John Steinbeck tries to develop new thoughts with the help of Gary Schamhorst here. John talked about domestic, social, and professional problems in the past which changed the heroes or forced them to take abrupt steps. East of Eden and The Winter of Our Discontent tell a lot about such situations. This one is a little close to fiction and discussed a lot of characters at the same time. There are characters related to different professions and different age groups which enter and leave the bus.
Some of the travelers are nice people and then there are devilish characters too, the bus treats all of them equally i.e taking them to their desired destinations. Treatment is not different and there is a symbolic promise which the bus makes with every passenger. The appearance of the men and women entering and leaving the bus is aptly described by the author John Steinbeck and narrator Richard Poe. Scenes are so natural and it seems that the author has visited the back allies of California during which he traveled in such kind of a bus. Though most of the scenes are natural there are others which are pure creation of the author’s imaginations and nothing else.
These imaginative scenes take us to the dimension of the author’s thoughts where he controls all the happenings with his superior intellect. The craze for the future among those traveling can also be seen but it is not dominating the scenes. Several such elements perhaps needed more of the author’s attention during the continuation of the story. Overall good to listen and it is not that kind which will tempt you to end it in one go, a listener can listen to it in two or three sittings.
