Publisher's Summary
The final novel from a great American storyteller. Donal Cameron is being raised by his grandmother, the cook at the legendary Double W ranch in Ivan Doig's beloved Two Medicine Country of the Montana Rockies, a landscape that gives full rein to an 11-year-old's imagination. But when Gram has to have surgery for "female trouble" in the summer of 1951, all she can think to do is to ship Donal off to her sister in faraway Manitowoc, Wisconsin. There Donal is in for a rude surprise: Aunt Kate - bossy, opinionated, argumentative, and tyrannical - is nothing like her sister. She henpecks her good-natured husband, Herman the German, and Donal can't seem to get on her good side either. After one contretemps too many, Kate packs him back to the authorities in Montana on the next Greyhound. But as it turns out, Donal isn't traveling solo: Herman the German has decided to fly the coop with him. In the immortal American tradition, the pair light out for the territory together, meeting a classic Doigian ensemble of characters and having rollicking misadventures along the way. Charming, wise, and slyly funny, Last Bus to Wisdom is a last sweet gift from a writer whose books have bestowed untold pleasure on countless people.
©2015 Ivan Doig (P)2015 Recorded Books
Reminds me of Jean Shepard
A few years ago, I saw this book in an Audible sale pile and didn't buy it. I regretted the decision. Then recently, it made another appearance on the sales rack and I bought it. I am so glad I did.
As I was listening to the book, it slowly dawned on me that the storytelling reminded me a lot of a 60s &70s NY radio talk show host named Jean Shepard. There was something about the sound of the narrator's voice and the cadence of the prose that shouted "Jean Shepard." He was a raconteur par excellence and told a lot of stories about his childhood, which are all described as "semi-autobiographical." Probably his mostly widely known piece of work was the 1983 film A Christmas Story, which was adapted from his stories. However, Shep holds a place in my heart because in 1968 he stood on the stage of my high school auditorium with a microphone in his hand, and the principal in the front row, and unmistakably uttered the word "fuck" --and even more miraculously he was permitted to continue his monologue. The times, they were most definitely a-changin'.
But I digress. I'm supposed to be talking about the book I just read, not old memories. I loved the book and I want to read more by Ivan Doig. If I am going to read a coming of age story, this is the way I want it to sound -- youth as a carefree adventure, sweet and old-fashioned.
Four stars and I love the cover.
P.S. I also like the pun in the title. This was Doig's last book and these were his parting thoughts.
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