The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God

I really enjoyed reading The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God by Etgar Keret. I found his writing style to be so unique and quite captivating, and loved how each chapter or story had such an incredibly different topic to the chapter prior-- it really prevented me from getting bored while I was reading!

There were a couple stories (or in some cases, parts of stories) that really stood out to me.

First, I was very drawn in by the second story, called "Goodman." This story was about a man named Mickey Goodman from Telaviv, who killed a seventy-year-old minister and his wife in Texas. What really caught my attention was the line, "Fifty years ago the fact that they were black would have helped, now it only hurt." This really made me consider how racism and stereotypes have changed over time, and how these issues still very much exist in our nation even as I think we often try to mask them.

I was also very intrigued by the story "Shoes." This story is about a boy who visits a Halocaust museum, and is told to never buy anything German. When his mother comes home with a pair of German Adidas shoes for him, he is conflicted. It was very interesting to see the perspectives of the different characters in the story, such as the caring boy, his apathetic-seeming brother, and his unknowledgable mother. In regards to his mother, the boy said she didn't have a clue, and that "shoes were just shoes and Germany was Poland." This story also brought up a good point about how we allow ourselves to forget or push aside the hurtful past, as he decides to wear the shoes and begins to like them. He says, "but after awhile I forgot, just like the old man at Volhynia House said people tend to do." I think this is a great point to consider, especially with all the controversy that has been arising in society about "whether or not the Halocaust really happened."

I also wonder about the teachability of this text for a high school classroom. Of course, some of the stories are quite intense, graphic, and/or obscene, and yet I think some of them have so much perspective to offer, and are a fairly easy read as well. All things considered, I think it might be most practical to separate individual stories to use in the classroom. I would love to know other people's thoughts on this!