The Wayward Bus

by John Steinbeck

This is John Steinbeck’s first full-length novel in eight years in 1947. The story happens on a bus ride, though it grips the reader beginning with the first page. It’s the sense it gives us of people and how they react to one another – bewildered, aimless, driven by ordinary human impulses, restless and uneasy. Steinbeck talks their language; he knows what makes them tick. This story is Steinbeck as his simplest and best.

312 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1947

About the author

John Ernst Steinbeck was an American writer. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception". He has been called "a giant of American letters."
During his writing career, he authored 33 books, with one book coauthored alongside Edward F. Ricketts, including 16 novels, six non-fiction books, and two collections of short stories. He is widely known for the comic novels Tortilla Flat (1935) and Cannery Row (1945), the multi-generation epic East of Eden (1952), and the novellas The Red Pony (1933) and Of Mice and Men (1937). The Pulitzer Prize–winning The Grapes of Wrath (1939) is considered Steinbeck's masterpiece and part of the American literary canon. By the 75th anniversary of its publishing date, it had sold 14 million copies.
Most of Steinbeck's work is set in central California, particularly in the Salinas Valley and the California Coast Ranges region. His works frequently explored the themes of fate and injustice, especially as applied to downtrodden or everyman protagonists.

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Written in 1947. This was a group read & I enjoyed the read more than anticipated. I'm sure due to the guiding through the story by David.

I had to keep in mind the era of the writing and some of the behavior especially between men and women, that may have been more accepted than today. This a character study of multiple people who are thrown together on as they travel on a small bus to their next destination. The "wayward" of the title can be seen both literally & figuratively, as the bus goes off-track and the characters are all flawed and may meet various definitions of wayward such as stubborn, selfish, and/or lost.

The first couple of chapters set up the scene and introduces the characters and relationships. The chapters are slow yet revealing. Once the bus trip unfolds the tension waxes and wanes as the characters interact with each other and hopes, dreams and disappointments are brought to the fore.
Yet they all come together to overcome an unexpected obstacle to reaching their destination. I did get invested in a few of the characters and wondered what would happen to them once they got on with their lives.