The Bus on Thursday

July 16, 2018
Australian author Barrett’s frantically original and sometimes overwrought novel traces the breakdown of headstrong young Eleanor Mellett. The story begins with her in precarious balance, having just lost a breast to cancer surgery and angrily broken up with her long-term lover. She’s offered a mid-term teaching job in the little Outback town of Talbingo, and it’s such a beautiful, friendly place that she can hardly believe her luck. But how did the previous teacher vanish? And why did she have so many locks on her cottage door? And is Eleanor’s new lover overly passionate or actually demonic? As Eleanor drinks too much, commits a series of grotesque blunders, and fights the paranoid suspicion that something is out to get her, readers begin to realize that not everything that’s going wrong can be her fault: some malevolent force really must be playing pranks on her. Told in a series of blog posts (though at times the conceit is hard to believe), the narrative races and stumbles from one darkly hilarious pratfall to the next, and is recommended for readers who can laugh while cringing.

July 26, 2018
Eleanor Mellett, a young woman recovering from breast cancer and a relationship break-up, retreats to a small country town in New South Wales to restart her life and career. But all is not as it seems. The town of Talbingo is adrift from the modern world: no internet, sporadic phone reception and with a cast of moody, strange inhabitants. What follows is a surreal, unnerving romp told entirely from Eleanor’s point of view. The local primary school teacher Miss Barker, who Eleanor is replacing, has disappeared without a trace. There are far too many locks on Eleanor’s front door, and furtive scratches can be heard at night. Eleanor herself complicates things: she’s an unreliable and slightly unhinged narrator whose angry, alcohol- and drug-fuelled thoughts border on the sociopathic. Shirley Barrett knows how to draw a reader into a psychological conundrum: is this small town filled with actual demons? Or has Eleanor succumbed to her own delusions? The Bus on Thursday is reminiscent of Barrett’s brilliant film Love Serenade, a dark comedy that also explored the dark undercurrents of rural Australia, isolation and unfulfilled desires. Recommended for readers who prefer their stories fast paced and unpredictable.

Helene Ephraim is a freelance reviewer who has worked as a bookseller and librarian