The Wayward Bus (Twentieth Century Classics Series)

Stephen Hayes reviewed The wayward bus by John Steinbeck (Penguin classics)

None

3 stars

What do you think of your fellow passengers on a bus, or a plane, or a suburban train?

Usually they are anonymous.

You might sometimes idly wonder about their lives outside the conveyance that briefly brings you into the same moving space, but rarely does it go beyond that.

But in this book it does go beyond that. A group of people, with their own lives and thoughts and histories are drawn together as passengers (and a driver) on a bus, and by the end of the book they have all interacted with each other, and their lives have all been changed in some way.

Some knew each other before they got on the bus: there is a family travelling on vacation, and two of the passengers were employees of the driver, but none knew all the others before they gathered for the bus trip, and before the journey ended …

What do you think of your fellow passengers on a bus, or a plane, or a suburban train?

Usually they are anonymous.

You might sometimes idly wonder about their lives outside the conveyance that briefly brings you into the same moving space, but rarely does it go beyond that.

But in this book it does go beyond that. A group of people, with their own lives and thoughts and histories are drawn together as passengers (and a driver) on a bus, and by the end of the book they have all interacted with each other, and their lives have all been changed in some way.

Some knew each other before they got on the bus: there is a family travelling on vacation, and two of the passengers were employees of the driver, but none knew all the others before they gathered for the bus trip, and before the journey ended they knew things about the others, and about themselves, that they had not known before.

There is little action, and no real plot. The book is a study of character and human interaction between people whose paths briefly, and apparently randomly crossed.

Rudi reviewed The Wayward Bus (Twentieth Century Classics Series) by John Steinbeck

Review of 'The Wayward Bus (Twentieth Century Classics Series)' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

The plot: A bus ride gone awry!

Steinbeck is one of my favorite authors because he has both a deep understanding of the human mind, and the ability to recognize what makes a good story. In this book he is less interested in the story itself, the bus ride, but more the individual stories of the people that take part in it. And not only that, he explores how this varied group of people tries to understand each other. In many ways it can be considered a quite harsh read, because you can see how all the characters use their (sometimes flawed) understanding of their co-passengers against them. No matter how well the characters understand the motives (unconcious and concious) of the rest of the group, they all fail to really understand themselves. At one point, one character says that they are all tramps, and in a way, that is …

The plot: A bus ride gone awry!

Steinbeck is one of my favorite authors because he has both a deep understanding of the human mind, and the ability to recognize what makes a good story. In this book he is less interested in the story itself, the bus ride, but more the individual stories of the people that take part in it. And not only that, he explores how this varied group of people tries to understand each other. In many ways it can be considered a quite harsh read, because you can see how all the characters use their (sometimes flawed) understanding of their co-passengers against them. No matter how well the characters understand the motives (unconcious and concious) of the rest of the group, they all fail to really understand themselves. At one point, one character says that they are all tramps, and in a way, that is what the book explores.

Steinbeck writes the social (or anti-social) sides of the human character, and, as far as I can tell, his observations are very true to life. Despite the darker side of the minds being revealed, I do not consider it as a misanthropic novel. It's just honest in it's depiction of every day life, and how no one really "gets it", but rather fumbles around questioning every one else all the time.