.D. in Paleoanthropology from the University of Michigan, and has also studied cultural anthropology at the University of Illinois, and social anthropology at Northeastern University in Boston. Russell lives in Cleveland, Ohio with her husband Don and their two dogs.

Mary is shy about online stuff like Goodreads, but she responds to all email, and would prefer to do that through her website.

Photo by Jeff Rooks

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

My best read of the year, and one I can recommend to all. What, you don’t think a “Western” would appeal to you? Or you think you saw a movie about a shootout in Tombstone that conveys to you everything you didn’t really need to know? And are you about to tell me that any thrill from brave action and dastardly villainy is gone, and any joy of wisdom about courage and justice is as dead as old reruns of “Gunsmoke”?

Well, never fear, just forget all that. Think character development sublime, prose that sings, and fine pacing in a mythic tale that also represents a time machine to a critical point in history. The year is 1877, a time when the American dream was reaching a turning point with the ending of the frontier and the corralling of the last Indian tribes on reservations. It doesn’t matter much if you didn’t get to love John Henry Holliday and Wyatt Earp during their sojourn in Dodge City with Russell’s earlier book “Doc.” You get a fullsome picture here of their friendship being like two sides of a coin. Not too different from Gus and Call in “Lonesome Dove,” with one articulate, passionate, and ironic and the other a laconic righteous boy scout who can break bad when riled up enough.

Wyatt has come west with his brothers Morgan, Virgil, and James and their fascinating and hardy women. He does deputy sheriff work alternating with security for stagecoaches, while Morgan is with the city police and Virgil serves as a federal marshal. Jurisdictions for their law enforcement work get blurred and they work together a lot. Against the background of drunks getting rowdy in the saloons, gambling emporiums, and brothels, there is an overlapping set of criminal elements who multitask in spheres like robbery and cattle rustling and align with various corrupt and greedy factions in power, such as politicians, ranchers, mining magnates, and newspaper publishers. A microcosm of civilization and its discontents.

Doc, the Earp’s well-educated dentist friend from Georgia, comes for the dry weather to help his tuberculosis and comfortable income from gambling. He is alone, as his stormy relationship with the femme fatale Kate is in a breach phase. As an invalid, he has learned to be quick with a gun when faced with an impending assault and his charm and Latin aphorisms fail. His newspaper inspired reputation from violent events in Dodge City seems to draw out the bullies and wannabee bad boys, and the Earps always seem to get involved in defending him. It’s easy to see why local yahoos might take offense when he spouts things like this:

“Laughter of children. Discretion of slaves. Austerity of virgins,” he canted softly. “It begins in loutishness and ends among angels of flame and ice.” …”I have despaired of many things”,.he told Wyatt. ”Health. Home. Honor. Myself. There remains one thing I rely on, one thing I can put my faith in. Human folly never disappoints.”

Wyatt has a reputation as dangerous too, but his is inflated from a single killing of a drunk who was dangerously out of control. This is more his story this time around. Beyond family loyalty and his strange affinity for Doc, it’s hard to tell what drives him. His empathy for the downtrodden gets him trapped in a relationship with one Mattie Blylock, a shrewish ex-prostitute who gets viscously nutty without her regular doses of laudanum and flaky nutty when she does. But another woman has her eye on him, Josie Marcus, a Brooklyn-born Jew of Polish extraction who plays the piano at a saloon, ostensibly married to a corrupt entrepreneur with ambitions to become governor. Great chemistry, but it takes him forever to act on her interest in him. It bothers him how “all the women in Arizona were either somebody’s or anybody’s”. In the advice of one of the Morgan wives to Josie:
“Honey, the Earp boys mean well, …but sometimes you have to hit them with a shovel to get their attention.”

Russell excels in making most of the bad guys in this tale comprehensible and complex instead of just stock stereotypes. At their core is the Clanton clan, who run a prominent cattle ranching operation, which is well supplemented with cattle rustling and stagecoach robberies. The patriarch rules with an iron fist, and his son Ike thrives in his outfit by his childhood skill of reading him like the weather:

The old man was just part of a world that included rattlers, scorpions, and a hundred kinds of cactus. …Ike had made a particular study of the old man and knew when bad spells were coming on. “It’s like thunderstorms,” he told them. … The old man’s mood would get darker and darker, like clouds piling up, and he’d get angrier like wind rising. Then he’d explode. Lightening could strike the nearest target. “Give! Me! My! Due!” The old man would yell over and over, a blow landing with each word, until he’d spent his fury on that week’s unlikely child.

One of Clanton’s “Cow Boys” is a young tough named Johnny Ringo, who was also abused by his father as a child (do you see a theme here?). In his case, the story is how the sins of the child shall be revisited upon the father, and the best defense is a good offense (a permanent one). That makes hims especially dangerous (“Old man Clanton might take a horsewhip to you, but Ringo would kill you”). But like Doc, he is a reader and a thinker. He makes a canny summary of the Tombstone community, which Russell elsewhere fleshes out in elaborate detail:

“The old man’s like everybody else out here. Nobody goes west except failures, misfits, and deluded lungers” [i.e. the tubercular].

Step by step, with one sleight or infraction escalating into progressively larger ones, the Clanton gang becomes enemy number one for the Earps. After the mythic shootout at the “O.K. Corral”, which resulted in both Virgil and Morgan getting serious bullet wounds, Wyatt has an epiphany about how was able to get into the “zone” as an efficient killing machine. It had to do with yet another case of a child adapting to the dangers of a brutal father. He had learned to submerge his rage and just concentrate on the hands of his adversary to predict and counter his actions. As the aftermath of the showdown escalates further by the Clanton gang’s revenge and counter moves by the lawmen, losses mount on both sides, and Wyatt takes a turn toward an all-out vendetta.

