... disarmingly honest and darkly comic ... Durkee’s aims ultimately lie in probing, not deep existential pain, but a byproduct formed by occlusion and diversion, that sudden flash of extreme, virulent fury otherwise known as road rage ... In his beguiling, energetic, razor-sharp prose, Durkee pinpoints the justified resentment and righteous indignation that fuels such behavior ... We all have a lot of anger these days, and for good reason. The question is what to do with that anger. Durkee, like any good novelist, doesn’t provide too many answers.
In The Last Taxi Driver, one would not, at first glance, assume an Elizabethan dramatic structure ... However, much of what makes Lee Durkee’s novel so delightful and surprising is his ability to dig beneath the surface of this funny, well-told odyssey, which channels a Shakespearean tragedy ... The Last Taxi Driver is more of a transcendental journey than a story-driven novel. There isn’t an absolute plotline, rather, most of the book details Lou’s experiences, observations, his past life, and how he’s arrived at this day that triggers a subtle transformation. As we cut into the marrow of his character, in an oddly effective move, we get closest to Lou by losing trust in him as he becomes unhinged. By removing his defenses, his humor and candor, we see who Lou really is, and what drives him. The result is Durkee’s cathartic achievement ... Durkee’s prose hits the right pitch. Told from Lou’s perspective, it’s a casual, voice-driven read with smart intimate humor.
The potential for violence lurks on every page and erupts in assaults sadly mundane and shockingly horrific. Yet the story of Lou, a taxi driver of rapidly disintegrating mental and physical health, has moments of the sublime ... In Lou, Durkee has created a fascinatingly complex character. The Last Taxi Driver is not a long novel and speeds along at a brisk pace. Each chapter is almost a distinct vignette, some better than others, but the book is cohesive and tied together well. Readers will easily find many metaphoric interpretations in the physicality of Lou’s driving, but Durkee is not really heavy-handed with them. There is humor here...but the novel is also deadly serious. Durkee tackles race and poverty, violence of many varieties, loss and longing, and the power of the imagination. Lou’s excruciating day will make readers cringe, and the recounting of his traumas is more than unsettling. This is a dark, feverish and weird tale that remains compelling throughout.
... it’s hard not to call The Last Taxi Driver a must-read — simply because it’s one of the best novels in recent memory ... All of this sounds bleak, but the book is laugh-out-loud funny ... The story moves at a frenetic pace, and the introduction of a gun toward the third act creates a sense of urgency. But at heart, the novel is driven by Lou’s wildly compelling voice ... a comic masterpiece. But Durkee is after something bigger than laughs ... a wild and hilarious ride filled with dirty jokes. But it’s also a story about a truth we often forget: It’s hard to be a good person. We tend to think of being good as a state of being rather than as a series of strenuous actions and difficult choices. Behind the dark comedy, The Last Taxi Driver is a dead-serious reminder that virtue is a lifelong struggle. Which is why it’s such a wonderful book, one of the best to come along.
... a Canterbury Tales for our time, meaning that the people in it move the way we do ... balky, meandering, engaging ... That’s not to say that The Last Taxi Driver is a field guide to folksy fun. A lot of Lou’s fares are scarier and more desperate than Earl, and there’s one scene involving a possum killing that you might not want to read before dinner. If Taxi Driver the movie is about loneliness, as more than one expert has said, The Last Taxi Driver the novel is about exhaustion ... if Lou is a kind of Everycabbie who represents more than himself, so too is his story much bigger than it first seems. With all the whack jobs crawling in and out of the back seat of Lou’s Town Car, it’s hard not to think of Flannery O’Connor.
The success of Durkee’s novel is that while he feigns otherwise—highlighting plenty of bad luck of his own—Lou’s compassion is obvious. In Durkee’s straightforward and fast-paced prose, Lou laments the many trips to rescue rehabbing meth addicts, though he also understands he might be their last best hope of escaping the cycle of addiction, recovery, and relapse ... Lou might sometimes lack a sense of accomplishment, but Durkee’s prose never lacks purpose. Readers therefore will find plenty to appreciate in The Last Taxi Driver, as Lou offers a lesson on the balance between good intentions and constant disappointment.
Lee Durkee’s novels draw upon his own hip but hardscrabble life, combining the working-class realism of Charles Bukowski with the counter-cultural flamboyance of Hunter S. Thompson ... the author creates such a vivid likeness of life that readers can’t help but feel uplifted. There’s beauty in the beastliness. Don’t miss this one.
Durkee’s prose has some rough spots but can be laugh-out-loud funny, insightful, and compassionate. This belongs with other examples of quirky cab-driver fiction like Gary Reilly’s The Asphalt Warrior (2012) and Jack Clark’s Nobody’s Angel (2010).
... a black-comic delight ... a remarkable one-day picaresque as we follow Lou on a marathon shift through a blasted landscape that's part Denis Johnson–ish carnival of the wrecked, part Nietzschean Twilight of the Gods (or Twilight of the Taxicabs). Lou is damaged, bitter, self-righteous, with a hint of Sam Spade masochism that one fare recognizes—yet the book's relentless grimness never seems either relentless or grim. Instead there's a comic sweetness and energy underneath that reminds one of Charles Portis. Lou has every reason for cynicism, but a dogged hope and playfulness, remnants of his studies in Buddhism and the influence of comedian Bill Hicks, keep pressing through; even when the car breaks down—and his body and every last structure of the world around him—he has the refuge of his considerable wit ... A dark pleasure.
