the wayward bus.

 
It doesn't get much more Americana than John Steinbeck. Famous for his detailed landscape descriptions and his familiarity with the old school back roads of central California, it's hard to be a native Californian and not appreciate his work. Granted, the writing is slow as it is less plot-driven and more character-development-focused. But I liked it that way.

The Wayward Bus is shorter and lesser known than other Steinbeck works but I did enjoy it in the same way that one can love bacon-flavored chocolate - while consuming it you're wondering "Hm, I'm not sure if this is for me," yet you keep nibbling at it and by the time its gone, you're wondering where it went (yes, this has happened to me before).

Set in the 1940s, Steinbeck brings in a medley of odd characters - the drunk and bitter Alice, her mechanic husband Juan who secretly wants to leave her, the too-pretty-for-her-own-good Lorraine (whose real name we never know as she changes her identity from place to place), the pimples-infested Kit who just wants to be respected and maybe even loved, the rich and snooty Pritchards and their liberal daughter Mildred, the traveling salesman Ernest Horton, and the old, extremely unhappy Van Brunt. All these characters are brought together to ride "sweetheart," Juan's rundown old bus which he transports people on between two major highways in California while his wife runs the diner that lies smack in the middle. On this particular day, the bus gets stuck in in a violent rainstorm and has to take an untraveled back road when it eventually gets stuck in the mud. The book chronicles every character's struggle with their private versus public selves - a reminder that everyone has internal conflict whether we are poor or rich, single or married, beautiful or homely, old or young.

Where the book fails to be charming, it succeeds in being interesting. It is almost an anthropological study of humankind, showing the surprises and struggles and conflict that come when a small group of people, each with a personal agenda, are forced to ride alongside each other during a not-so-exciting bus ride.

If you want to give Steinbeck a try, but are intimidated by Grapes of Wrath or East of Eden, I would suggest giving The Wayward Bus a chance.