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Chargement... The Wayward Buspar John Steinbeck PaulLoesch | Apr 2, 2022 |    ) MPerfetto | Dec 21, 2023 |  ) JBarringer | Dec 15, 2023 | So-named because they put a pause on the wider serialised story to confine a group of characters together in a small space to observe how they react to one another, 'bottle episodes' have a mixed reputation among audiences. The same is true of The Wayward Bus. Many will immediately recognise that Steinbeck's novel is not their cup of tea – nor, in truth, is it mine – as in an entirely plotless 300 pages the author puts a group of characters together at an isolated crossroads-café-cum-bus-stop in rural California and observes how they interact. Many of the things we enjoy about novels in general – pace and purpose chief among them – are not found at any point here. And yet, The Wayward Bus is one of those rare bottle episodes that works. Steinbeck's characterisation – always a strength – is on top form, even if we don't see his characters actually do anything of note. The writing is clever, with humorous subtle callbacks to previous conversations between characters. By design, there might not be much of anything else, but Steinbeck leisurely drops you into the lives of some well-drawn characters as they go about a single day. It's just about enough. (  ) MikeFutcher | Jul 28, 2023 | Of course, Steinbeck uses the situation to dig into a whole range of social problems of the USA in the immediate aftermath of World War II. Slightly surprisingly, perhaps, he focusses in particular on the situation of his female characters. You could almost claim this as a feminist novel, in that it talks about the disconnect between women's aspirations and the roles actually available to them in forties society, and shows us something of what it must feel like to be on the receiving end of unwanted male sexual attention. But there's probably also a strong element of male fantasy in the way these things are worked out. And how does Steinbeck know what women talk about in the ladies' toilets, unless he was listening behind the door...? I loved Steinbeck's close attention to the natural and man-made background of rural California: from the details of the mechanical work being done on Juan's old bus to the fabulous thumbnail survey of the ecology of a roadside verge, it all feels totally convincing and well-observed, and it cleverly plays into the mood and timing of the foreground story. (  ) thorold | Jun 3, 2023 | Natt90 | Nov 8, 2022 | laplantelibrary | Apr 26, 2022 | By John Steinbeck Oh, my! Oh, my! Oh, my! There are few books in the world where the characters are so well-written, so fully developed, so wonderfully real, nor so absolutely authentic. Steinbeck does not serve up a cast of good guys and bad guys, heroes and villains. Instead, he gives readers us authentic humanity, real people, people who are good and bad and beautiful and ugly all rolled into one being. The characters of the Wayward Bus are so real, so authentic that every reader is compelled to simultaneously love and hate each and every one of them. (Of course, some are more easily loved or hated than others). The book’s greatest deception is that it appears to be a simple story about a journey through life-threatening conditions, toward a not too distant goal. The ‘journey’ or ‘quest’ motif, however, is one of the most used and recognized in all of literature. Homer’s epics The Iliad and the Odyssey each rely upon the journey theme and, like The Wayward Bus, each is about people, humanity, goodness and evil, hopes and dreams, beauty and disgust and a great deal more. The plots of these epics is far less important than the characterizations of the participants. The journey of Huckleberry Finn and the runaway slave, Jim, runs south down the Mississippi while a real journey toward freedom for a slave would run north, yet Jim is freed at the end of the journey. Here again, the characters themselves are far more important than the plot. Journey motifs often accompany books that are more allegory than fiction, more moral insight than fascinating story. The plot of The Wayward Bus is rather thin because the plot is just about the least important aspect of this novel. What is important is how the real, genuine characters navigate their lives, deal with their temptations, interact with others, and move toward a distant goal, one that has unique meaning and importance to each of the characters. In addition to wonderfully drawn characters, Steinbeck also gives us a sharply focused view of culture and time (setting). Especially excellent are the portrayal of female characters in the book. To some, Steinbeck’s women may seem to be the pathetic imaginings of a highly misogynistic male writer, but such a perception is wrong. Every woman in the novel authentically matches the era in which the novel is set, the post-war, baby-boomer years. In the years leading to WW II, women were generally dominated by men who alternated between placing them on pedestals and subjugating them to riddle and second-class status. But in WW II, some were drawn out of the domestic duties of the household and thrust into the workplace, filling jobs traditionally filled by men due to the manpower needs of the war effort. The “Rosie the Riveters” of the war years built more than just war materials; they forged a new vision of what women could be, should be, and began to become. The women in this novel are at the crossroads between the old view of women and the emerging view of women, a view America still has not yet fully accepted. Mrs. Pritchard is pampered and spoiled by her husband while at the same time he views her as a “baby doll.” Camille excited the lust in the men of the novel while she coolly manages and controls each of them. Norma aspires to leave the old role that has befallen her to rise to a new set of expectations. Mildred stands at the crossroads