Ride-share driver cruises unfair world
Damani is a driver running on empty and veering out of control. She works day and night for an exploitative rideshare app and tries to make ends meet on her low and erratic paychecks. Constantly exhausted, with little time to recharge between shifts, she is also raw with grief after the recent death of her father. At home, she cares for her sick, sad and scared mother. If there is a brighter future out there, she has yet to find it.
At the outset, Priya Guns’ debut seems offputtingly bleak. But “Your Driver Is Waiting” turns out to be a punchy pageturner imbued with dark comedy and trenchant social commentary. Sri Lankan-born Guns sets her drama in a place engulfed by civil unrest, a city — unnamed — that “thrived on the dreams of the smothered.” In contrast, Guns’ protagonist is named. She is fully fleshed out and emerges as a dynamic force with which to be reckoned.
Most of Damani’s passengers are obnoxious, but some help lighten her load by tipping well and treating her with respect.
One day, a woman gets into Damani’s car and overturns her world. Unlike Damani, Jolene is an activist who is financially propped up by her wealthy parents. Despite their differences, the pair click and a passionate, giddy romance develops. After a while, Damani starts to have reservations but continues to follow her heart — that is, until an altercation exposes true colors and unleashes chaos.
Guns’ novel takes its time to get going. There is little in the way of plot, and much of the narrative involves Damani driving around and effectively going nowhere.
“Your Driver Is Waiting”
roars to life when Damani becomes more of an active participant — making her feelings known and her singular voice heard. She is a fascinating creation: a woman with attitude and an agenda who displays her vulnerability but also shows her tough side, and is unafraid of using the titanium baseball bat in her trunk and the switchblade in her pocket. Strap yourself in and enjoy the ride. — Malcolm Forbes, Minneapolis Star Tribune
A man is killed in a car wreck
on the second page of Donal Ryan’s new novel. This is but the first tragedy suffered by the Aylwards, a small family headed by hearty Irish women. Subsequent chapters feature an attempted murder, two devastating suicides, the suspicious death of an imprisoned family member and, most shocking of all, a front yard fracas in which a grandmother-to-be flattens her daughter’s antagonist.
There’s a lot of anguish in “The Queen of Dirt Island,” but it coexists with pluck, wisdom and humor, qualities that imbue the novel with buoyant beauty. Ryan’s latest is another rich and satisfying tale from a writer whose narrative