Your Driver Is Waiting
Your Driver Is Waiting
By Priya Guns
Doubleday Books, 2023
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DESCRIPTION
In this electrifyingly fierce and funny social satire--inspired by the iconic 1970s film Taxi Driver--a ride share driver is barely holding it together on the hunt for love, dignity, and financial security...until she decides she's done waiting.
Damani is tired. Her father just died on the job at a fast-food joint, and now she lives paycheck to paycheck in a basement, caring for her mom and driving for an app that is constantly cutting her take. The city is roiling in protests--everybody's in solidarity with somebody--but while she keeps hearing that they're fighting for change on behalf of people like her, she literally can't afford to pay attention.
Then she gives a ride to Jolene (five stars, obviously). Jolene seems like she could be the perfect girlfriend--attentive, attractive, an ally--and their chemistry is off the charts. Jolene's done the reading, she goes to every protest, and she says all the right things. So maybe Damani can look past the one thing that's holding her back: she's never dated anyone with money before, not to mention a white girl with money. But just as their romance intensifies and Damani finally lets her guard down, Jolene does something unforgivable, setting off an explosive chain of events.
A wild, one-sitting read brimming with dark comedy, and piercing social commentary and announcing Priya Guns's feverishly original voice, Your Driver Is Waiting is a crackling send-up of our culture of modern alienation.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PRIYA GUNS is an actor and writer previously published in short story anthologies, gal-dem, Spring magazine, and anonymously in the Guardian. She is a Creative Writing graduate from Kingston University. Your Driver Is Waiting is her debut novel.
REVIEWS
Named a Most Anticipated Book of the Year by BuzzFeed, Vogue, Nylon, Bustle, LitHub, The Millions, Autostraddle, Good Housekeeping, & more
"A perfect gut punch of a novel...Full of love and real friendship and frustrations boiled over and the urge to burn everything down...[The] writing is laser-focused and hilarious and full of aching need. This is a hard-hitting masterpiece.—Kristen Arnett, author of With Teeth and Mostly Dead Things
"From page one, this novel had its hands around my neck. A voice that is somehow simultaneously fearless and intensely vulnerable. The only thing slicker than her narrator's driving is Guns's ability to deliver sharp social commentary that will make you unsure of whether you want to laugh or cry. Your Driver Is Waiting is an unhinged joyride--whether you buckle up or not, you're sure to be gripping the edge of your seat."—Jean Kyoung Frazier, author of Pizza Girl