The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God and Other Stories

The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God and Other Stories

4.13 of 5 stars 4.13  ·  rating details  ·  1,949 ratings  ·  221 reviews
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 an...more
Paperback, 130 pages
Published September 1st 2004 by Toby Press (first published January 28th 2001)
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Tfitoby
Another fabulous collection of warped and wonderful short stories from Israel.

As I mentioned on my review of Suddenly a Knock on the Door Etgar Keret writes stories unlike anybody else, stories that are often strange and slightly fantastical, funny, dark, impressive and affecting and this collection is no different in that respect.

That collection is one of the best books I've read in 2012 and so when Leah brought home a tattered and spine broken copy of this one, found thrown away by a careless...more
Caris
A convenience store at the mouth of hell? A uterus on display at a museum? An afterlife for suicides that is just a little suckier than this one?

Etgar Keret is awesome. These stories grab you by the throat and don't let up. Although they seldom exceed five tiny pages, they are memorable and powerful. His style is unlike anything I've read before.

I originally heard about Keret when I saw a trailer for "Wristcutters: A Love Story." This fine film starred a man based on Eugene Hutz (Jonfren's endea...more
Mike
Nov 06, 2008 Mike rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Jimmy Smits
There's something about a three-page story, like a 45-second pop song, that usually leaves me wanting. All conceptual riff, no cattle. Or something like that.

But there were a few stories here that turned on a dime from absurdist punk to pathos, took some smirky wise-ass jape (a pet named Rabin) and wrung something funny and political then sad in four pages flat. At its best, and this collection is pretty uniformly at its best, the stories made me immediately turn to read them again, and I imagin...more
Bistra Ivanova
На крак в книжарницата - първите два разказа са просто разкошни - с астмата и рождения ден. Жалко, че късата проза (и като цяло поезия) са ми така трудни - тъкмо започнат, и вземат че свършат. Затова на малки хапки :-)
Mahmud Qayyum
Imaginasi si yahudi yang seorang ni memang terlampau. Cuma ada satu cerita yang agak panjang yang mana ramai telah mencadangkan agar ia seharusnya diterbitkan secara novella.
Beberapa cerpen awal sudahpun menggigit, Hole in the Wall berkisarkan seorang lelaki pembohong bersayap yang disangka malaikat, Souvenir from Hell pula aku tak tahu macam mana Keret dapat idea untuk meletakkan sebuah kampung di Uzbekistan yang dibina dekat dengan pintu Neraka. Dalam Breaking the Pig, seoranng kanak-kanak bak...more
Mrs. McGregor
It was very different. Here's a quick like/ dislike breakdown though, in case anyone is interested:

dislikes:
1. Some of the stories just ended abruptly. I think this is really Keret's style and it is intentional more than it is lazy. But a lot of times a story would be over and I would feel like, "...SO??"
2. Some of the language in the book sounds racist or homophobic. I don't think Keret himself is racist or homophobic, but he feels the need to portray a lot of "macho" guys in his stories, and...more
Fatma
İsminden dolayı okumak için ölüp bitmiştim. İyi hoş da çok abartmışım. Kendi kendimin hayalini kırdım. Sanırım kara mizah olduğundan pek sarmadı. Tanrı Olmak İsteyen Otobüs Şoförü için bile değer tüm kitabı okumak.

*Bu öykü geç kalan yolculara asla kapı açmayan bir otobüs şoförüne dair.Kimseye. Kötülüğünden değil, çünkü kötülüğün zerresi yoktu bu otobüs şoförünün ruhunda; ideoloji meselesiydi sadece.Bu şoförün ideolojisine göre geç gelmiş bir yolcuya kapıyı açmak otuz saniyenin altında bir zaman...more
Jason
There is nothing better than to have an intesting collection of short stories by your bedside. The short story form is rarely produced these days, and outside of Stephen King and a few others, one must turn to non-American writers to fill the void. Etgar Keret (Hebrew author) stories are witty and warped with a sarcastic edge that strokes my evil side. One of the stories included in this gem of a collection is, of cause,"Kneller's Happy Campers", which was turned into the indie favorite "Wristcu...more
Darryl
The first collection of short stories by Israeli writer Etgar Keret published in English starts out brilliantly, with several surreal and fantastic tales that seem to be a witches' brew of the best of Jorge Luis Borges, mixed with a splash of Julio Cortázar and José Donoso. In the title story, a principled but misunderstood bus driver invokes a higher calling to serve one of his passengers, though with an unexpected result. In "Uterus", a young man despairs when his mother's organ, preserved for...more
Laure Parkinson
A few months ago, my Early Modern European Witch-Hunting professor Dr. Richard M. Golden encouraged our class to attend a campus event he was putting together: a film screening and Q&A session with Etgar Keret, the Jewish-Israeli writer and film director. He even tempted us with extra credit points on our midterm–and this, for me, sealed the deal!

