The Last Taxi Driver
by Lee Durkee
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Pub Date 03 Mar 2020 | Archive Date 29 Feb 2020
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Description
"A wild, funny, poetic fever-dream that will change the way you think about America." --George Saunders
The Last Taxi Driver is a darkly comic novel about a day in the life of an exhausted, middle-aged hackie about to lose his job to Uber, his girlfriend to lethargy, and his ability to stand upright to chronic back spasms. Lou—a lapsed novelist and UFO enthusiast who has returned to his home state of Mississippi after decades away—drives for a ramshackle taxi company that operates on the outskirts of a college town among the trailer parks and housing projects.
With Lou’s way of life fast vanishing, an ex-dispatcher returns to town on the lam, triggering a bedlam shift which will test Lou’s sanity and perhaps cost him his life. Against this backdrop, Lou has to keep driving, and driving—even if that means aiding and abetting the host of criminal misfits haunting the back seat of his Town Car.
Written by a former cabbie, The Last Taxi Driver careens through the highways and backroads of North Mississippi as Lou becomes increasingly somnambulant and his fares increasingly eccentric. Equal parts Bukowski and Portis, Durkee's novel is an homage to a dying American industry.
About the Author: Lee Durkee is the author of the novel Rides of the Midway. His stories and essays have appeared in Harper's Magazine, The Sun, Best of the Oxford American, Zoetrope: All Story, Tin House, New England Review, and Mississippi Noir. In 2021 Scribner will publish his memoir Stalking Shakespeare, which chronicles his decade-long obsession with trying to find lost portraits of William Shakespeare. A former cab driver, he lives in North Mississippi. The Last Taxi Driver is his first novel in twenty years.
Advance Praise
“The Last Taxi Driver is unpredictable, emotionally moving, and laugh-out-loud funny. Lee Durkee writes with honesty and deep insight. This book is filled with compassion. I loved it. The best book I’ve read in years.” - Chris Offutt, author of Country Dark
“This book’s a blast! A super-long shift in the life of a north Mississippi taxi driver makes for hilarious moments as well as lyrical ones. Durkee’s Mississippi is entirely his own as he parades a line of passengers that are as colorful, sad, and strange as any in literature. A terrific novel by a terrific writer!” - Tom Franklin, author of Crooked Letter, Crooked, Letter
“It may be the worst day of Lou Bishoff’s life, but The Last Taxi Driver is a frenetic, voyeuristic delight. A Mississippi Buddhist doing his best to be kind, Lou ferries around meth heads and rehab escapees, drives overgrown frat boys to and from drug dens, and wonders at what point he stops being a cab driver and starts being an accomplice. Timely and compulsively readable, Durkee’s long-awaited second novel makes me regret how much I’ve missed by being a (reasonably) sober and compliant passenger.” - Mary Miller
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781947793392 |
| PRICE | $25.95 (USD) |
| PAGES | 280 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Kim R, Reviewer
Oh my. I did wonder about the recommendation from George Saunders. It sure does promise a lot to the reader before the book itself even begins. Turns out it was 100% correct. This book is a masterpiece of fiction. I was going to say something cheesy like "journalistic fiction" but whatever you get the point. Read this. It's amazing.
I cannot stop thinking about Lou's story. So many tiny little straight out of left field nuggets of information are thrown at the reader much like the bugs pelting Lou's janky windshield of the town car. Long after reading I am still sitting here wondering what happens after, both to Lou and the car if I am honest with you. Did someone ever fix the shocks on the town car? This book will haunt me to the end of my time and possibly after.
The story here contains a weird venn diagram of character types, all converging in the middle to drive Lou nuts in one way or another. But can he be pushed over the edge if in fact he's already fallen?
I want to read this again and again and I probably will.
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