I don't know about the Max interface, never tried it...has anyone else?  Is it any good?

If you don't go for that, some tips for the Blender interface:

• Select with the right mouse button.  Left moves the cursor.  The cursor is useful, but don't worry about it right away.  Middle mouse button/scrollwheel lets you move the camera, use shift+middle button to dolly.
• Hotkeys are your friends.  You can accomplish (almost?) anything in blender with a hotkey, and some things only with a hotkey, though it is getting better about that.  The hotkeys do make things lighting fast once you learn them, like oodmb said, but not easy to learn....
• Important keys (that I personally use all the time) are

• G - "grab" (move) selected object

• R - rotate selected object

• S - scale selected object

• Tab - in and out of "edit mode"

• Spacebar - lots of important menus (object creation, for instance)

• W - "specials" menu, things like removing duplicate vertices or subdividing

• K - knife tool, cut edges and create edge loops

• um...lots more, but those are the ones I use most