This transformation represents the core tragedy in the book, the movement of Wyatt to the dark side. But he doesn’t see the change in terms of good turning to evil:

“When a man beats his boy, he wants a son who won’t buck him.” That’s what Wyatt told Doc Holliday once back in Dodge. “He’s trying to make a coward. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, it works.” “And the hundredth boy?,” Doc asked. “We can go either way. Kill the old man, or try to become a better one.”
He didn’t tell Doc how hard it was trying to be a better man. He didn’t say what it was like pouring your soul into just …not being murderous. He never told anyone what it felt like when his grip on anger loosened. It felt like honesty.
The shame came later.

As the body count continues to rise, there is no righteousness along the lines of John McClane in the “Die Hard” films:
A lifetime denying his own nature, Wyatt had been born, and born again, and not there would be a third life, for the iron fist that has seized his soul in childhood had lost its grip at last. The long struggle for control is over. … He was bred to this anger. It had been in him since the cradle. He’d never bullied or beaten a horse. He’d never punched the front teeth out of a six-year old’s mouth or hit a woman until she begged. But he was no better than his father, and never had been. He was far, far worse.

Wyatt’s personal loss of innocence over what looks like family defense stands in for me as a metaphor for the whole American enterprise behind the Manifest Destiny mania for subjugating the continent. As we follow his life with Josie in the decades after these events, we witness an aimlessness and lingering guilt. Like the conquering of the West in general, his story is subsumed in books and movies as a triumph of civilization over savagery. He and Josie engage a sympathetic young man as a ghostwriter to render the “truth”, but Josie can’t help sanitizing all the seedy aspects in the lives of the players. This just helps convince me how the crafting of a fictional version of history, at least in the hands of a master like Russell, can have more truth than what serious historians are able to render.

[Jaline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Note: This is the second of a two-part 'series' that began with Doc

As it says in this book, “Every Tombstone needs an Epitaph”. This is said about the newspaper John Clum decided to establish in Tombstone, Arizona. The year was 1880 and the Earp brothers were already getting themselves set up in the town with their wives.

We learn more about the wives of the Earps (most of them through common law) and what their experiences were during this time of boom and bust that the American frontier was experiencing. We find out more about their backgrounds, where they came from, and their families.

We also learn more about the notoriously fascinating 30 seconds that is still talked about, analyzed, and argued: the shootout at the O. K. Corral. Although it actually took place closer to the back of the Photography shop, the shop’s name was too long and not euphonious, so the O. K. Corral it became and will likely always remain so.

Although the worst of the “Cow Boys” (which is what they called themselves and were referred to by others) were not the ones killed at the O. K. Corral, the instigators were decidedly drunk and refusing to give up their weapons in the town. Wyatt Earp was a Marshall and had deputized his brothers Morgan and Virgil as well as Doc Holliday to help disarm the men and send them on their way. The action was taken due to pleas and pressure by the mining magnate of the area whose pay strongboxes were targets. Wells Fargo was also requesting help to prevent the Cow Boys from stealing the strongboxes they transported. There were many local businesses and ordinary citizens who had also had enough of being terrorized by this outlaw element.

It is interesting that with so many people – even influential people - urging that the laws be upheld, and to do whatever it took to make that happen, there was not only an inquest but also a trial, with Wyatt Earp and his deputies the accused. The Judge could see clearly what was happening and found in favour of the lawmen. Unfortunately, that only added more fuel to the threats and altercations that made life in Tombstone so treacherous for those who were attempting to make it a safer place to live.

Then, a couple of severe attacks on the Earp brothers took place that changed Wyatt Earp completely. He was finished with being quiet, polite, and using his inner authority to persuade outlaws to move on. He was fueled by a rage he could no longer contain – even had he wanted to.

The research and writing of this book is Mary Doria Russell at her best. The saga unfolds with perfect pacing – times of intense action or suspense merge seamlessly with idyllic and sweet moments. The story continues on – past Tombstone and into other towns and cities-to-be that are experiencing booms, one after the other. Then comes the big bust – twenty years after the national economic disasters of 1873, the same thing happens in 1893.

Ms Russell carries us along with her momentum as we read the stories of some of America’s most famous – and infamous – outriders and would-be entrepreneurs of the late 1800's through to their own time of epitaphs. In the case of some of them, such as Doc Holliday, this came at a young age. In the case of Wyatt Earp and his wife, Josie (aka Sadie to those who loved her), much later in life.

I loved this book. The story and how it is told within these pages was completely engaging for me, and I would definitely recommend it to people who enjoy fact-based historical fiction that is beautifully written, and where we are invited to experience a time in history that continues to ignite the imagination over one hundred years later.

[Brina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Howdy, Goodreads friends. The year 2018 has been a year with reading at a premium for me. I have cut down on reading and unfortunately on reviewing as well, even for books that I enjoyed. What I have done, is enjoyed time with my family, been busy with both family life and work, and preparing for a bar mitzvah later this year. So while I would love to express my views in a five paragraph writeup for every book that I have read this year, it just is not happening; however, I owed it to Mary Doria Russell to express my joy over her western sagas.

Many of my goodreads friends had read various books by Mary Doria Russell, most often The Sparrow or Children of God. While not my taste, I was alerted to her historical fiction account of Doc Holliday. My husband had urged me to watch the movie Tombstone about Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday and I was hooked on their story. The September theme in the group Retro Chapter Chicks is Western history. I suggested Doc and it became a group read. Not many of my fellow chicks were hooked on Doc but I enjoyed reading about the Earps, Doc Holliday, and their surrounding cast of characters prior to them moving to Tombstone. This book focused on character studies with a slow moving plot but I was captivated enough to move on to Epitaph, and I am glad that I did.

