The Smiling Country

In the 1978 novel, ""The Good Old Boys"", Hewey Calloway is a ""fiddle-footed"" cowboy, roaming from job to job and facing an uncertain future as he grows older. His brother, Walter, married and settled down to hard-scrabble farming, wants Huey to do the same. Eve, Walter's wife, clearly disapproves of Hewey and fears his influence on her two sons, who idolize their uncle. Snort Yarnell, another cowboy, wants Hewey to join him in driving horses to Southwest Texas, work in Mexico, and live free. And then there's Spring Renfro, who loves Hewey and wants a home of her own. In the end, even for Spring, Hewey can't bring himself to abandon the free life. Actor/director Tommy Lee Jones made a memorable TV movie from the book. Twenty years later, in this sequel, Elmer Kelton brought Hewey back, older, wiser, and badly banged up trying to break a renegade bronc. His wandering days are over because of his injuries, because of fences that cut up the range, because of trucks and automobiles. But how will Hewey handle the new circumstances of his life? And how will Spring react to his return? Readers who fell in love with Hewey will delight in seeing him back and following his new and different adventures.