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Hack, October 2011
Hardcover
Stories from a Chicago Cab
University Of Chicago Press
October 2011
On Sale: October 7, 2011
184 pages
ISBN: 0226734730
EAN: 9780226734736
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Cabdrivers and their yellow taxis are as much a part of the
cityscape as the high-rise buildings and the subway. We hail
them without thought after a wearying day at the office or
an exuberant night on the town. And, undoubtedly, taxi
drivers have stories to tell—of farcical local politics, of
colorful passengers, of changing neighborhoods and
clandestine shortcuts. No one knows a city’s streets—and
thus its heart—better than its cabdrivers. And from behind
the wheel of his taxi, Dmitry Samarov has seen more of
Chicago than most Chicagoans will hope to experience in a
lifetime.
An artist and painter trained at the School of
the Art Institute of Chicago, Samarov began driving a cab in
1993 to make ends meet, and he’s been working as a taxi
driver ever since. In Hack: Stories from a Chicago Cab, he
recounts tales that will delight, surprise, and sometimes
shock the most seasoned urbanite. We follow Samarov through
the rhythms of a typical week, as he waits hours at the
garage to pick up a shift, ferries comically drunken
passengers between bars, delivers prostitutes to their
johns, and inadvertently observes drug deals. There are long
waits with other cabbies at O’Hare, vivid portraits of
street corners and their regular denizens, amorous Cubs fans
celebrating after a game at Wrigley Field, and customers who
are pleasantly surprised that Samarov is white—and tell him
so. Throughout, Samarov’s own drawings—of his fares, of the
taxi garage, and of a variety of Chicago street
scenes—accompany his stories. In the grand tradition of
Nelson Algren, Saul Bellow, Mike Royko, and Studs Terkel,
Dmitry Samarov has rendered an entertaining, poignant, and
unforgettable vision of Chicago and its people.
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