Epitaph may be my fiction book of the year. It is both a western and a sweeping saga that moves fast as it details the history of Wyatt Earp and his common law wife Josephine Sarah Marcus. The majority of the book takes place in Tombstone and while the gun fight at the O.K. Corral factors into the story, it is not the end all to it. Rather the events of October 26, 1881 were the result of a nation deeply divided in the twenty years following the Civil War. Northerners and Southerners, Republicans and Democrats had let old animosities and grudges boil over and it all came to a head in this western lawless towns. There are saloons, card games, and all of the elements of a western yet Mary Doria Russell adds the historical background of all of the cast of characters as well as important historical events of the day, which make Epitaph historical fiction at its finest.

Consider this a joint review of Doc and Epitaph. Both make my list of top fiction reads of 2018 with Epitaph getting the nod because the book of nearly 600 pages was fast moving enough to be finished in just over a day because it grabbed and held my attention throughout. I had never read a Mary Doria Russell book prior to these and now I feel the urge to read all of her novels even if they are about subjects I am not necessarily interested in. The writing was that good. I look forward to reading more of Russell's novels in 2019 when hopefully my reviewing will pick up as well.

5 full stars
plus 4.5 for Doc

[Kemper · Rating 4 out of 5]

”To understand the gunfight in Tombstone, stop — now — and watch a clock for thirty seconds. Listen to it tick while you try to imagine one half of a single minute so terrible it will pursue you all your life and far beyond the grave."

One of the things I find fascinating about the ‘Gunfight at the O.K. Corral'* is how the same set of facts can be presented to show one side or the other as the ‘good guys’ or the ‘bad guys’. Were the Earps and Doc Holliday heroes who fearlessly faced down some dastardly cattle rustlers and thieves, or were they corrupt opportunists who essentially murdered some innocent ranchers as part of their efforts to take over the town of Tombstone?

As with most things the reality probably lies somewhere in the middle, and what Mary Doria Russell has done so brilliantly with this historical fiction is to show us a version that feels a lot more true than many of the non-fiction accounts that ascribe some kind of agenda to the actions of those involved. Her depiction here shows all the participants not as mythical incorruptible Western lawmen nor mustache twirling villains. Instead, she tells a story in which they are just flawed people who found themselves at a nasty intersection of local politics, business, and crime that led to series of events that eventually found a group of men trading bullets in a vacant lot that was unfortunately just the beginning of even more violence that would cost them dearly.

The previous Russell book Doc focused on John Henry Holliday and his friendship with the Earps through their days in Dodge City. This one puts Wyatt in the forefront, but like Doc we get the viewpoints of many characters. For example, a lot of the story comes to us via Josie Marcus, the woman who left Sheriff John Behan for his political rival Wyatt which was another key factor in escalating the tensions in Tombstone.

The first part of the book that details the events leading up to the infamous gunfight is a stew of conflicting agendas enhanced by post-Civil War grudges and shady political moves that combine until even the most frantic stirring couldn’t keep that particular pot from boiling over. A lot of this reminded me of HBO’s Deadwood in the way that various schemes play out. There’s also distinct parallels to American society today like the town’s two competing newspapers choosing sides and trying to spin events like a cable news network.

Another interesting aspect is how much time is spent on what happened after the gunfight, and unlike some versions such as the film Tombstone which glamorized the ‘vendetta ride of Wyatt Earp’ this story dwells instead on the immense price that everyone involved paid in one way or another. The book pretty much destroys the romanticized myth of the Old West in which disputes can be permanently settled by showdowns at high noon, and instead presents the much messier reality in which violence kicks off revenge cycles when there’s no strong authority around to put a stop to the whole mess.

Although the Earps and Doc Holliday are definitely the heroes of this story Russell deglamorizes them as legends. Instead she skillfully and compassionately shows how their complicated lives and a variety of good and bad decisions led them to that pivotal thirty seconds, and how those moments haunted and defined their reputations forever afterwards.

* - It’s common knowledge that the shooting didn’t actually happen at the OK Corral, but as Russell writes, “…..it took too long to set the type for 'Gunfight in the Vacant Lot Behind Camillus Fly’s Photography Studio Near Fremont Street.'”

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know those silly questionnaires that ask, if you could meet anyone alive or dead who would you choose? I think I would choose Doc Holiday, he was such a complicated person, the many different sides to his personality, his diverse talents. I find him fascinating and loved Russell's novel, Doc. This book was much more extensive, and Doc only plays a small part, yet the parts that contained him and Josie, who would eventually become Wyatt Earps wife were among my favorites.

The atmosphere in this story was spot on, while reading I felt like I was in Tombstone. The dirt in the streets, the wooden houses, the gun fights, the gambling, prostitution, drinking and stage coach robberies. All the Warps and their women are prominently featured. The political maneuvering, even way back then there was criminal activity and differences between the Republicans and Democrats. Go figure.

A lawless time, as Tombstone tries to grow and become a safe town. The relationship and loyalty between Doc and the Earps. Of course it ends in the gun fight at the OK Corral, and the rest as they say is history.
Yet it doesn't end there, not in this novel as the author goes on to show how Josie fights for a heroic vision of her husband, the sanitized version that will go down in history.

A book, so incredibly well written, that will appeal to history readers as well as those who love Westerns.

[Andy Marr · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really wanted to fall in love with this book, but all the way through I felt that Russell hadn't quite been sure whether she was writing a novel or a biography of Wyatt Earp's life. While large sections of the book were near-perfectly written, others were frustrating slow or - particularly in the case of the final 50 or so pages - almost unnecessary.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beneath history, memory and forgetting.
Beneath memory and forgetting, life.
Paul Ricoeur

Mary Doria Russell could not have selected a finer epigraph to preface her retelling of those thirty seconds on that Tombstone October afternoon in 1881.