But I couldn’t attend this Q&A session without some idea of what I was to expect. I had never before heard of Keret, who, though internationall...more
Eric
Feb 28, 2010 Eric rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: my young hipster friends.
I guess I'm not hip enough to really "get" Etgar Keret's short short stories. They remind me a little of Steve Martin's short stories, deadpan little set pieces that you have to be a bit skewed yourself to really enjoy. Are his stories often amusing? Yes. Well-crafted? Generally. But they have a certain shallowness of affect to them that makes them hard to love. Unlike the flash fictions of Vollmann or Kawabata, they are too short and too unfeeling to cause one to bond with their characters or s...more
Craig
I want to give this book five stars as I was absolutely mesmerized by most of these stories. Those who know me know that I love short-short stories anyway, but these were unlike much of what I have read in my lifetime. They are beautiful and bleak.

But, as many others have said in their reviews here on goodreads, there is a very strong racist and homophobic thread running through the characters of nearly all of these stories. I don't know if this is being played out as a statement or if these are...more
Meagan
I'm not generally a reader of short stories. They leave me feeling like I've had a snack when I'd rather have a meal. But when I watched the movie Wristcutters and saw that it's based on an Etgar Keret short story called "Kneller's Happy Campers," I was intrigued enough to give this collection a try. I'm glad I did. The stories are all a bit cracked, and deal with dark topics in a matter-of-fact and funny way.

My personal favorites were the title story, "Breaking the Pig," and "The Mysterious Dis...more
Craig Wallwork
Etgar Keret has been decorated the prestigious title of Israel's hippest young writer, and from what I’ve read by his books, The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God, The Nimrod Flip Out, and Gazza Blues, he's worthy of the title.

His work is, as noted on Amazon, snapshots that illuminate with intelligence and wit. 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 ca...more
Bhavika Desai
This book is a composite of short stories related to personal disappointments, violent outbursts, near-death and post-death experiences in the Arab/Jewish communities. It also has a surreal twist. If you suspend disbelief and take in the stories as a whole, you understand that the characters are conflicted but self-serving. The tenor of the book is more or less that each character feels justified in taking steps that support their own viewpoints.

This is not a book about people changing, as you...more
Kira
Short stories are hit or miss–for me, the format often makes it too easy to put a book down, and too difficult to get engrossed. But Keret manages to avoid that trap; Bus Driver would be as enjoyable as a toilet-side read as it was a curled-up-in-bed one. The stories are quick, accessible and uniquely voiced (my favorite line: “Some children have to run away from home in the middle of the night to join the circus, but Dad took me in his car.”) But they touch on themes far beyond their brevity. P...more
Nicole
I decided to check out this author based on a single recommendation and no expectations, the latter of which is a good thing because whatever expectations I would have had would have been way off base. These stories are tiny little nuggets--with the exception of the closing novella, I think the longest clocks in at 8 pages--of comedy and miscommunication and moments of stunning insightfulness brought to us by an assortment of bizarre characters and events. The writing is crisp and sparkly (oh, y...more
R.
Jul 16, 2007 R. rated it 5 of 5 stars
Shelves: 2006
The book I was reading in the few days I hemmed and hawed about flying out to Oregon...hoping that every phone call was the "she's gonna make it!" or "she's come back!" or "she's eating, weak but smiling!" phone call.

There is one short story about a young man whose mother dies in this book...and the grief attacking him while driving pointlessly in the rain (or that's how I remember it).

