The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God by: Etgar Keret

Title: The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God and Other Stories Author: Etgar Keret
Publisher: Toby Press
Format: Paperback
Pages: 130

Description:

Israel's hippest bestselling young writer today, Etgar Keret is part court jester, part literary crown prince, part national conscience. The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God gathers his daring and provocative short stories for the first time in English. Brief, intense, painfully funny, and shockingly honest, Keret's stories are snapshots that illuminate with intelligence and wit the hidden truths of life. As with the best comic authors, hilarity and anguish are the twin pillars of his work. Keret covers a remarkable emotional and narrative terrain-from a father's first lesson to his boy to a standoff between soldiers caught in the Middle East conflict to a slice of life where nothing much happens. Bus Driver includes stories from Keret's bestselling collections in Israel, Pipelines and Missing Kissinger, as well as Keret's major new novella, "Kneller's Happy Campers," a bitingly satirical yet wistful road trip set in the afterlife for suicides. 

 My Thoughts:

My sister is the one who's introduced me to Etgar Keret a short while ago. I've always loved short stories, and Keret's are among the funniest, striking and weird tales I've ever read. This book also contains Keret's short stories, including the one that inspired the movie Wristcutters: "Kneller's Happy Campers." Among my favorite stories were the one that gave its name to the book, "The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God," "Breaking the Pig," and "Jetlag." They all have different characters and stories, and although they're similar in ways, they're also very different. If you like witty, weird stories and like details that are all around us yet nobody notices, I think you should give Etgar Keret a try.