3 Stars
Memoirs are not my genre of choice but this was a book club selection. Given its appearance on the shortlist for Canada Reads in 2018, with its theme of One Book to Open Your Eyes, I was expecting more.
Depressed and broke, Davidson took a job as a school bus driver and spent one school year driving five special-needs students. We meet Nadja, Oliver, Gavin, Vincent, and Jake and see snippets of their time on the bus during which they tell stories and jokes, tease each other, laugh together, and bond. As a result of getting to know these teenagers and seeing how society treats people viewed as disabled, he re-evaluates his life: “The physical truth is that I drove you. The deeper truth is that you drove me. Drove me to step out of my own sickened skin, to stop feeling sorry for myself and to see the world for its beauties more than its agonies.”
As I’ve already mentioned, I was wanting more from this book. In particular, I wanted more of the five students and less of the bus driver. I wanted more stories of the interactions between the driver and his passengers. Except for Jake with whom Davidson had a relationship outside his job, it is difficult to remember who is who; there is insufficient differentiation.
There is more telling than showing. Not everything has to be explained. Do we need over a page about how chemically we are all the same because every living thing starts out as carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen? And the life lessons he learns are not exactly profound: we’re all people deserving of respect despite our differences; we need to make the best of what life gives us; and life is sometimes unfair. Basically he learns to have empathy for others and to appreciate his own life.
I didn’t dislike the author, but I wasn’t overly impressed with him either. At first he was whiny and full of self-pity; I expect a writer to understand human nature and be capable of self-reflection, but that’s certainly not the case at the beginning. Then, though he did try to make the times on the school bus pleasant for all and his actions show acceptance of and respect for everyone, I detected a self-congratulatory tone for being such a good driver to these students and then expecting praise for learning rather obvious lessons about life.
What really bothered me is Davidson’s dropping out of Jake’s life. He speaks of the relationship he developed with Jake, but once the school year is over, he never sees him again? Surely both Jake and Calvin would have appreciated Davidson’s further involvement in Jake’s life. This behaviour made me question Davidson’s sincerity. Did he use the five passengers as fodder for his writing and then just abandon them once they had served their purpose?
The inclusion of excerpts from “The Seekers” serves little purpose. Yes, the unpublished novel does include the five as lead characters/heroes in a narrative, but these sections interrupt the flow of the narrative. Were it the writing of one of the gang I’d have been more interested. Davidson does say that both Vincent and Jake “could end up as writers.”
In the end, I have greater respect for school bus drivers. Given the level of their responsibilities, I think they are underpaid. Not only must they keep their passengers safe, they’re expected to understand their personalities and needs. I understand why there’s a shortage of people for those positions.
This is not a bad book, but I wanted more depth, not just surface-level life lessons, and I’d have enjoyed learning more about the precious cargo.
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