Book
The bus on Thursday / Shirley Barrett.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780374110444
- ISBN: 0374110441
- Physical Description: 290 pages ; 19 cm
- Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York : MCD x FSG Originals/ Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018.
Content descriptions
| General Note: | "MCD x FSG Originals." |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Breast > Cancer > Fiction. Cancer > Patients > Fiction. Women > Fiction. Teachers > Australia > Fiction. |
| Genre: | Black humor. Humorous fiction. Black humor (Literature) |
Available copies
- 2 of 2 copies available at BC Interlibrary Connect. (Show)
- 1 of 1 copy available at Granisle Public Library.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 2 total copies.
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Granisle Public Library | Apb BAR (Text) | 35190000252294 | Adult Paperback Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2018 September #1
Thirtysomething Eleanor Mellett should be ecstatic to have survived breast cancer, but her nipple-less implants make her feel like a freak. On the advice of her doctors, she starts a blog, and her adventures take a turn when Eleanor impulsively accepts a job in remote Talbingo, a town barely big enough to have its own school and whose previous teacher, the beloved Miss Barker, disappeared suddenly and mysteriously. Though she tries, she cannot win over the strange students, and as the comparisons to Miss Barker increase, so do her inappropriate drinking and cursing and general educational incompetence. When Miss Barker's body is discovered in a slurry pond, Eleanor suspects the creepy Gregory, brother to her oldest student and who is very hot and with whom she has slept. The blog format makes for a quick read, and Eleanor's voice is frequently hilarious, even as her world turns crazy, then dangerous. Barrett's second novel, after Rush, Oh!? (2016), delivers Bridget Jones in a Shirley Jackson town, a strange little tale that will delight readers of weird fiction. Copyright 2018 Booklist Reviews. - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2018 July #2
While recovering from breast cancer, a woman takes a job as a teacher at a one-room schoolhouse in an isolated Australian town, where she is beset by both inner and outer demons. Eleanor Mellett is in her early 30s, recently single, and in recovery from cancer treatments that have culminated in a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery. A support group misfit, Eleanor begins to keep a private blog as a therapeutic gesture. It is through this device that Eleanor's "funny-angry" voice, the unchallenged star of this unconventional novel, dictates the reader's experience of the plot. In short order, Eleanor moves to remote Talbingo to replace the angelic Miss Barker (who's disappeared), becomes involved with the erotically gifted vacuum salesman Gregory and his lumpen teenage brother, Ryan, and runs afoul of the small-town sensibilities of a host of characters, from the school's ferocious front-office maven, Glenda, to the exorcism-happy Friar. Throw in an ominous "1960s sci-fi pow er station, like some kind of reinforced bunker where Dr. Evil might live," a vengeful, reanimated hand, and the potentially sentient soul-transport bus of the title, and the results may seem like a hyperbolic decoupage of B-movie reference, each layer complicating and confusing the one before. What saves this book from the threat of murk, however, is movie director and writer Barrett's (Rush Oh!, 2016) skillful deployment of the form. Eleanor's voice is bold, frank, and savagely funny. Her observations about the intersections of cancer culture and the rom-com ideology of a certain kind of 21st-century feminism are so keen as to draw blood. Moreover, the total-eclipse-level narcissism of this personal-blog style neatly conceals how unreliable Eleanor's perspective actually becomes. Readers will find themselves going to great lengths to excuse some of her more dubious behaviorsâincluding, but not limited to: assault, breaking and entering, and potentially maiming the Fr i ar. Eleanor begins her blog by stumbling through a world of familiar absurdity and ends it by stumbling out of a world whose absurdity has become frenetically surreal. The journey from here to there shows the alert reader a tremendous amount about both the rigidity of our social mores and the flexibility of our sympathies. Narrated by a cybercentury Wife of Bath, this bawdy tale suspends both our disbelief and our scruples. Copyright Kirkus 2018 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved. - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2018 August #1
In Australian filmmaker Barrett's (
Copyright 2018 Library Journal.Rush Oh! ) delightfully bizarre novel, Eleanor Mellett steps straight out of a chick-lit plot line intoWicker Man -type horror. Recovering from breast cancer at a young age and disappointed in her romantic life, Eleanor accepts a teaching job in the remote mountain town of Talbingo. The school is small, with only 11 pupils, and missing its previous teacher, Miss Barker, who mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the night. The village seems idyllic, except for the pastor who continually quotes Bible verses regarding demonic possession and tries to exorcize the cancer-causing evil from Eleanor's body. There's also Daphne, who tells Eleanor that she's going to have to catch the bus on Thursdayâthe bus for the "afflicted." Oh, and Eleanor's new love interest is likely an incubus, who would really like her to have his baby.VERDICT This book deserves to find its (cult) audience. For readers who enjoy their horror elegantly twisted.âJennifer Mills, Shorewood-Troy Lib., IL - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2018 July #3
Australian author Barrett's frantically original and sometimes overwrought novel traces the breakdown of headstrong young Eleanor Mellett. The story begins with her in precarious balance, having just lost a breast to cancer surgery and angrily broken up with her long-term lover. She's offered a mid-term teaching job in the little Outback town of Talbingo, and it's such a beautiful, friendly place that she can hardly believe her luck. But how did the previous teacher vanish? And why did she have so many locks on her cottage door? And is Eleanor's new lover overly passionate or actually demonic? As Eleanor drinks too much, commits a series of grotesque blunders, and fights the paranoid suspicion that something is out to get her, readers begin to realize that not everything that's going wrong can be her fault: some malevolent force really must be playing pranks on her. Told in a series of blog posts (though at times the conceit is hard to believe), the narrative races and stumbles from one darkly hilarious pratfall to the next, and is recommended for readers who can laugh while cringing.
Copyright 2018 Publishers Weekly.(Sept.)