refusing the old role and expectations while being unclear about what the new expectations are. The men of the novel, too, find themselves in an era redefining their roles. The businessman, Elliott Pritchard, who could see the world only through numbers, competition and profits feels his world changing even as he attempts to bluster and impress others through his own self-importance. Earnest does not aspire to great things or to corporate dominance, but is instead content with the life he has defined for himself. Van Brunt knows the world as he understood it had changed and he reacts to it through bitterness and negativity, fighting to retain the things he understands and impose his vision upon others. Kit (Pimples) seeks male role models who are both capable and also feeling and compassionate and he finds such a male in Juan but discovers that Juan’s capacities for empathy and compassion are limited. The Wayward Bus is a great work of literature, a classic! It rises far above other novels which are intended only to provide enjoyment and escape. The Wayward Bus presents allegory and moral insight. It gets less than 5 stars on GR because most people react to books based upon whether they liked them or not. The Wayward Bus does not seek to be liked, it strives for , and succeeds, in something much greater: enlightenment. ( ) PaulLoesch | Apr 2, 2022 | One of the unfortunate victims of teaching (and especially student teaching) are the books we seek to read outside of scouring the curriculum day-in and day-out. I started this sorry soul about two months ago, and even though my heart swelled each time I picked it up, I was lucky to get a page in between finishing lesson planning at night and passing out as soon as my head hit the pillow. GAH! And so, out of defiance of getting ahead on JC as well as insomnia that is once again rattling my aching brain and soul, I let this book take me until 3 AM when I finally finished it once and for all. Can I get an AMEN? And up until about where I picked it up last night--about 60 pages from the end--I liked it a whole lot. I was prepared to give it four stars, but I realized when I picked it up again last night that I had hit the story's climax, and everything else came tumbling down in its brilliance and humanity. It's exactly the kind of book I like. It spans the course of one single day; I love that kind of "real" time in a book. And really, it's all about people waiting around for a bus in Steinbeck's good old late 1940s California...that's about it. So ultimately this is a book solely concerned with characterization, and it's obvious that Steinbeck deeply loved every single one. Every character was deeply felt, deeply created; I effortlessly knew them all. And it's all about sex, reminding us how fundamentally hilarious and fundamentally animal a game it really just is. Clark Gable, Mother Mahoney's Home-Baked Pies, whisky, and lipstick. I also realized at the end that Woody Allen got the premise to every one of his movies through this book, which still allows me to enjoy Allen, but it makes me adore Steinbeck, swear my allegiance further. That's it. My brain's fried. Go read a book for your ol' pal, Lindsay. ( ) LibroLindsay | Jun 18, 2021 | Honestly, though, this is a slow-burn, low-key character study that might drive some people nuts, especially when nothing much ever actually happens on the bus ride from nowhere to nowhere. I, however, find Steinbeck's prose style and his timeless insights into human nature enthralling. And if you want to do a deep literary dive, he loads the whole thing with references and symbolism galore, starting with a main character with the initials of J.C. ( )1  villemezbrown | Jul 18, 2019 | The Wayward Bus🍒🍒🍒🍒 By John Steinbeck 1942? When Steinbeck wrote ' The Wayward Bus', post WW II, the values of honesty and character were prevalent. Brought to light in this beautiful written novel are the adversity of personalities and lifestyles pulled together through circumstance. Centered in San Ysidro, Rebel Corners is a luncheonette and tranfer point to catch a bus to the town. The travellers are forced to spend a night together in the luncheonette due to mechanical problems with the bus. Finally boarding the bus, this group of discontented passengers with quite diverse backgrounds and lifestyles are forced to weather the storm and they find that maybe the one thing we have in common isn't our title or what we are...but who we allow ourselves to be. Excellent. ( ) over.the.edge | Sep 16, 2018 | The Wayward Bus is one of the novels that defies our perception of Steinbeck. This is most evident in the way the story is told, a continually roving character study. The narrative jumps from character to character as they prepare, then embark on a bus journey during a potentially dangerous rainstorm. Steinbeck rarely spends as much as two pages on any particular character before he's moving down the line, giving the perspective of the next character, then the next. Never do I recall in a work of Steinbeck any such character roulette. And it works magnificently for this book with its strangers-on-a-journey motif. And these are great characters with so much potential. Characters who act contrary to their beliefs. Characters who put on airs. Characters who are so realistic because each one tries to convey their insignificance while unconsciously acting on the knowledge that they are the center of the universe. The Wayward Bus was well on its way to being one of my all-time favorite Steinbeck reads, but toward the end, the book itself modeled the journey: it lost traction and went off the road. The problem is that the end is rushed. The reader spends so much time getting to know these characters and all their quirks, that once the characters face their greatest challenge, it's time for the story to conclude. The conflict you anticipate for a couple hundred pages fizzles. Also, I was personally disappointed that