REVIEW | B for Buster | YA FICTION.

The romance of military life fades quickly for a teen caught in battle.

In Iain Lawrence’s book B for Buster, Kak, a 16-year old boy nicknamed for his Ontario hometown, Kakabeka Falls, escapes his alcoholic father by enlisting in the Canadian Air Force during the Second World War. He imagines that his life as a wireless operator will be full of the same sort of excitement he finds in his favourite comic books. But he is soon forced to confront the reality of life in the military. A terrified Kak struggles to hide his fear of death from the rest of his crew.

Iain Lawrence’s B for Buster, jacket, 2004.

As the death toll among his comrades begins to mount, his fears are compounded by the loss of the plane carrying one of his hometown friends – a boy named Donny Yee who had despondently predicted his own death.

In response, Kak isolates himself from the rest of his peers.

Imagining himself alone in his unease, he develops an unusual friendship with Bert, the caretaker of the base’s homing pigeons. The novel revolves primarily around this unlikely relationship – particularly its paternalistic nature – and the comfort it gives Kak.

Due to its subject matter, B for Buster is disturbingly graphic at times and may be too much for younger readers. That said, the gore is never gratuitous. The book should appeal to its target audience of kids aged 12 and up. Its narrative style is both conversational and suspenseful:

“We were the last kite in the air. We flew along with the throttles set at maximum cruising power, hurrying to catch up. I counted the hours left to go. But as it turned out, we didn’t get home that night.”

The male cast of characters is likely to interest boys more than girls. And the story is peppered with wartime slag that can be tiring to navigate. In the end both contribute successfully to the story’s realism.

Iain Lawrence is a celebrated Canadian author of books for young readers.

A high school dropout who spent time working in an Ontario logging camp before finishing Grade 13, he is an unlikely success story whose work, including the novel The Wreckers, has been honoured with numerous awards.

In B for Buster, Kak’s real name is never revealed. Still, he and his crewmates are fully realized characters with strong individual voices. Their similarities, despite varied backgrounds, ages, and neuroses, hammer home the novel’s underlying message of war as both a great equalizer and great isolator.

The book is a significant addition to Iain Lawrence’s oeuvre.

It would make a good companion to a school history lesson, particularly in its striking portrayal of the emotional impact of the horrors of war.

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A version of this B for Buster book review was originally published in the Vancouver Sun, September 18, 2004. Original headline: “Stark reality of the horrors of war”. See below.

Published September 18, 2004 in The Vancouver Sun.