And Lou has stories to tell, stories about albino possums, UFOs, and adolescent trauma. Lou has a knack for overthinking that turns even the normal stuff into a comedy routine. It’s first person Lou, explaining the North Mississippi taxi business and narrating as we ride shotgun on a long, strange shift. Durkee’s language is unadorned and direct. We waited a long time for second novel from Durkee.
#THE LAST TAXI DRIVER#
The Last Taxi Driver is a pleasure to read.
And of course: “Your main job as a driver in Mississippi is to anticipate stupidity.” Indeed. Approach driving as a neck exercise.” Ditch the sunglasses (they create blind spots). Pride yourself in how much you employ your neck while changing lanes.
#THE LAST TAXI DRIVERS#
Durkee includes a chapter filled with advice for Mississippi drivers right in the middle of the book, like an intermission. At one point, he was driving over 70 hours a week.
It’s no coincidence that Durkee drove an Oxford taxi for a couple of years. Two bucks a mile outside city limits, though, and two dollars for any extra stops. He’ll drive you to Clarksdale, Memphis, or across town. He’ll be there when you get out of rehab, too, if it’s the good rehab, the one next to the VD clinic. He’s also there if the hospital releases you to go home, but there’s no family to pick you up. If you got arrested last night and need a ride this morning from the jail to the vehicle impound lot, Lou’s your man. He takes people to work, to shop, or to the doctor.
Lou works days he’d rather avoid the drunk college students. Then he gets another dispatch-All Saints dispatches come by text to thwart the competition’s radio spying-and he’s off on a run while his boss Stella watches through an onboard camera. Lou’s a Buddhist, but a bad one, “the worst Buddhist in the world.” Nevertheless, he reads about Buddhism between fares in hopes that it might quell the urge to raise his middle finger in traffic. An old nemesis is back in town after cutting off his ankle bracelet and hitchhiking from Kansas.Īlbert Camus said, “The absurd is the essential concept and the first truth.” Maybe Al was a cabbie? Lou’s taxi has three air fresheners–Bigfoot, Shakespeare, and a flying saucer–besides working well as conversation starters, they help ward off smells so varied and offensive that he must keep Ozium and Febreze at the ready for backup. His relationship is over, assuming he can convince her to move out. His black 1995 Town Car has seen better days–the roof leaks, the brakes are gone, the shocks are shot, the horn doesn’t work, and the tires are bald. In The Last Taxi Driver, Lou Bishoff drives for Mississippi All Saints Taxis in Gentry, a university town in North Mississippi. Special to the Clarion-Ledger Sunday print edition (March 8) But some may not constantly be so simple to judge.By Jim Warren. There are extreme charges if you don’t report a suspicious character to authorities and profitable chances if you do. This suggests as your travelers talk and expose individual predicaments they may likewise speak about the darker functions of the megacity. You’ll likewise require to keep them alive by preventing ecological risks and increase those pointers by handling malfunctioning devices.Īs pointed out, this is a monitoring state so taxis are fitted with necessary listening gadgets. These variety from brand-new tools to pirate freight and hacking toll cubicles to boosting consumer experience. Like any taxi driver, if you keep your consumers pleased and chatty they’ll be most likely to tip, making you more cash to purchase upgrades. Featuring a cast of over 80 characters, in The Last Taxi you should carry your travelers whilst engaging them in discussion however occasions deviate when an anti-technology cult member leaves an undocumented child in your taxi. You play the really last human chauffeur in this narrative-driven experience, toiling away in a dystopian future where security, automation and human adjustment run swarming. has actually revealed that its upcoming virtual truth (VR) title The Last Taxi will be bring up to headsets on Steam at the end of May. Taxis are never ever practically receiving from A to B, they’re little microcosms filled with intriguing characters and their stories.