the story never returned to Alice, the only significant character who is not a passenger on the bus. Overall, I thought the resolution was poor. Unfortunately, The Wayward Bus is sort of forgettable. So much time is spent with each character's thoughts that little action occurs. Normally, I like stories like this when there is a pay-off, but the conclusion is flat. Still, I liked The Wayward Bus if for no reason other than the build-up. Steinbeck was on to something with this style, but he might have lost interest in the project before he finished, or maybe he was just unable to translate his idea for the conclusion to the page. Whatever the reason, The Wayward Bus is every bit a Steinbeck tale, but parallel to none other. ( ) chrisblocker | Aug 16, 2018 | ) ChelleBearss | Mar 9, 2018 | ) Stahl-Ricco | Jan 22, 2016 | ) Helenliz | Nov 10, 2015 | ) juan1961 | Jan 12, 2015 | 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. ( ) overlycriticalelisa | Apr 20, 2013 | ) gunsofbrixton | Apr 1, 2013 | ) emmee1000 | Jan 21, 2013 |  )2 jeffome | Jan 1, 2013 | 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. ( )3 GingerbreadMan | Oct 14, 2012 | ) cherylscountry | Sep 7, 2012 | The setting, the so-called middle of nowhere, is quite clearly described, and even to modern readers recognizable as a place quite out of the way, a place one would have little hope for betterment. While some live there, others get stuck temporarily, as their bus makes an unscheduled stop. Causes for the bus to stop may be fate, as with the torrential rain that threatens to wash away the bridge, accident, as with the mechanical failure of the bus, or purposeful mishap, as the driver intentionally steers the bus into the mud, where it gets stuck in a rut. However, in all cases, the state of being sidetracked seems temporal. The title The wayward bus suggests that the bus is turned away from the main road, or its destination; wayward being the short form for awayward meaning "turned aside" or "turned away," a word Steinbeck may have encountered in his reading of Malory's Le morte d'Arthur, which reads: And therewithal she turned her from the window, and Sir Beaumains rode awayward from the castle, making great dole, and so he rode here and there and wist not where he rode, till it was dark night. Likewise, their location, incidentally the starting point of the bus, is named Rebel Corners, a place historically associated with self-imposed laziness and ignorance. The wayward bus is in its core an optimistic, hopeful story. As the characters are essentially stuck in the rut temporarily, the novel clearly shows the way out. Nicknamed sweetheart, the bus will eventually go on, and find its way back, away from Rebel Corners and on to its destination, and from there to any other place. Everyone may at some stage find themselves stuck at crossroads, and Steinbeck's message is that love and belonging are the path out of the mire. ( )2 edwinbcn | Mar 11, 2012 | The whole story is apparently very allegorical, but being the straightforward reader that I am, I missed any allegory that was happening, and just enjoyed the book for the story, characters, marvellous writing, and window into mid-20th century America. And, again, Steinbeck has taken me by surprise by his humour, his beautiful descriptions of California, and his earthiness. In the deep spring when the grass was green on fields and foothills, when the lupines and poppies made a splendid blue and gold earth, when the great trees awakened in yellow-green young leaves, then there was no more lovely place in the world. It was no beauty you could ignore by being used to it. It caught you in the throat in the morning and made a pain of pleasure in the pit of your stomach when the sun went down over it. The sweet smell of the lupines and of the grass set you breathing nervously, set you panting almost sexually. The characters, while not always loveable, were fully fleshed out and real. And while there were some I loved to loathe (the manipulative Mrs Pritchard; Louie the Greyhound bus driver; the self-important Mr Pritchard) there were others that sometimes suddenly and unexpectedly had your sympathy, or who you started out liking but then did something terribly wrong by the end of the book. None of them are perfect, all of them were human. ( )2 wookiebender | Feb 29, 2012 | Not a one of these characters is likable and yet each of them earns a bit of sympathy - or at least understanding - from the reader. They each have dreams and hopes. Steinbeck allows the dreams and hopes to show, just a bit, to offset the brilliant greed, hatred, and rage that drives these characters to behave monstrously to one another. Their uses and abuses come large and small, but every one of them displays the corrupt substance of human striving. Yuck. Steinbeck's talent with language is evident throughout. He captures the inner workings of each soul with the deftness of a skilled surgeon: every cut is exact and no cut is excessive. The writing is spare and brutal, just like the hopes, dreams, and actions of the riders of the bus. Despite and because of the decrepit personalities with which Steinbeck has occupied his novel, it's a wonderful read and highly recommended. ( )2 EBT1002 | Feb 23, 2012 | From the first page when we are introduced to Rebel Corners I was immediately drawn into the story. Steinbeck writes beautifully with a real understanding of nature and character. I might not like the people very much but he captures it all so well that this is a 5 star read for me. ( )1 calm | Feb 23, 2012 | |
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 Google Books — Chargement...GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)813.52Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1900-1944Classification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne: (3.83)
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1
By John Steinbeck
Oh, my! Oh, my! Oh, my!