The final sixty pages of Epitaph: A Novel of the O.K. Corral are a cautionary tale of what lies beneath history: legends spun from nostalgia. Perhaps it seems odd that I would begin by telling you of the end, but this novel is funny like that. We already know something of the end of the most famous gun battle of the American West, don’t we? It has become so fixed in our pop culture lore that just the mention of The O.K. Corral conjures up sepia-toned visions of hot, dusty streets, sun-scoured faces under sweat-soaked wide-brimmed hats, holsters slung low, voices that growl, mouths that spit, hands moving in a blur, as fast as the bullets that inevitably fly from Colt revolvers.

It is easy to forget that once you scrape away the patina of lore, pale flesh and brittle bones are all that remain. And so Russell does the scraping away for us, showing us the final years of Josephine “Sadie” Marcus and Wyatt Earp, the last legends standing, and how their history entered the lexicon of lore that holds our imaginations still, 130 years later. Beneath memory and forgetting, human beings.

With sweeping vivacity, Epitaph tells the story of all that leads up to and follows from that infamous shoot-out. As brief as the actual event itself may have been, it was frontloaded with politics and culture, egos and dreams. You will meet a large cast of characters, but Russell is so generous with her time, you will come to know their distinct personalities and where they fit into this epic.

Four central characters hold most of the spotlight: Josie Marcus, the young daughter of a Polish immigrant, a dreamer whose formless ambition leads her into the arms of Johnny Behan, an irascible Irish schemer who seeks alliances with those whom he can use to further his political agenda, such as the taciturn, morally square Wyatt Earp, whose tenderness is reserved for his posse of brothers, and for the tubercular and refined Doc Holliday. From these four spring a host of lawmen, outlaws, steadfast women, weak-minded pols, and a natural world that is as unforgiving and changeable as law and order in the Old West.

In her Author’s Note, Mary Doria Russell explains she worked through nineteen linear feet of research material to write Epitaph. Woven into the narrative are the political and cultural machinations at work in post-Civil War America, including the local and national scrabbling between Democrats and Republicans, gun control and gangs, women asserting their independence, drugs, gambling, corruption—all against the backdrop of fervent expansion and fortunes made and lost in a mine or a bar, in a heartbeat or a long, slow, painful death.

Beneath history, we have our storytellers. And Mary Doria Russell is among the finest. Where once I resisted reading Doc , Russell’s 2011 gorgeous rendering of the life and times of John Henry “Doc” Holliday, because I just didn’t read “westerns,” I could not wait to wrap my hands and heart around Epitaph. If anything, the pleasure was more profound because the characters had already captured my imagination and the author, my trust. Since Doc, I’ve found rapture in several of her novels, most notably the transcendent The Sparrow and A Thread of Grace. There are few contemporary authors whom I find as spellbinding as Mary Doria Russell. The delight she takes in her stories and the depth of feeling she has for her characters, lift off the page and transport the reader into the heart of her world.

Clear your calendar, shut out the world, settle in. Welcome to Tombstone.

[The Shayne-Train · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will preface this review by saying that I've been a bit obsessed, of late, with the life of John Henry "Doc" Holliday. I've read numerous books about him or involving him over the last two years or so: some of them historical novels, and some of them pure fantasy with Doc as a character in them. All of them please me, as they all portray him as a witty, grumpy, slowly-dying Southern gentleman of honor. But none of them, not a single one of them, has pleased me as much as this wonderfully-written novel.

The backstory! Ye gods! So much backstory! In a less-capable author's hands, it could almost be said that there was too much backstory. But in Ms. Russell's artistic hands, there is no such thing as too much. We get to see the motivations and thought processes of so many characters, from bit players to main cast. And it's all beautiful. BEAUTIFUL.

Doc himself, and the Earps, and the sinister "Cow Boys," the various ladyloves, the sheriffs and judges and newspapermen, the ranchers and miners, the politicians and prostitutes and bartenders, the Mexican desperados and the first-generation Americans seeking better lives: they are all explored, and cradled with such well-written prose.

I'll end by saying this, and it is meant as the greatest compliment: this is the only story involving Doc Holliday that I've read which didn't star Val Kilmer as the dentist-cum-gambler/gunfighter/consumption-victim in my head. I didn't need the crutch of a familiar (if pale and sickly) face spouting lines with a debonair Georgian drawl. All I needed was the next chapter, the next page, the next line of dialogue, to paint his portrait for me.

[Tom Mathews · Rating 5 out of 5]

The number one criticism one hears against history books is that they aren’t timely; that they don’t relate to events that are happening today. When it comes to Mary Doria Russell's latest book, Epitaph, though, nothing could be farther from the truth. Granted, a book about a shootout that happened in a vacant lot in Arizona over 130 years ago hardly seems relevant but when you boil it down to its essentials, a closely-knit biased clan of law enforcement officials gun down innocent members of an underprivileged segment of the population, the story begins to sound very familiar.

When three of the Earp brothers and their friend, John ‘Doc’ Holliday, shot and killed three men in the vacant lot adjacent to Fly’s photo studio (later shortened to at the O.K. Corral), they ripped a hole in the fabric of the community every bit as damaging as what happened last year in Ferguson, MO. In both cases everybody had an opinion even though few people actually witnessed the events. In both cases the events touched off further unrest and violence. In both cases, a judicial response was requested the law enforcement officials involved were not indicted. In both cases, law enforcement officials were subsequently ambushed and killed. In both cases, opinions across the country were sharply divided and in both cases, the community suffered.

In addition, a key element of Epitaph is the subject of gun control. The Earps were reportedly attempting to disarm the Clantons and Mclaurys, parties who were well known for proclaiming ‘I know my rights!’.

