The Adventures of Steven Buschman: The Bush Man Copes with Suicide

by Matt Coleman

The Adventures of Steven Buschman: the Bush Man Copes with Suicide is a coming-of-age fairy tale told as a hard-boiled Saturday morning cartoon. The Adventures of Steven Buschman: the Bush Man Copes with Suicide is the first in a planned series of young adult novels revolving around fifteen-year-old Steven Buschman. Steven’s suicidal. And not just in that adolescent rite of passage sort of way. Following one of his ballet recitals, he jumps out a seventh-floor window. While dressed like a bush. And lands in a bush. While catching a small child who has accidentally fallen off the roof. Steven's relatively small hometown takes pieces of the story and elevates it to folklore, creating a mythic figure of the Bush Man. They even begin writing letters to the newspaper pleading for their local super hero’s help. Steven’s embarrassed and self-doubting reluctance gradually gives way to his obsession with death and his need for purpose. So he is pulled by the cape into a mystery surrounding the apparent suicide of an attractive classmate’s mother. Steven must face the memory of his own mother’s suicide along with the reality that he is suddenly responsible for the lives of his Muppet-like best friend, his hypochondriac grandfather, a mouthy city bus driver, and a few members of a local chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous, who have all rallied behind him. He must transform himself from Steven Buschman into the Bush Man.

14 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 22, 2011