There are few books in the world where the characters are so well-written, so fully developed, so wonderfully real, nor so absolutely authentic. Steinbeck does not serve up a cast of good guys and bad guys, heroes and villains. Instead, he gives readers us authentic humanity, real people, people who are good and bad and beautiful and ugly all rolled into one being. The characters of the Wayward Bus are so real, so authentic that every reader is compelled to simultaneously love and hate each and every one of them. (Of course, some are more easily loved or hated than others).
The book’s greatest deception is that it appears to be a simple story about a journey through life-threatening conditions, toward a not too distant goal. The ‘journey’ or ‘quest’ motif, however, is one of the most used and recognized in all of literature. Homer’s epics The Iliad and the Odyssey each rely upon the journey theme and, like The Wayward Bus, each is about people, humanity, goodness and evil, hopes and dreams, beauty and disgust and a great deal more. The plots of these epics is far less important than the characterizations of the participants.
The journey of Huckleberry Finn and the runaway slave, Jim, runs south down the Mississippi while a real journey toward freedom for a slave would run north, yet Jim is freed at the end of the journey. Here again, the characters themselves are far more important than the plot.
Journey motifs often accompany books that are more allegory than fiction, more moral insight than fascinating story. The plot of The Wayward Bus is rather thin because the plot is just about the least important aspect of this novel. What is important is how the real, genuine characters navigate their lives, deal with their temptations, interact with others, and move toward a distant goal, one that has unique meaning and importance to each of the characters.
In addition to wonderfully drawn characters, Steinbeck also gives us a sharply focused view of culture and time (setting).
Especially excellent are the portrayal of female characters in the book. To some, Steinbeck’s women may seem to be the pathetic imaginings of a highly misogynistic male writer, but such a perception is wrong. Every woman in the novel authentically matches the era in which the novel is set, the post-war, baby-boomer years.
In the years leading to WW II, women were generally dominated by men who alternated between placing them on pedestals and subjugating them to riddle and second-class status. But in WW II, some were drawn out of the domestic duties of the household and thrust into the workplace, filling jobs traditionally filled by men due to the manpower needs of the war effort. The “Rosie the Riveters” of the war years built more than just war materials; they forged a new vision of what women could be, should be, and began to become.
The women in this novel are at the crossroads between the old view of women and the emerging view of women, a view America still has not yet fully accepted. Mrs. Pritchard is pampered and spoiled by her husband while at the same time he views her as a “baby doll.” Camille excited the lust in the men of the novel while she coolly manages and controls each of them. Norma aspires to leave the old role that has befallen her to rise to a new set of expectations. Mildred stands at the crossroads refusing the old role and expectations while being unclear about what the new expectations are.
The men of the novel, too, find themselves in an era redefining their roles. The businessman, Elliott Pritchard, who could see the world only through numbers, competition and profits feels his world changing even as he attempts to bluster and impress others through his own self-importance. Earnest does not aspire to great things or to corporate dominance, but is instead content with the life he has defined for himself. Van Brunt knows the world as he understood it had changed and he reacts to it through bitterness and negativity, fighting to retain the things he understands and impose his vision upon others.
Kit (Pimples) seeks male role models who are both capable and also feeling and compassionate and he finds such a male in Juan but discovers that Juan’s capacities for empathy and compassion are limited.
The Wayward Bus is a great work of literature, a classic! It rises far above other novels which are intended only to provide enjoyment and escape. The Wayward Bus presents allegory and moral insight. It gets less than 5 stars on GR because most people react to books based upon whether they liked them or not. The Wayward Bus does not seek to be liked, it strives for , and succeeds, in something much greater: enlightenment. (