Through all of this, Russell has worked hard to present a balanced account of what happened, something that is not easy to find. I have read many accounts of what happened in Tombstone and watched several shows and movies about it. I even cut my teeth listening to Johnny Cash’s ‘Ballad of Boot Hill’. One would think, with over 50 books and a dozen or more movies covering the subject, that enough has been said about the subject. The truth is that even though Russell’s book is described as a novel, it impresses me with its veracity far more than any of the so-called true accounts written over the years by those with agendas of their own or axes to grind.

Although the year isn’t yet over, I feel pretty confident that Mary Doria Russell will have written my favorite book of the year for the second year in a row. Last year I finally succumbed to sound advice from friends and read her first book, The Sparrow. It was magnificent. Russell has now joined the small group of authors whose books I will buy, sight unseen, as soon as it is possible to do so.

FYI: On a 5-point scale I assign stars based on my assessment of what the book needs in the way of improvements:
• 5 Stars – Nothing at all. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
• 4 Stars – It could stand for a few tweaks here and there but it’s pretty good as it is.
• 3 Stars – A solid C grade. Some serious rewriting would be needed in order for this book to be considered great or memorable.
• 2 Stars – This book needs a lot of work. A good start would be to change the plot, the character development, the writing style and the ending.
• 1 Star - The only thing that would improve this book is a good bonfire.

[Cathrine ☯️ · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 🆗 🆗 🆗 🆗 🆗
While chatting with BFF Phyllis, we got on to the subject of books and this author, whom we both have read, factored in. Having enjoyed Doc I discovered this was available now on audio and went for it.
I loved it! Narrator Hilary Huber brought it all to a larger than life experience in reading entertainment and Russell's command of literary fiction is impressive. To think Wyatt Earp was alive and living in Los Angeles when my dad was just a boy growing up there kind of amazes me. What a huge shift in culture and growth the lawman lived through. This goes before and beyond that gunfight in the O.K. Corral but that mere thirty seconds of guns blazing made for a legend and this book does it justice.

[Peggyzbooksnmusic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished 07-31-24. Rated 5 stars. Will have a difficult time letting go of these tragic, historical characters.

Update 07-30-24; Only 30% left till end of this heartbreaking fictional account of the shoot out in Tombstone and the events that will eventually transpire. Love how the author "foreshadows" what will happen slowly throughout each chapter.

FAV QUOTES:

"Beneath history, memory and forgetting. Beneath memory and forgetting, life. —PAUL RICOEUR"

"TO UNDERSTAND THE GUNFIGHT IN TOMBSTONE, stop—now—and watch a clock for thirty seconds. Listen to it tick while you try to imagine one half of a single minute so terrible it will pursue you all your life and far beyond the grave. Whether you live another five minutes or another fifty years, those awful thirty seconds will become a private eclipse of the sun, Year after year, everything that did and did not happen during those thirty seconds of confusion and noise, smoke and pain will be analyzed and described, distorted and disputed."

“All Tombstone needs is water and some good people,” he declared, “and it’ll turn into a garden spot!” The same might be said of hell, Doc thought, though it seemed unkind to say so in the face of such confident optimism."

"There are very few men who wake up in Philadelphia, say, or Cincinnati and look into their mirrors and think, I’m prosperous and my life is wonderful. I guess it’s time to turn my back on all this good fortune and head west!”

"Where a tale begins and where it ends matters. Who tells the story, and why . . . That makes all the difference."

Highly recommend! Look forward to reading more of this author.

[Doug Bradshaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book and I admire the author and her meticulous work and brilliant imagination. We've all watched movies, TV series and perhaps read other books about Doc Holliday and the Earp brothers. But to read this book along with "Doc" is an incredibly interesting and powerful experience. Some of the themes well covered:
The life and times of prostitutes in the old west, the reality of cowboys and gunfights, political and police corruption, fire destroying a city, living in extreme heat, extreme weather, drunken gambling and various incidents, money making in the old west, those with the gold manipulating the whole system (kind of like today), the newspaper rags of the time, the extremes of gossip and two sides to every story, love and romance, quiet powerful brave men, and of course, the brilliant and misplaced Doc Holliday, a poet, concert pianist, wordsmith and gentleman accused many times of being a murderer and yet, perhaps the best of the best, a true defender of the oppressed a, a generous man.

The life and times of the Earp brother is fascinating and well told, each brother different, each brother excellent in their own way.

I loved both books. I decided to go to four stars only because sometimes the story got slightly tedious, a little more information than I wanted, and yet. I'm glad I read them both.

[Shelby *trains flying monkeys*]

I've been lusting after this book and right now it's 99 cents on Amazon.
Sooooo

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

This brilliant novel starts by asking the reader to look at a clock for 30 seconds and “…imagine one half of a single minute so terrible it will pursue you all your life and far beyond the grave.” The most famous gunfight of the Wild West was fought in an alley near Tombstone’s O.K. Corral and took half a minute.

This novel is much more than simply retelling a familiar story. It kicks up the layers of dust around Tombstone. The dusty streets and rugged stagecoach rides, the silver mining, the holdups, and the wooden building so easily burned by fire and rebuilt by an involved rich community. Most of the bad guys were not that bad and most of the good guys were not that good. All were caught up in a series of slights, political maneuverings, and vengeance for perceived wrongs, and all had stories to tell and versions of events they believed to be the truth. Epitaph is as much the story of the Earp women, especially Sarah Marcus, as it is Wyatt’s or Doc’s.

