Confessions of a New York Taxi Driver - New York in Yellow Minutes

Book: Confessions of a New York Taxi Driver

Author: Eugene Salomon

Rating: 3/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

What does a man do who loves and lives his job. He writes about it. Bring a taxi driver is also a beautiful thing - meeting new people of different cultures, countries, generations, religions, strata, society, styles, behaviors and temperaments mixed with a guy who has a temperament of his own. 

The yellow cab has been the iconic sign of life and times of NYC and this guy represents the quintessential cab guy  with right amount of sensitivity, observation, non chalance and anger for the busiest and craziest city on the world. From avenue to streets to blocks, Eugene the king Salomon of NYC cab drivers embodies the sport and spirit of the city that keeps moving. 

His experiences are packed as quick snippets and stories which he refers as the New York Minute. The city has its own lifeline, and there is no better way to see the city than the eye of a man who knows this in and out. From early 1980s to now he has seen the city evolving from the times of Jackie Kennedy to Barrack Obama. 

It took me almost two years to read this book, picking it up 10 pages a time in between various other books. This is not literature it's a diary full of gossips and chit chat of a nosey taxi driver who sees the world as he takes part in it. Enjoy it if you like seeing a city with the eyes of a local. And when you arrive to see the city with your eyes you would feel you have already lived there.

This book is the tribute to the omnipresent yellow of the NYC before the world changed with Ola and Uber, but the stories will continue only symbols will change. 

A minute from my own diary - In my recent visit to NYC, I could feel his stories unfolding here and there. Even the one with a dog with its master, whereas in his it was standing on a bike, in mine it was riding with goggles on in an open convertible on Times Square. New York never ceases to amaze! 

I won't take another minute to tell you how true is the saying in the book that - Cabs are for kissing!