About this item
Highlights
- In 2001, anthropology professor Robert Leonard began moonlighting as a cabdriver; Yellow Cab is a portrait of the city he found as he drove the streets of nighttime Albuquerque, picking up everyone from business people and drunken college kids to hookers and drug dealers.
- Author(s): Robert Leonard
- 191 Pages
- Social Science, Sociology
Description
About the Book
The sharp insights of a cab driver into the workings of the hidden world of an American city after dark.Book Synopsis
In 2001, anthropology professor Robert Leonard began moonlighting as a cabdriver; Yellow Cab is a portrait of the city he found as he drove the streets of nighttime Albuquerque, picking up everyone from business people and drunken college kids to hookers and drug dealers. In this mixed bag of rich vignettes and interludes of poetry, Leonard offers sharp insights into the workings of the hidden world of an American city after dark.
"With an ethnographer's eye for fine details and a writer's ear for words, Robert Leonard's portraits of Albuquerque's cabdrivers and their passengers ring every bit as true as the writings of Joseph Mitchell and Joseph Liebling about varieties of life in New York City. Thoughtful, compelling, and irresistibly authentic."--Keith H. Basso, Regents Professor of Anthropology, University of New Mexico
"Highly entertaining! . . . Hop aboard a bright yellow Crown Vic and buckle up for a nighttime journey seen through the eyes of a cabbie. You will be the 'fly on the window' as you witness the comical, bizarre, touching, and sometimes painful antics of human nature."--Mike Trujillo, Yellow Cab driver
Review Quotes
"Highly entertaining!...Hop aboard a bright yellow Crown Vic and buckle up for a nighttime journey seen through the eyes of a cabbie. You will be the 'fly on the window' as you witness the comical, bizarre, touching, and sometimes painful antics of human nature."
"With an ethnographer's eye for fine details and a writer's ear for telling words, Robert Leonard's portraits of Albuquerque's cab drivers and their passengers ring every bit as true as the writings of Joseph Mitchell and Joseph Liebling about varieties of life in New York City. Thoughtful, compelling, and irresistibly authentic, "Yellow Cab" invites you to think--and then think again--about things you never knew."
"Wonderfully written, this book captures the essence of human behavior, as seen from the unique perspective of the cab driver."
"A rich collection of anecdotes and observations on city life, the overlooked segments of society, the scope of personal and not-so-personal relationships, and the culture of cabbies."
"This is a great book. It captures the heart and soul of this crazy little city. . . Be polite and pick up this book."