Interestingly, and befitting the debate in our modern times, while gunfight itself boiled down to a personal vendetta, the fuse that lit the dynamite was the legal issue of gun control. By law, guns were not allowed in Tombstone, and Marshal Virgil Earp was attempting to enforce the law on those who refused to disarm, with the help of his deputized brothers and Doc Holliday. This law was also in effect in Dodge City when the Earps were the law there, as well. Additional tinder to this conflagration included the Earps being Yankee Republicans, while most of the population in Southern Arizona was Confederate Democrats. Federal, state/territorial, and local politics played a huge role in the background of the gunfight, too. Federal soldiers had no jurisdiction in certain areas, state marshals had limited jurisdiction, and local sheriffs were also limited in what they could enforce. And none of them were willing to work together unless it benefitted them politically. Even the Cow Boys, a gang of rustlers that rode into Mexico and stole cattle to fatten and sell in Arizona, exploited these limitations.

Mary Doria Russell extensively researched the events surrounding the gunfight, detailing decades leading up to and following this legendary event. This is a brilliant epilogue for Wyatt Earp and Sarah Marcus.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't start this book until you have time - you won't want to put it down. Mary Doria Russell has a gift for putting you squarely in the time and environment she chooses - in this case, Tombstone, AZ and all the events surrounding the shootout at the OK Corral. While the main character is Wyatt Earp, you get strong insights into the Earp family, Doc Holliday is back, along with Kate Haroney, and a large cast of real characters.

I particularly love these books because they are not romantic. These books are not for those who yearn for the 'good old days.' This book, and the one that preceded it, Doc, are full of dirt and mud and hunger, foul politics and dirty dealing. What I love about MDR she finds the heroic in fallible human beings.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first read by this author and just wow! Amazing that it takes no time to get into this lengthy novel and it holds your attention the entire time. No lags! Highly recommend if you like historical fiction.

[Joy D · Rating 3 out of 5]

This historical fiction provides the background of all the participants in what became known as the Gunfight at the OK Corral, along with their womenfolk and relevant townspeople. It documents the chain of events which led to the famous shootout in 1881 in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, as well as the legal proceedings and the aftermath. The focus is on Wyatt Earp and his brothers, along with friend Doc Holliday, and their clash with the Clanton gang and the McLaury brothers. The ending explains how the legends came into existence.

The author does not sugar-coat anything, and she exposes the flaws in these people. No one comes out unscathed. I think the historical context is well researched, with most of the content based on facts (though I found a few anachronisms). It covers the political scene as well as the lawlessness in the territory at the time. There is a LOT of detail in this book, so much that I think it could have been cut down by a third and made a better story. It is repetitive, especially in the expletives and slurs, which got old after a while. I enjoyed Doc, the predecessor to this book, more than this one, since Doc Holliday is a much more nuanced character than the Earps or the outlaws, but I will read anything Mary Doria Russell writes.

3.5

[Doubledf99.99 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mary Doria Russell's book about the characters, and players in Tombstone does not disappoint, it's a wonderfully written story of those hard times from 1879 to October 26 1881. The romances, the politics, the corruption, the shootings, the saloons, the dusty streets, starry nights, are all part of the enviroment of the conflicts with the Earp's, Clanton's, and the Cow Boys.

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading Doc by this author, of course I jumped right into Epitaph. Although Doc Holliday was a part of this story as well, the main character here was Wyatt Earp. And the town of Tombstone, of course. And politics, greed, and fear. There was a lot going on here!

Tombstone was one of the roughest mining boom towns in the Arizona Territory. Wyatt and his brothers went with the intention of getting rich, but all they got was either wounded, dead, or forever infamous.

Politics, greed, fear, and just plain ignorant evil are all involved in the events that led up to the shootout, according to Russell's interpretation of the Earp years in Tombstone.

By the end of the book I was in the mood for a road trip. Tombstone is only 50 miles from my home. I haven't been there for years, and I feel like I know more about the town now. I just wonder if I could find its early spirit beneath all the tourist falderol of our day?

Then again, all those actors wandering around in period costume might help, right?

Anyway, this is a wonderful book, but I would recommend reading Doc first. You will know and love the characters and will understand their strong bonds better if you do that.

[Linda Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are books with opening lines or paragraphs that stick in collective memory. Call me Ishmael. It was the best of times. And now "To understand the gunfight in Tombstone stop-now-and watch a clock for thirty seconds." The first page of Epitaph is stunning prose. Near the bottom "Whatever your name, it will be blackened." Turn the page and begin the story with Josie Marcus stumbling through a piece on the piano, and the man she has not yet met we know is Doc Holliday coaching her. We recognize all the characters from early television, dime novels, anecdotal retelling through 134 years of storytelling. Star Trek had Spectre of the Gun. (DeForest Kelley was Morgan Earp in the 1957 Gunfight at the O.K. Corral; Tom McLaury in the Star Trek episode.) October 26, 1881 is an iconic American memory. Doria Russell educates us on the sketchy truth we know about those 30 seconds in Tombstone. The gunfight at the O.K. Corral wasn't really at the corral. Doria Russell writes it took up less newspaper space than writing The Gunfight at the Empty Lot Adjacent to C. S. Fly's Photography Studio. I've read enough of her books and her blog to know she vigorously researches subjects - I trust and respect her work, and part of the elevated enjoyment of her books is the freedom to know she's looked it up and I don't have to. She rode the 5-day, 58 mile Vendetta Ride herself - 9 hours in the saddle per day so she could experience how gruesome that ride was for the ailing Doc Holliday. While I was reading, the 1957 Burt Lancaster/Wyatt Earp and Kirk Douglas/Doc Holliday was on television one night. It's the version we absorbed. Wyatt's the experienced lawman (Virgil was), Doc Holliday is a killer thug only partly reformed, and the bad guys are portrayed so that it's OK for our viewing mind to watch them die in the rain of bullets on that October afternoon. To retell a story that is so ingrained in our mental history of Wild West America and have it be completely absorbing in the writing is a gift Doria Russell shares. Not far into the book, I stopped seeing Kurt Russell, Bill Paxton, Sam Elliott and Val Kilmer in their long coats walking abreast. White hats get mixed up with black hats. Johnny Ringo may have been a sociopath, but so may have been other players in the drama. Johnny Behan reads like any other opportunist politician in any other epoch. The close of the 19th century is volatile, boundaries and allegiances unfixed in the western U.S., the humans involved quixotic adventurers. The rule of law wasn't. One of many memorable lines "Without justice, there is only revenge." Epigraphs are literary gems, lyric elevation of the legendary men whose fame became mythic. "The Peer of Murderous Mars." "Wouldst Thou Rob Me of My Prize?" The women are written brilliantly, in the context of the years they lived: the choices available to a woman with or without a good or bad man attached to her arm were few. Adjustment agility was basic: with the menfolk wounded and out of work in a bust town, the women had to figure out how to put bread in mouths. Featured appropriately in this story of Tombstone stands Josie Marcus, seductive, strong, singularly focused on her own survival and the story to be told about her common law husband, Wyatt Earp: a version that she orchestrated well into her dotage. Not too dreary, give it pep, she demanded. Epitaph is a ripping good yarn told by a master storyteller. Doria Russell, writing her blog, told us that she has to be willing to spend 5 years with characters for a book she undertakes, so she has to be comfortable with the leads. She considered a book about the Edgar Allan Poe(s) and then gave it up because she didn't want that many years in their company. Good news in my mind - she has refocused on a story about Anna "Big Annie" Klobuchar Clemenc, the labor leader in Calumet, Michigan. While I appreciate the research and the time it takes mightily, I just as eagerly wish for a speedier release.

