47 pages 1 hour read

Joe Siple

The Five Wishes of Mr. Murray McBride

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018

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Important Quotes

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Content Warning: This section contains discussion of suicide and child death. 

“How can a man as old and washed-up as me possibly find a reason to live?”


(Chapter 1, Page 23)

After his wife’s death, Murray has little interest in living. His doctor urges him to find a reason to keep on living, but Murray resists. He will have to embark on a journey to understand The Importance of Human Connection to understand the value of his own life.

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“Can’t help but wonder now if maybe I should have spent more time telling them how much I loved them. If I had, maybe they wouldn’t have been distant parents with their own kids.”


(Chapter 3, Page 46)

Murray struggled to have a close relationship with his sons because he worked a lot when they were little, and his distance from them affected his grandchildren. Part of Murray’s character journey is about healing those poor parenting patterns.

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“Boy his age shouldn’t have heart problems either. Why would God let me live a hundred healthy years and give that boy a bad ticker?”


(Chapter 4, Page 50)

Murray struggles with the injustice of Jason’s heart condition. Although he questions why God would allow a child to suffer and die, he never explicitly finds answers. The audience is left to decide what the answer is.