This would typically be classed as a "feel-good" title, with a bit of Christian and Eastern philosophy tossed into the mix. Soon after B&B owner Wilma Porter asks God to send some help to her little town of Ebb, Nebraska, a well-dressed traveling salesman named Vernon Moore shows up at her door. He ostensibly sells games of chance, but seems more intent on rescuing the town's citizens -- most notably, the owner of an independent (and financially distressed) department store whose daughter is dying of a painful and incurable disease.Most of the action is predictable, and a lot of cliches are trotted out as the story progresses. Moore's own backstory is never fully revealed -- he seems to have appeared out of thin air -- but he leaves in his wake many people who have been repaired emotionally, fiscally, psychogically and yes, spiritually.
George Shaffner isn't a gifted writer -- he almost never uses contractions, which gives his dialogue a clunky, unrealistic feel. In addition, most of his characters are thinly sketched cliches -- he apparently consulted Midwest Generic Casting to populate his fictional community. His narrator seems too distant to serve as a reliable voice. But the story has definite charm and an upbeat message, which redeems it from what, in other hands, might have been an unbearably saccharine fable.
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