The Wayward Bus (1947)

by the time i was on page 6 of this i'd laughed out loud (alright - well, for sure chuckled out loud) a handful of times. the entire read was enjoyable and funny. i really liked this - and actually did laugh out loud a couple of times (this doesn't happen often when i read). i'm definitely a pretty big steinbeck fan, but i don't remembering him being this funny.

i won't change my rating of the book because of it, but i have to note how annoyed i was that he perpetuated rape myths when he had one of his young women say to the man she wanted to have sex with, "Can't you force me a little?" but otherwise i thought his characterizations and detail were great. this was a fun little read. ( )

Oct 2007: As always, a brilliant allegorist, incredibly keen on the simple and the complex, sometimes entirely perverse or wholly innocent, sometimes silly or sensible inner life of people, without ever resorting to the judgment of his characters. As always, pretty landscapes, words I've never seen before (useful ones too!), and a well-drawn portrait of a little place in that little window of time during which the old West became new. Unusual for Steinbeck: an amused narrator, which I quite liked. It occurred to me during this one that Steinbeck and Chekhov have an awful lot in common. This one also made me think back on all the women in Steinbeck's work, and I'm so impressed how fair he has always been to them. They're not the motivating cause nor the existential reason nor the helpless recipients of male action; there are no angels in the house nor madwomen in the attic. They exist in Steinbeck's stories for their own right, and they think just the same kinds of things and are motivated by the same kinds of things as the men (by the same token, men are equally as likely as anyone to be emotional, irrational and vain). If they do unkind, manipulative or even cruel things, it's not a result of their feminine nature (as so many other writers would have us believe, and a thing I don't believe in at all) but probably their circumstances; and the same goes for the men, without making any excuses for either. In Steinbeck, women and men both are just people, and there doesn't even seem to be such a thing as bad people. People in bad situations, people who make bad choices, sure, but though Cal struggled with this question in East of Eden, even he had to conclude that no one is born inherently bad. It's very Kantian, and such a respite from the lazy (and ultimately false) dichotomies that pervade so much of literature and film (and life). And all without ever being high-falutin’, Steinbeck is still in my opinion the best novelist and short story writer this country ever put out. ( )

John Steinbeck has an amazing understanding of human nature! ( )

What a difference a day makes. Great Steinbeck book that takes place in just one day. A neat study of how our destinies can be drastically altered by the simplest of incidents...a bus breakdown, for example. An interesting gathering of characters thrown together and forced to deal with an unexpected change of plans leading to varying degrees of hardship and discomfort. Let the fun begin! People are never actually what they seem to be, or try to portray themselves to be, and a monkey wrench thrown into the works shatters many of those fragile little caricatures. Steinbeck has great insight into the human condition and he exhibits that again clearly in this book. . It seems odd that this book is rarely brought up or discussed, yet seems to be just as significant in value as the rest of his works. I certainly will promote it from here on out. Highly recommended! ( )

A California countryside bus is delayed overnight due to a broken cog. It’s then caught up in bad weather and forced to take a detour around an unsafe bridge. It then gets stuck in the mud and is forced to wait while the driver goes to fetch help. It’s the thinnest of plots, really. But against this crude backdrop of a storyline, Steinbeck creates a bunch of wonderful character studies, carefully drawn, down to the most minor roles.

There’s, among others, Camille (whose real name is something else), making a living stripping at business dinners, sick and utterly tired with her effect on men. There’s Norma, suddenly quitting her waitress job to seek out Clark Gable in Hollywood. Also Mr. Pritchard, the simple sort of all-american capitalist family man, now to his horror finding his word and name is worth nothing, his manipulating wife and his daughter, who’s deep down convinced she’s a pervert. And of course Juan the driver, who in all secrecy has decided this is his last ever trip.

It’s a slim book, this, but rich in detail, and even richer in tenderness: Steinbeck looks at his flawed, stupid, cruel and petty group of bus passengers with a gentle understanding, even when the events take a turn for the brutal. Psychological realism at its finest, I’m surprised at how much I enjoyed this, and find myself picking up another book by the same author immediately – something I almost never do. ( )