When a wealthy, intelligent and powerful man dates a women who is 10 years younger, poorer and of a lower social class than he is – not too many eyebrows are raised, especially if she is beautiful. But what happens when an older, wealthier woman dates a poor, lower-class man?

Sara Davidson is 50. She is a writer and producer on the televison show Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. One day at a cowboy poetry festival she meets Zack. He is 10 years younger than she is and he is very nice looking. But he is also dirt poor and largely uneducated. But from the beginning there is a sense of connection between them that they both feel.

Zack comes to visit Sara at her home and they begin a passionate affair. Sara’s family and friends are not at all pleased. Zack has no money, Zack is uneducated, Zack sticks out in Southern California like a cactus in a rose garden. Sara acknowledges all this and worries and frets over their differences. Yet Zack accepts her, loves her and when they are together Sara is happy in a way that she has not been in years.

Sara Davidson wrote this book in a part-memoir, part-fiction style that is a little awkward at first, but soon settles down smoothly. Cowboy is based on a real-life affair she has had with the man she calls Zack, and the affair continues to this day.

Zack is a true romantic – the image of the cowboy that many women dream of, but I can’t help but wonder how well he would wear in real life. He is loving and attentive, but he lives in squalor, he neglects his health, and has little business sense or knowledge of the world outside of the cowboy jobs he does or the rawhide he braids.

Sara is successful and educated and loves to read. Her children are not very happy she is with Zack and her friends think she is crazy. But according to the book, she and Zack have been together for six years.

Cowboy is a fascinating story of how powerful, how wonderful and how odd love can be. Zack and Sara had every strike against them, but in the end their differences in class, culture and age did not matter. For them, love could not be analyzed, and it is very illogical – but it worked.