See the Mystery Review Crew’s review of Holliday by Matthew Di Paoli
About Holliday
Author: Matthew Di Paoli
Genre: Western, Adventure
Holliday follows the infamous 1880s gambler, dentist, and gunslinger, Doc Holliday. From the outset, Doc has been diagnosed with tuberculosis and is told to head to dryer climates and imbibe to prolong his life. He has also heard of a spring located somewhere along the frontier that could cure him—what he believes to be the mythical Fountain of Youth. The novel portrays Holliday as a rock star, a living legend, increasingly hounded by paparazzi, enamored by death, cards, booze, and women.
Doc is a mixture of Clint Eastwood and Jim Morrison, and though he is able to help his friend, Wyatt Earp, exact revenge, his condition worsens, traveling from Arizona to Denver, and finally dying in a sanatorium in Colorado with his boots off. A slow and unfitting end for such a bombastic outlaw.
*Affiliate links are used in this article. The Mystery Review Crew is an Amazon Affiliate and, as such, earns from qualifying purchases. See our privacy policy and disclosures for more information.
Review of Holliday
Holliday, a fictional biography of Doc Holliday, invites readers to experience the Old West in ways seldom seen in run-of-the-mill Western fiction. Author Matthew Di Paoli holds nothing back in building a world so very reminiscent of those times.
If asked, most folks would say that Doc Holliday was a gunslinger who ran with the likes of Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson. That is not the whole story. This story begins in 1874 in Dallas. Doc is enjoying an antelope steak in a saloon when a man charges him with cheating at cards. Doc makes short work of the man, and now the stage is set for the rest of the story to be told.
The reader follows Doc from town to town and in states from Texas all the way up to Colorado. Doc is literally searching for a type of wellness spring that he heard about, where he could be healed from the worsening consumption—later identified as pulmonary tuberculosis— that ailed him. Along the way, Doc would spend time with a love interest, grow a friendship with Wyatt Earp, and do the two things that seemed to sustain him: drink whiskey and play faro in the saloons. Then he would do something to get himself into trouble with the local law, so he’d pack up and go to the next town in his search.
Although this is a fictional biography, we feel that it was thoroughly researched to include as many details of Doc’s life as possible. For instance, when the story begins, Doc is in his mid-twenties, yet he is already a practicing dentist. Originally from Georgia, Doc’s verbal skills are far superior to most of the miscreants he comes across in his search. However, part of Doc’s charm is that he does not look down on folks for their intellect—or lack thereof.
The highlight of this story, in our opinion, is the realistic description the author uses to create the scenes. For example, we all know what cowboys and towns in those days looked like from movies and other Western novels. Di Paoli takes this description to a new level by frequently using the sense of smell. For example, when describing the streets of Dallas, the author wrote, “The town stunk of rot and manure and the ripe stench of sweat on leather.”
Sometimes the description was philosophic. The author highlighted the ability to turn a phrase when he described lightning in the desert: “In the desert the lightning is silent. The sky bends and shakes and the clouds contort until they succumb to the will of God.” When describing the air on a particular trail, the author said it all tasted like someone else had used it before. By using the sense of taste in this way, the author gives the reader an enhanced way to experience the story.
Although there is a body count—of course, this is Doc Holliday—we did not consider the violence gratuitous in any way. Rather, it was handled very well, and it did not drive the story, nor should it. Further, despite the various weaponry used throughout the story, the author did not go overboard in describing the pistols, rifles, and shotguns.
One of the driving forces of the story was Doc’s illness. It was his reason for searching for the springs, and it was the main thing that gave him hope. To describe Doc’s worsening illness, the author would typically mention the colors of the phlegm that he continually coughed up. It usually included some amount of blood. The high temperatures in the summer always made the illness worse. At one point, the author said, “[Doc] felt death’s hand like a cat’s claws in his throat.”
Another highlight of the story was the author’s attention to detail. For example, there are many card games in the story, and the author noted that rather than playing poker, the gamblers played faro. That, alone, proves the author’s due diligence in researching this story.
Technically, the book was well edited. Doc’s character arc was a bit surprising, particularly at the end. That only heightened our enjoyment of the story. The pacing was somewhat slow, as one might expect life to be slow in the Old West. Overall, the story was developed very well.
Almost as an addendum to this review, we would like to note our delight with the Epilogue. The author used this to tell the reader the outcome of each noted character (who survived until the end of the story) in a single paragraph. Nothing brings an element of closure to a story like a well-done Epilogue.
Our Concerns:
We have two concerns regarding this story.
The story seems to read quite long. The text indicated it was 384 pages, but it seemed like it was much longer than that.
Perhaps one of the reasons the story seemed so long was the monotony of plot points. Doc would enter a town, gamble, and drink, then do something to get him into trouble and he moved on. He would get to the next town and pretty much repeat. Even if these are facts of Doc’s life, they seem to be told in a way that makes them lack significant variety.
About Matthew Di Poali
Matthew Di Paoli has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize three times including 2020. He has won the Wilbur & Niso Smith Adventure Writing Prize for Holliday, the Prism Review, 2 Elizabeth’s, and Momaya Review Short Story Contests. Matthew earned his BA at Boston College where he won the Cardinal Cushing award and the Dever Fellowship. He received his MFA in Fiction at Columbia University. He has been published in Boulevard, Fjords, Post Road, and Cleaver, among others. He is the author of Killstanbul with El Balazo Press and teaches writing in New York City. You can find more at matthewdipaoli.com.
