The Boy on the Bus: A Novel (Paperback)

It is one thing for a writer to have an interesting idea. It is quite another to write a book with characters the reader can care about or that possesses an ending that does justice to the author's writing skill.

What we get in "The Boy on the Bus" is the tale of Vermont housewife Meg, now in her thirteenth year of postpartum depression. Her pseudo-husband is an aloof architect who has chosen to entomb himself across the border in Canada, his erstwhile building project forcing him to be conveniently away. Their daughter Katie had enough of this arrangement and begged off for boarding school.

That leaves Charlie, the feeble, asthmatic son, who one school bus ride later comes home to a mother who does not recognize him as hers. He's some new, improved doppelganger who appears to have shed his asthma and paleness, leaving Meg with no ability to rescue him like she has always done. Her shock at seeing this boy who has replaced her son serves as the basis of the story, a tale that verges on the Twilight Zone.

If only it were that good. But author Deborah Schupack has created a world where not a single sympathetic character exists. In fact, you want to shake everyone in this book and tell them to snap out of it. I found myself just detesting the characters, hoping that at least the narrative would take me to some curious place that proved satisfying.

This, too, was too much to ask. The novel ends with no answers, no character development, nothing for the reader to hold onto. The wispy concept of parents watching their children grow faster than can be mentally absorbed holds a modicum of interest, but is so paper-thin as to bring no satisfaction to the reader.

And this is a shame because Schupack is a good writer. Some of her images are startling (though others seem a bit forced), but she can keep the reader involved. Her double meanings and confused imagery that later resolves to be less than imagined are well done. But with such disagreeable characters we care nothing about, a plot that ends with a whimper, and a message that could have been delivered in so many more thought-provoking ways, there is nothing to be learned here. Only vitriol and grief exist.

Skip "The Boy on the Bus" and find something better for your soul.

Well I believe a goose is the key to this strange story. The goose is mentioned at the beginning and close to the end of the story. When the boy first sees the goose his question is,"Is that real?" Interesting question in light of the name he gives the goose in the end as well as the fate of the goose in the end.

Despite the title, the main character is not the boy on the bus but Meg, the stay at home Mom, who is frustrated, lonely, unhappy and probably on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Throughout the book she calls the boy first tentatively then emphatically,"Charlie? Charlie!" . Meg seems to be frustrated because her son, Charlie, suffers from asthma attacks and she is the sole caregiver. She was also the sole caregiver of her parents while she was pregnant with Charlie. Charlie seems to be growing out of the asthma and becoming healthy but instead of being joyful Meg finds this equally overwhelming.

This book does not have a clear happy ever after ending like Mother Goose stories. It requires reading and thinking and looking for clues to find the answer to the question, Is this boy Charlie? I think I know the answer to the question.

I think it was very bold of the writer to make her debut with this strange storyline. I look forward to her next book.