[Regina Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Epitaph by Mary Doria Russell
5 Stars and a heart

Let me start by saying that I resisted with every ounce of my being reading Doc. While you all know I adore history, I’ve never been a fan of this particular era. Russell’s description of this era as one that “lived ugly but read romantic,” fits my view perfectly. However, I finally gave in, begrudgingly, and read Doc. One, I was mesmerized by Russell’s writing and have gone on to read everything she’s written except Children of God. I have absolutely adored every single work including Sparrow, which speaks volumes because I detest Sci-Fi even more than Westerns. This book was certainly no exception. Secondly, I immediately followed up Doc with a non-fiction read – The Last Gunfight by Jeff Guinn

Russell picks up the story with the events that led to the famous shoot-out and delved into the lives of the men facing the Earps and Doc Holiday. But what was even more fascinating was following the events that occurred immediately after and haunted Wyatt and Josie for the remainder of their lives. It was particularly poignant to see how drastically these event changed Wyatt’s character. I certainly got a better understanding of what drove Doc and Wyatt apart after so many years of intense friendship. I also really appreciated Russell providing context for how national events influenced the Arizona atmosphere. Recently reading biographies on Presidents Garfield and Arthur lent itself to a better percipience of these influences. Where Russell was particularly enlightening was on the origins of the Posse Comitatus Act, which I’ve only viewed through a modern lens.

Let me end by saying that I think Russell’s opening will remain one of the more memorable for me, “A century will pass, and decades more. Still, the living will haunt the dead as that half minute becomes entertainment for hundreds of millions around the world. Long after you die, you will be judged by those who cannot imagine standing six paces from armed and angry men. Not even for thirty seconds.”
Maybe I should just go ahead and read Children of God.

[Stacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you think you know everything about the "Gunfight at the OK Corral," you might be tempted to take a pass on reading this book. Don't! This is the wild, wild West at its very worst - and frequently at its very best. Russell manages to take a myth-filled story and do two amazng thing with it. First, she sets it up in the context of national politics (always a nasty proposition). Personal, political ambition coupled with corporate profit (sound familiar?) tangle with individuals, personal rights and the growing pains of a still young country. Second, she takes the larger-than-life characters of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday and makes them, well ordinary isn't quite the right word, but more like the rest of us. These are men (and their women) who love fiercely, gamble foolishly and make mistakes. And usually try to do the right thing.

I'm not a person who reads Westerns, but that's not what this is. It's a terrific story set in the West. With cattle rustlers. And saloons. And faro games. And gun fights. But, it's not a Western. If you haven't read Russell's Doc yet, do so now! Right now. Doc is on my "Top 10 All Time" list, and Epitaph will now be on that list also.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of the greatest books in years and the best Western since LONESOME DOVE. You owe it to yourself to read this amazing novel in which history comes blazingly alivd.

[Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

The shootout at the OK Corral in Tombstone, AZ has taken on a life of its own. Nobody knows for sure just exactly what transpired in those 30 seconds. Eye witness accounts vary. Many books, tv shows and movies have resulted, not to mention that Tombstone itself is a tourist attraction where the gunfight is reenacted daily. The story lives on.

This book exceeded my expectations in many ways. It not only told about the events leading up to the gun fight, but it also really did a fine job going into the personalities of the key people on both sides and especially the women of the Earps and Doc Holiday. The women were not conventional in the least bit and that put a whole new twist on it for me. Also interesting, was the childhood of the Earps as well as the Clantons and McLaurys. The impact of parental abuse took its toll in different ways as the boys grew up in what was truly the wild west. The book continues past the gunfight through the years to the ultimate deaths of all.

Mary Doria Russell did a really fine job. I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I did. Makes me want to revisit Tombstone.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

A marvelous, epic, bittersweet novel. Mary Doria Russell uses a setting I know very little about and didn't think I'd care for (Arizona in the 1880s) as the backdrop for an absolutely fascinating story about history, friendship, politics, and difficult decisions. The book is well-researched and well-rooted in its historical time & place, but - in terms of themes - timeless and universal. Although Epitaph can be read as a stand-alone, I highly recommend reading Doc first, then Epitaph in quick succession, for extra poignancy.

