Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1077461 in Books
• Published on: 1989-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Customer Reviews

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.

An entertaining tale of the old frontier!
Reminiscent of "Lonesome Dove", Deadwood takes you back to the late 19th century, in the lawless west, and brings such historical characters like Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane to life. Full of humor this book almost makes you wish to have lived in such a time.

interesting
I started the book and had trouble with the context of the wild west and the characters in the beginning. I began to be swept up by the words of the author somewhere around page 60 and I was a bystander talking and listening to the characters in the book. Dexter's development of characters is very rich and knitting of paralell storylines is extrordinary. I enjoyed it immensely! Especially the conversations between the Bottle Fiend and Charlie.