Greyhound

By: Steffan Piper / Narrated By: Nick Podehl

Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins

Cowards & Men. Nick Podehl makes this one of my favorites!

In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, O’Brien has one short story on how to write truth. It turns out that people always believe the true things are fiction, and the fiction an author has to write is necessary to make people believe the unbelievable. That had me wondering about Greyhound as author Steffan Piper states at the beginning that it’s based on true happenings. SOOO much goes on for our hero, 12-year old stuttering Sebastien Ranes, bus hijacking, attempted kidnapping, a death on the bus, a devastating bus fire, the close friendship with Marcus, that I KNEW those things HAD to have happened, and I wondered what Piper had to create so that we all would swallow it.

This is Sebastien’s journey on a Greyhound bus from Stockton, California, where his mother is to be married and once again can’t be bothered to raise her son so she ships him off, all the way to Altoona, Pennsylvania , where he’s to be greeted and accepted by his paternal grandparents. Dad can’t be bothered to raise him any more than mom can, but at least dad’s parents are responsible and loving.

Many mishaps occur along the way, as I mentioned above, but many wonderful things happen also. Least of which is that ex-con Marcus Franklin takes Sebastien under his wing. Sebastien learns what it is to be a person, to speak for himself without stuttering or stammering, all in an attempt to not be a living and breathing apology for existing. Sebastien takes notes about his journey, about his life, and he jots down everything that Marcus tries to teach him.

Marcus tells Sebastien that there are cowards and there are men. It’s easier to be a coward, but never stop trying to be a good man. It’s just what Sebastien needs to hear.

This is a fanTASTic story, and I can’t believe that after my initial listening, I gave it only 4-stars. This is most DEFinitely a 5-star listen, and this, by the way, was my fourth listen. Each time I hear Sebastien’s story, follow his journey, I learn more and more about what it means to be fragile and fearful, and just how to turn that into strength, into character.

There are disgusting bus commodes, delicious tacos that aren’t Taco Bell, there are cups of coffee in gas stations and coffeeshops all through the country, some sick people but mostly some truly good hearts.

Nick Podehl does a STELLAR job, and I think he’s one of the BEST narrators of middle-grade fiction/YA fiction there is. He captures everything from Marcus’s wisdom all the way to a psycho bus driver babbling and weeping in the john. Sebastien comes across as vulnerable and, through Podehl’s evenhanded narration, we see him grow to become an open kid who actually can speak of his greatest trauma, thus beginning the healing process.

Greyhound is not to be missed, and when I finished it, on my phone screen came By The Same Author: Fugue State, a continuation where it looks like Sebastien’s struggles were not over, and he became a very confused, very messed up young man in desperate need of more guidance. I’m not sure that I want to get it, certainly not right away, as I’m still basking in the post-Greyhound glow, but what can I say?

I just love Sebastien. So maybe if he became a coward once again, Fugue State will show him remembering what it is to be a man…