If you’ve looked through my reading list, you’ll have noticed that I’m a fan of John Steinbeck’s work. Yet The Wayward Bus left me a little underwhelmed.
It’s not a bad novel. The characters develop well and Steinbeck’s writing remains as engaging as ever. For some reason, though, I never fully connected with the story. I kept waiting for a moment when everything would click into place, but it never quite arrived.
I finished the book, but was left with a lingering sense of “so what?”. Perhaps I wasn’t in the right frame of mind when I picked it up, or perhaps this particular novel simply wasn’t for me. Not every Steinbeck can be a favourite, and this one sits lower on my list than many of his other works.