Dragging Wyatt Earp

“An affecting memoir of life in small-town Kansas…. For a young Rebein, the world of wrecked cars became a wonderland, and he writes lyrically of the things that turned up in them, from porn to lighters to photographs to ammunition…. A well-crafted work, and an all-too rare glimpse of daily life in rural America.” — Kirkus Reviews

“In many ways, (Rebein’s) experience mirrors that of a whole generation who grew up in rural places knowing that they would leave. And then they return as visitors to a place where they can’t stay, but can’t stay away from.”

“Rebein…evocatively reconstructs what it was like growing up in Dodge in the 1970s and ‘80s as the farming and ranching economy soured. The result is a riveting meditation not just on the Old West versus the New West but on how to treat the past with reverence while refusing to become trapped by it.” — Reason.com

“Language and stories are two vital aspects of memoir. Dragging Wyatt Earp excels on both counts…. Rebein’s memoir gives us a chance to think about our own relationship with our own hometown, recall our own stories, our own dreams. The book helps us remember the things we treasured in our town, what we took away from that place and what we left behind.” — Emporia Gazette

“Charming, searching, and haunting all at once, this book makes me nostalgic for my own handful of years on the Great Plains.”

“‘We'd been raised for export,’ Rebein notes of his Dodge City upbringing. Yet this expatriate warmly merges his personal history with Dodge's history and culture to find his own place under the stars of the Great Plains of Western Kansas.”