I considered it a gift from the universe.
Phillip Smith
I'm not sure if I heard about this author before or after seeing the film "Wristcutters: A Love Story", which is adapted from one of his longer (like 25 pages) stories. But that gives you an idea of his weird material. Most of the stories are incredibly short, ranging from 2 to 4 pages, some more fanciful than others, all rather offbeat and frankly told. You might expect them to show up in some weekly alt paper. The back of the cover says that young modern Israelis feel Keret best represent thei...more
Cheryl
There is a direct path between Keret's fevered imagination and his written page. There are no speed limits or detours. The stories won't be inhibited by oppressive laws of physics, or even by reality. These are short intense bursts of 'what ifs'.
In "One Last Story and That's It", a demon shows up to the house of a writer, to take away his talent. The writer begs him to let him do just one more story. Well, ok, the demon agrees, and so he just hangs out for a bit, watching tv and drinking lemona...more
Laura
The cover of this book proclaims it to be a collection of "laugh-out-loud-funny" stories. It also claims to be "warped and wonderful." Personally, I'd go with the second description. While there are funny moments, the overwhelming mood of each of these stories is quite sad. Many involve death and disappointment, although most times the characters are pretty much complacent with their lives, knowing there is not much they can do about it. More than one describe Hell as perceived by different peop...more
Sve
Добър автор, добър преводач, добро оформление и добри истории. Какво повече да кажа? :)
Искам да прочета и други неща...
Aidan Watson-Morris
Etgar Keret is a master of style who leaves substance implicit; his stories punch you in the face and leave you to do the thinking on your own time. His weaknesses as a writer are exposed only briefly in the overly long Kneller's Happy Campers, but more than made up for by his ability to fully engage his audience. Kyle Smith wrote of Keret, "[he] can do more with six strange and funny paragraphs than most writers can with 600 pages," and that's pretty much a spot-on assessment of Keret's work -...more
Adele
A short book filled with short stories. Overall I really enjoyed it and it made me smile, especially with Kneller's Happy Campers.
With some stories I couldn't help feeling disappointed because I wanted to know what happened but Keret's style of writing makes up for that so I was content afterwards.
However there were some stories where it made me think for a while and how to have a different outlook to situations. It made me think for better reasons to improve how I already am, and Keret to do t...more
Erica
The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God & Other Stories is a collection of stories by the popular Israeli author Etgar Keret. The author I was most reminded of while reading the collection is Roald Dahl. It contained much of the same kind of off-beat humor and unexpected twists that I love Dahl for, although in Keret’s collection the stories were basically brief comedic gags and the twists were just a part of the humor where as Dahl’s stories tend to be longer mysteries and all the dark humor is...more
Lauren
I received this book as a gift, specifically because it contains the short story "Kneller's Happy Campers" on which one of my favourite films (Wristcutters: A Love Story) is based. I had never previously picked it up because I had only seen disheartening reviews comparing the short story to the film.

Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised. Both the story in question (and many others, including the title story) are smart and sort of amusing, without being pretentious. They are some of the eas...more
Nathan
Etgar Keret is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers, and each of his books is a joy to read. This was the first of his three English-translated collections, and there are some pieces here that stand among his best.

In terms of quality and cohesiveness, this collection falls somewhere in between his masterpiece "The Nimrod Flipout," and the spottier grab-bag, "Girl on the Fridge."

Aside from having many excellent short-shorts, "Bus Driver" is also noteworthy for containing his longest story...more
Harley Rose
I thought it was great stuff. Something that really got you thinking differently in an odd way. I like how in his descriptions he seems to know just what qualities to mention. Learning about charters and places adequately enough to get everything that was intended out of a short story is tough because of the short space you're working with, but Keret has no issue with this. I somehow got so much depth from all these little things he kept throwing in there and I love that! Dark and surreal circum...more
Justin
Pretty good collection of fun, dark humorous short stories. A couple are quite good, but for the most part they're just shallow, goofy fun. At 3 or 4 pages each, you're constantly whisked from one tale to the next. The last short story, "Kneller's Happy Campers," which is longer than the rest, was made into the movie called "Wristcutters: A Love Story" and I'd definitely recommend checking it out.

Overall, the collection is alright but perhaps not as good as I was expecting. Perfect book to check...more
Tiffany McFly
I bought this on a whim (which I never do--I always pre-read them before I buy) and I do not regret it in the slightest way. All the stories are just slightly...off but perfectly so. You read them and wonder, "Where do you even come up with these ideas and plots?" but then you find yourself chuckling and continuing until you're at the end of the book. I would recommend to anyone who is into anything quirky or off-beat. The stories are truly original and very morbidly hilarious (especially the sh...more
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Tanrı Olmak İsteyen Otobüs Şoförü (Paperback)
The Bus Driver Who Wanted To Be God (Paperback)
Автобусният шофьор, който искаше да бъде Бог (Paperback)
The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God: and Other Stories (Hardcover)
Tanrı Olmak İsteyen Otobüs Şoförü (Paperback)

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Etgar Keret is an Israeli writer known for his short stories, graphic novels, and scriptwriting for film and television.

Keret has received the Prime Minister's award for literature, as well as the Ministry of Culture's Cinema Prize. The short film Malka Lev Adom (Skin Deep, 1996), which Keret wrote and directed with Ran Tal, won an Israel Film Academy award and first place in the Munich Internatio...more
More about Etgar Keret...
The Nimrod Flipout: Stories The Girl on the Fridge Suddenly, a Knock on the Door Kneller's Happy Campers Missing Kissinger

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