🚍 Book Review: Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig
⭐️ Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
A meandering, quirky road trip with charm—but not a whole lot of urgency.
⚠️ Spoiler Warning:
This review includes full plot details and ending spoilers, so if you haven’t read Last Bus to Wisdom and don’t want the journey spoiled, go grab the book first and come back later!
🧭 Quick Summary:
Last Bus to Wisdom was the final novel by beloved author Ivan Doig, who passed away before its 2015 release. It’s a coming-of-age story wrapped in a nostalgic, slow-burning 1950s Greyhound adventure. The book is set mostly in Montana and Wisconsin, and it follows 11-year-old Donal Cameron, a redheaded rascal who’s more Huck Finn than Harry Potter.
Donal is sent away for the summer when his Gram (the ranch cook) needs surgery. He’s shipped off from Montana to his never-before-met great-aunt Kate in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Let’s just say that goes... poorly.
🧳 Plot Summary (Spoilers Ahead!)
📍 Part 1: Montana to Wisconsin
Donal leaves his quiet ranch life with a wicker suitcase, a rare obsidian arrowhead, some school clothes money, and his prized autograph book. Oh, and one of the first things he does is steal back the arrowhead he had to give up earlier. Nice.
On his cross-country Greyhound ride, he meets all sorts of quirky people: flirty waitresses, a slippery escaped convict, and a group of redheaded bullies who steal his book and chip his tooth. Welcome to Wisconsin!
📍 Part 2: Aunt Kate = The Worst
Aunt Kate turns out to be… let’s go with a crusty canasta tyrant. She throws out Donal’s shirt and his money (oops), sticks him in the attic, and seems constantly annoyed that he exists. The one saving grace? Her husband Herman, a German immigrant with a glass eye, a love of westerns, and a truly chaotic backstory involving World War I, fake Dutch heritage, and the storm that killed Kate's first husband. Casual.
Eventually, after Donal gets caught trying to sneak money back from Kate’s change drawer, she decides to send him packing. (Donal had helped Kate win $10 at a canasta game and later tries to take back $5, feeling he earned half the winnings. Kate disagrees—she put up the money, so in her mind, it’s hers fair and square.)
📍 Part 3: The Great Escape
On the bus back to Montana, Donal is shocked when Herman shows up to join him. He’s ditched Aunt Kate, taken their savings, and is ready for one last Wild West hurrah. I didn’t expect this buddy comedy twist—but I liked it.
Their travels take them to the Crow Nation festival, where Donal meets his bronc-riding hero Rags Rasmussen (great name), only to get arrested for arrowhead theft by his old ranch boss. Herman bribes a Native American trader to help them escape in disguise.
They get robbed in Yellowstone, see Herman’s face on an FBI wanted poster (Kate turned him in!), and decide to ride the last bus to Wisdom, Montana.
📍 Part 4: Welcome to Wisdom
They arrive in Wisdom and join a crew of traveling migrant workers led by Highpockets. Donal persuades a ranch foreman to hire them for haying. Everything seems to settle—until their old problems show up again.
Carl, the sheriff from earlier (and stepbrother of the slippery convict Harv), shows up to arrest everyone. But the haying crew threatens him with pitchforks, Rags steps in to smooth things over, and everyone lives to harvest another day. Rags even offers Donal and Herman a home and job—and wants to hire Gram as the cook.
The end.
🧠 What I Thought (Casual Ramblings)
Okay, so here’s where I’m honest: I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it. I hovered somewhere between mildly charmed and mildly distracted. There’s definitely some charm in Ivan Doig’s writing—it’s richly detailed, old-school, and full of color. But I kept asking myself:
“Do I actually care what happens next?”
Not in a rude way. Just... honestly? It felt like a long, aimless bus ride with some sweet passengers and a few unexpected detours, but I wasn’t dying to reach the destination.
It has heart, but not high stakes. There’s humor, but not big laughs. It’s interesting, but not unputdownable. Kind of like watching a really well-made PBS special your dad would love.
🚩 Trigger Warnings
This book contains:
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Anti-fat bias
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Outdated & offensive terminology (regarding Indigenous people, people with disabilities, and the unhoused)
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Theft of Indigenous artifacts
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References to war trauma and immigration status
📚 Read This If You Like:
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Old-fashioned road trips
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Quirky intergenerational friendships
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Slow-burn, character-driven fiction
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Books with a nostalgic Americana vibe
🔗 Buy the Book
Want to see what the fuss is about?
👉 Buy Last Bus to Wisdom on Amazon (affiliate link)
📖 Other Books You Might Like:
If Last Bus to Wisdom wasn’t quite your speed, try one of these instead:
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🛻 The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles – A more cinematic road trip with sharper character arcs.
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🪵 Peace Like a River by Leif Enger – A blend of heart, magic realism, and family drama.
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🐮 Plainsong by Kent Haruf – Quiet, beautiful, small-town stories with emotional depth.
🧡 Final Thought:
I’m glad I read this—especially knowing it was Doig’s last book. There’s something comforting in how it drifts along, like the slow sway of a Greyhound bus on a long Montana road.
But would I ride this bus again? Ehh… probably not.
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