Max Schott

An affable western tale of friendship and love that bears little resemblance to the movie with James Garner and Sally Field which I much enjoyed. Here, Murphy Jones is a widower who sells his store when his wife of many years dies, and moves to Pearblossom, California, where he meets the free-spirited lady horse trainer, Toni Wilson, who was the inspiration for Sally Field's character, after quite a few changes were wrought. Murphy Jones is quite a bit different here, too, more resembling the character of Duane Moore in Larry McMurtry's "The Last Picture Show" and sequels. Anyway, Murphy and Toni settle into a good friendship that Murphy would choose as something else, but don't let the movie cause disappointment with the ending of this nice sleepy little western story.… (more)

I was attracted to this book at the St. Louis book fair by its title, of course (my older son's name). Then I saw that this was the author of "Murphy's Romance", which I never read but is a movie I like very much, with one of the most agreeable characters in film history in the title role. So I had to try this. And I did like it. But it is flawed, this slim story about an aging cowboy who befriends a young boy and his family, one of whom is the dying mother. The main flaw is that Ben, the cowboy, and the father of the boy are just so gol' dang nice and respectful to each other all the time, even though Ben supposedly has some rough edges which you hear about but never quite see, that it's kind of irritating. There's very little conflict here, just agreeable people falling in and out of love and wrestling with commitment, and the death of the mother is disappointingly glossed over. But still, I liked it. These are nice personable characters who I would probably be proud to be friends with. They're just not all that exciting to read about.… (more)