The Wayward Bus

At the isolated Rebel Corners service station, Juan Chicoy prepares to drive a mixed group of passengers towards the California coast. Heavy rain, damaged roads and mechanical uncertainty turn an ordinary bus journey into a prolonged interruption, forcing Juan, his wife Alice and their passengers into uncomfortable dependence on people they would normally avoid.

The travellers form a temporary cross-section of postwar American life: business owners, a travelling salesman, a nightclub performer, a college student and a young mechanic, each carrying private expectations about sex, money or status. As the journey breaks down, Steinbeck tests the difference between public respectability and private conduct within the confined social world of the bus.