The writing wins the day! The plot did not satisfy, but the characters and setting filled me up.

The opening chapter lassoed me. Young Jenny — in a snit, snubbed by her sister, misunderstood by her father — heads south from Moscow, ID, to San Francisco on foot. In a blizzard. The town doctor, returning from a call, sees Miss Jenny in the slanting sunlight and picks her up in his sleigh. She is so cold that he takes her coat off, puts her on his lap and wraps his buffalo coat around her. "Inside the buffalo coat there was a warm and reassuring smell of tobacco and human kindness." "Nothing that the Golden Gate had to offer could compare with this."

The warm characters are in a dark narrative, one based on the early days of Moscow. Violence, suicide, murder and adultery all have a place in this story. There is no happy ending.

Buffalo Coat reminded me of Willa Cather's books.

This book was very well written. It is the story of early Moscow, Idaho and the people who lived there but is written in novel form. It has a sad ending but otherwise a great book.

Another top ten pick for me. I really love the idea of settling the west, back in the day when it was still wild. Have a great appreciation for and love of the "pioneer spirit". The book totally had that and so much more. REAL people with real struggles and temptations and I'll bet we all have a Doc Hawkins in our lives somewhere-loveable, flawed, big-dreamer people. Love his wife too.

It's been a few months since I've been so completely absorbed by a book. Some of the events may seem sensational but truth is stranger than fiction and in this case the story is true. Brink's writing seems fresh though it was written almost seventy years ago.

Our 2nd book club read for 2024-25. I did not attend the discussion but provided my written comments. I'd recommend the book to others to read.

This is not Caddie Woodlawn! It is an adult novel with adult themes. While I do not agree with the worldviews and solutions of some of the characters, this was a very good book after a bit of a sluggish build up. It is set in pioneer Idaho and the founding of a town - Opportunity. The book follows the three doctors in town, two doctor's wives and a young woman who grows up during the course of the book. It is about small towns, marriage, longing for things you shouldn't have and the consequences of one's choices. I couldn't sleep after I finished it.

It turns out that Carol Ryrie Brink, best known as the author of Caddie Woodlawn, also penned a handful of books for adults. This one was her first, and was a best seller when it was published in 1944. The novel is set in the late 1800s in the small town of Moscow, Idaho (called "Opportunity" in the book), where Brink, grew up, and which is the setting for some of her children's books. One of the main characters, a doctor who's a leading figure in the town, is based on her grandfather, a big man with a big personality who wears the titular buffalo coat. She draws on actual incidents that took place, to him and other people not related to her, weaving them together in a fictionalized version of events that had they been invented would've seemed overly melodramatic. I admired the craft of her storytelling, and her characterizations are really compelling, but while I was more or less engrossed, I somehow found the book heavy going. At some point, I took a break and read the Wikipedia entry for Brink, and the biographical details there made me realize where the book was going to go. Ironically, having that spoiler actually added some impetus to my reading, and I finished it much more quickly. Probably the modern University of Washington reprint edition tells about everything that happened in real life in the forward -- I'd be curious to know if it tells more about the real life Jenny, the Methodist Minister's daughter, than one learns online.

This is an uneven read, but I couldn't put it down.