Western
Annotation: Last Bus to Wisdom
Title:
Last Bus to Wisdom
Genre:
Western
(historical fiction)
Publication
Date: 2015
Publisher:
Riverhead
Books (New York)
Number
of Pages: 453 pages
Geographic
Setting: Montana, Wisconsin
Time
Period: 1951
Series
(if applicable): None
Plot
Summary: Eleven
year old Donal heads to Wisconsin to stay with his Great Aunt Kate and Uncle
Herman while his grandmother undergoes an operation for the summer. But while there, he finds his bossy and
argumentative Aunt is too much for him, so when she decides to send him to an
orphanage back in Montana, he boards a Greyhound bus, along with Uncle Herman (unbeknownst
to Kate) and the two of them set off for the adventure of a lifetime.
Subject
Headings: Travelers, West, Indians
Appeal:
For
those who enjoy a good western tale about adventure and family. For ages 14 and up due to some foul
languages.
3
Terms that describe book: Adventurous, coming-of-age, long.
Similar
Works and Authors:
The
Hour of Lead – Bruce Holbert: A tale of a young man
named Matt who is left to take care of the ranch after his brother and father
die and his mother walks out and has to learn life’s hardest lessons on his
own.
Beyond
the Horizon – Ryan Ireland: A story about a man’s
pursuit to find the man who murdered his pregnant friend and her unborn child.
Honey
for the Lion – Matthew Neil Null: A tale about a man’s
new home where he is put to the test of where his loyalty stands in the midst
of a union strike.
Personal
Thoughts: “In traditional Westerns we expect cowboys, cattle
drives, gunslingers, adventure, and gunplay … However, creating a strong a
sense of time and place, the feel of the Old West is essential. Westerns speak to basic, deep-seated feelings
about the land and the men who brought justice to the wild, uninhabited country
and thus helped make it safe for those who civilized it” (Saricks, 2009, 313).
Cowboys, gunshots, and adventure is what I would
expect in a Western novel, since I am not so knowledgeable in this genre, but Last Bus to Wisdom left me with a good
sense of what a Western novel is like.
In this book, there are cowboys, talk of the West and Indians, but the
biggest thing I found is how the main character, Donal, comes to realize what
people are like and how the West is filled with adventure and room to grow
personally in the process, as well as finding where you belong.
“It sank in on me.
No one in the entire world know that the two of us were free as the
breeze. Herman wasn’t merely flapping
his lips; we really were footloose, crazily like the comic strip characters in Just Trampin’ who were always going on
the lam, hopping on freight trains or bumming rides from tough truck drivers to
stay a jump ahead of the sheriff. Or at
least bus-loose – the fleet of Greyhounds ran anywhere we wanted to go. It was a dizzying prospect. Goodbye battle-ax wife, for him, and no
Hello, orphanage, for me – it was as simple as sitting tight in a bus seat to
somewhere known only to us, the Greyhound itself on the lam from all we were
leaving behind” (Doig, 2015, 228-9).
I really enjoyed reading this book, but I would have
to say my favorite moments are when Donal asks people who interest him to sign
his autograph book. My favorite can be
found on page 38. If you want to know
what it says, you will just have to read it for yourself and find out.
References:
Saricks, J.
(2009). The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction. 2nd Ed.
Chicago: American Library
Association.
Doig, I.
(2015). Last Bus to Wisdom. New
York: Riverhead Books.
This sounds different than the Western I read, but I can still feel the sense of place and the idea of the West being freeing that's so important to Westerns in this one. It's good to know a bit more about the range (haha) of the genre as well!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like an interesting book! Definitely not what you would typically think of as a Western, but does seem to have all the qualities. I really like your teaser at the end - great idea!
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked the teaser. I was trying to do something a little different than my other annotations.
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ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a really fun western/historical! I haven't read many westerns, but this sounds like one I might pick up.
ReplyDeleteGreat annotation! I liked your little teaser at the end, I may have to pick it up just so I can know what the autograph says. You piqued my interest. Full points!
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