BUS RIDE

In Jo and Matt (1973), Ivan Southall gave us his characteristically agitated interior view of a boy and girl trying separately to get together on their way to school. This easier-to-read story puts us in an onlooker's position, presenting a similar situation as bus conversations overheard on a series of mornings, and proceeding through all 15 chapters with barely a word unenclosed by quotation marks. When the high school juniors first meet, Ernie talks only of Judy's friend Karen; and he tries to get Judy to arrange meetings and double dates. She tells him of Karen's college boyfriend—readers will recognize that the boyfriend is fictitious and that Judy is failing for Ernie herself. We learn through later conversations that Ernie does make contact with Karen, and that he finds Judy out in her lie. Then, unconvincingly, he switches his affection from friendly, pretty Karen to dateless loser Judy. It's obviously a far cry from Sachs' usual level of feeling, tailored to a slick, cute pattern whereas the Armstrong and Rabe entries (above) in this series owe more to the pulps.