[Nicole R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Forget the Avengers, if justice needs to be meted out, Wyatt Earp is the man for the job.

I am a reluctant fan of Westerns. I don't know why it has taken me so long to admit this. I remember watching John Wayne movies with my grandpa from a young age (McClintock, anyone?) but it took two engagingly written and thoroughly researched books on two infamous characters in American history to have me embracing my love of stagecoaches, saloons, and vigilante justice in the wild west.

Epitaph's subtitle touts the famous locale of the O.K. Corral, but the books is really more about Wyatt Earp. Russell describes the Earp's time in Tombstone leading up to the deadly shootout, making short forays into the life of Earp and his three brothers, their "wives," and the no good Cowboys to pull together a full, colorful depiction of the life and times--and surprisingly intricate politics--of that time in the Arizona territories.

The description of the deadly confrontation is as short as the shootout itself before Russell moves on to the Earp Vendetta Ride, the repercussions of everyone's actions, and then describing the rest of Wyatt's life, his wife Josie's life, and how media finally immortalized him in written word and small screen production.

I honestly cannot say enough about Russell's writing. It is almost lyrical and flows easily without being simple or choppy. The book is obviously well-researched, which could not have been easy given the tomes of information, both accurate and exaggerated, on Wyatt Earp and The O.K. Corral. Adding to that seemingly effortless storytelling, the audio production of Epitaph was extremely well done.

The very end of the book describing Wyatt and Josie's efforts to get his story told in a movie and/or book was a little drawn out, and my respect and grudging adoration of Josie through most of the book was undermined by how annoying it was to listen to her portrayed as an old woman. Then I felt bad because she was very sick and her final years broke my heart.

Finally, this book is primarily about Wyatt Earp, but who else here things that Doc Holliday simply steals the show every time he enters a scene?!? I know Holliday's reputation is full of gambling, quick-draws, and lawlessness, but I simply adore him. He is generous, chivalrous, loyal, and, if nothing else, honest. It probably doesn't hurt that he is always the Val Kilmer version of Doc in my mind :)

I cannot wait to see what Russell comes out with next!

[Margo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A unique, endearing, somewhat gritty, romantic novel based on superb research of a real event. The novel starts and ends with Sadie,Wyatt Earp's wife, but mostly centers on the events that lead up to the shoot-out and then describes what happened to the men, their relatives and friends on both sides. The focus is the Claptons, the Earps and Doc Holliday. There are marvelous, though sometimes painful descriptions of Holliday's TB, the town, law enforcement, politics and rise and fall of silver mining all contribute to the story.
The actual shootout does not take much space but the story surrounding the story is the story because the tales that were told about it still last today because of several novels and a TV series which exaggerated the character of Earp.
I found that the story dragged a bit in the middle of the novel and the last few pages about the death of Sadie were overwritten and dull. Otherwise I could easily visualize the people and the setting. I would highly recommend it.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Every Tombstone Needs an Epitaph”

“Hell is empty. All the devils are here.”

-Doc Holliday

October 26th, 1881. Tombstone, Arizona. The O.K. Corral. Thirty seconds. Thirty bullets. A mythological moment was born.
Everyone knows the story, of the three Earp brothers, teamed up with Doc Holliday, facing down the Clantons and the McLaurys. A bloody opera. An immortal dance.
This is a novel, but what Mary Doria Russell has done, is brought this mythical “Old West” episode, back down to earth and has fleshed out this story, giving vibrant life to these legendary characters. They are flawed, taciturn, murderous and courageous. Along with her previous novel, Doc, MDR has crafted two of the best books in the “Western” pantheon, setting the bar, at a daring height. She remains one of my favorite working writers.
I have read 4 books by MDR and 3 of them get 5 stars. That is quite an endorsement. So my crush on MDR continues...unabated.

[Taryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought an ebook version of Epitaph on sale literal YEARS ago and finally decided it was time to read it recently when I was in the mood for a Western. To get the full experience, I even reread Doc, the companion novel that covers the lives of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday in the years before the shootout at the O.K. Corral. And I had such a great time! Doc Holliday was a fascinating person, and Russell goes beyond the myth to portray the real, complicated man. And if you’ve ever wanted to know what really went down at the O.K. Corral, Epitaph has the full doomed story. You won’t believe how page-turning a historical novel about the old West can be.

[Wayne Barrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great piece of historical fiction. It's nice to have a moment from the past presented in unabashed, brutal honesty, and fact, instead of the romanticized Hollywood version. I must admit that I enjoyed a couple of the latest movies on the subject, Tombstone and Wyatt Earp, but as great as they are, they still miss a ton of details to the overall story, and they take some extreme liberties to enhance entertainment values.
I'm sure Russell had to use her imagination to fill in the gaps to create a fluid story, but even if her attempts were off, I still believe she got the facts concerning the heart and soul of the event and its characters correct.
Epitaph is much more than a story about a gunfight, or about Wyatt Earp and John "Doc" Holiday. This story encompasses all the supporting characters and surrounding events that makes it entertaining and informative from beginning to end. The Earp brothers, the wives and women in their lives, the Clantons and McLaureys, the politics that shaped the people and the events, it's all here. And there is a great wrap up to the story, leading all the way to Wyatt and Josies last days in Los Angeles that explain their lives at the end and how the story of The Gunfight at the OK Corral became famous.
You wont find any "I'll be your huckleberry" or "You're a daisy if you do" but I am content with “I am damned if I will spend my time listenin' to ungrammatical, repetitious, imbecilic nonsense without a challenge!”
This is an exceptional book and I recommend it to all.