Reviews

The Wayward Bus by John Steinbeck, Gary Scharnhorst

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kcrouth's review against another edition

4.0

A handful of strangers, thrown together for 24 hours by chance circumstances, discover themselves and each other as none of them imaged possible. The bus on which they are traveling breaks down, not once, but twice, creating a dynamic mixing of events and personalities, which probe and reveal some of the deepest aspects of who they are, who they want to be, and why. A brilliant exploration of the depth and breadth of what it means to be human, both alone, and in a chance community formed by fate. Steinbeck remains one of my favorite and most respected authors for the realism and depth with which he paints his characters. This is a great story of life's real journey, covering so much of what life is about.

alh1957's review against another edition

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The plot developed very slowly for me and I lost interest.

davidb71's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.25

Enjoyed this a great deal. It's really a study of a disparate group of people brought together around a somewhat troubled bus journey. I found it very grounded, very insightful, each character felt very vividly created, each one somewhat flawed, but each striving for their own idea of happiness. I think Steinbeck captures the inner workings and the multiple layers of these characters very well, as he does the shifting relationships within the group. On the surface, you could argue not a tremendous amount happens in this book, but really each character goes on an internal journey of some sort - by the end most, or all, of them have been changed in some way.

I found the period detail interesting. This was written almost eighty years ago, and in some ways there are constants with today's society, in other ways it's a completely different world. Some of the attitudes and behaviours are a million miles from the present day - it's the underlying human condition that remains constant.

There was a simmering sexual tension between multiple characters that developed throughout this book - and I was surprised by how some of these tensions played out. There's a lot more simmering sexual tension and energy in this book than I was expecting.

I enjoyed Steinbeck's writing. I thought he evoked a sense of both location and character very well, and the book always felt very grounded to me, the writing very solid. And there are moments of real humour in it - times when I laughed out loud; Norma crowbarring the word 'discommode' into a sentence, for example - a new word to her, that she'd heard for the first time just moments before - in order to appear sophisticated.

I come away from this book thinking that most of the characters in it are not particularly likeable, but despite this, I still find myself caring about all of them. In today's world, I find we can judge people in very superficial ways, define people by very narrow simplistic criteria. It's the online era, the social media era of toxic culture wars and seemingly ever greater divisions. What I like about this book is how Steinbeck captures the humanity of his characters - the real self underneath the surface. He writes with empathy and compassion, but also a clear unsentimental eye about the stark reality of human beings. I think of how many modern writers would write some of the characters in this book, and I think many of them would do so in a far more disparaging way, missing the essential humanity that we all possess.