North Vancouver City Library Adult book club May book

Driven- The Secret Lives of Taxi Drivers by Marcello Di Cintio

NVCL Book Club Reading Guide

About the book

““The taxi,” writes Marcello Di Cintio, “is a border.” Occupying the space between public and private, a cab brings together people who might otherwise never have met—yet most of us sit in the back and stare at our phones. Nowhere else do people occupy such intimate quarters and share so little. In a series of interviews with drivers, their backgrounds ranging from the Iraqi National Guard, to the Westboro Baptist Church, to an arranged marriage that left one woman stranded in a foreign country with nothing but a suitcase, Driven seeks out those missed conversations, revealing the unknown stories that surround us. 

“Travelling across borders of all kinds, from battlefields and occupied lands to midnight fares and Tim Hortons parking lots, Di Cintio chronicles the many journeys each driver made merely for the privilege to turn on their rooflight. Yet these lives aren’t defined by tragedy or frustration but by ingenuity and generosity, hope and indomitable hard work. From night school and sixteen-hour shifts to schemes for athletic careers and the secret Shakespeare of Dylan’s lyrics, Di Cintio’s subjects share the passions and triumphs that drive them” [publisher]. 

About the author

“Marcello Di Cintio is the author of four books, including Walls: Travels Along the Barricades which won the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing and the W. O. Mitchell City of Calgary Book Prize, and Pay No Heed to the Rockets: Palestine in the Present Tense—also a W. O. Mitchell Prize winner. Di Cintio’s magazine writing has appeared in publications such as The International New York Times, The Walrus, Canadian Geographic and Afar. Di Cintio has served as a writer-in-residence at the Calgary Public Library, the University of Calgary, and the Palestine Writing Workshop, and he teaches nonfiction writing at the annual WordsWorth youth writing residency” [publisher]. 

Interviews and articles

Discussion Questions

Discussion questions 

  1. Di Cintio said that he “didn’t want to typecast the cabbies as characters in stories that everyone already knew,” and that he “wanted to see the range of their experiences” (p. 8). Do you think that he was successful? 
  • In many ways he was able to show the uniqueness of each story, but also had a common thread/theme for all the stories
  • Struggle was a common theme
  • Lack of female voices – Ikwe, Jas and Tammy as well as LGBTQIA+
  • Maybe the % of drivers is a good representation sample of what really exists
  1. What does Driven reveal about the role of taxis and taxi drivers in society? How has this role changed over time? What might it look like in the future? 
  • Division between taxi driver and rider
  • Driver almost an invisible person (almost a non person)
  • Self-driving future? 
  • Our interdependence on one another and how we don’t open about that need. How often we overlook or look down upon people of the working class. They are often taken for granted
  1. What is your impression of how taxi drivers are portrayed in popular culture? How does this book compare to and contrast those notions? 
  • This book as well as personal experience that the majority of drivers are not born in Canada. It’s a job that filled with immigrants.
  • In movies & TV they are often a background character. People of color and often have no dialogue or participation in the actual scenes.
  1. What does Driven say about the role of gender in the taxi industry? In regard to both drivers and passengers.
  • The ones that were highlighted in the book  – very few female drivers. From the rider perspective, the book focused on marginalized women (sex worker, First Nations).
  • It’s tough and can be violent so not much room for women in it
  • Taxi companies could be more difficult and it definitely is more of a man’s world, so can be both more intimidating or difficult to get hired
  • With Uber or Lyft maybe it’s easier to enter, it’s more flexible and also it’s not a big “culture” barrier to have to enter. 
  1. In Chapter 11, Di Cintio quotes Peter Churchill who wrote “Some of the people you find behind the wheel, the ones with beards and fierce eyes, are men who write poems and plays or paint pictures, men waiting for the world to acknowledge them as poets, playwrights and artists–and pay them for it. Usually it doesn’t, of course.” After reading the book, what is your reaction to this quote? 
  • This quote is rather reductionist and perhaps glorifies or overgeneralized/romanticizes the notion of who the drivers are
  • Everyone is a story. Not just taxi drivers. So many countless working class jobs are filled by people with unique stories and unique talents. 
  • Yes, many of the drivers featured in this book had different ambitions/talents/interests, but driving was a source of livelihood. However, the same can be said for much of the working class.
  • Many of them were very entrepreneurial and still found a way to find success (such as buying/paying off a house for their family, or creating a profitable business)
  1. Several of the chapters discuss newer ride-sharing companies like Uber and the impact they’ve had on the taxi industry. What did you know about these companies before, and did the book change your impression of them? In what ways are these industries different? 
  • Author felt biased towards taxi versus Uber/Lyft.
  • Ride hailing services should be better regulated
  • The value of the licences are astronomical and government needs to find a way to be more equally balanced. Uber/Lyft needs to have the same maintenance/background check/expectations are taxis
  1. Did a specific driver stand out to you the most? In particular, what about their story made an impression?
  • Jas – the female driver stood out. She was tenacious and found a way after being left by her husband. Learning English from Tim Hortons menu.
  • Ikwe – not a taxi but showed so much about community/safety and building relationships. Filling a void where taxis were failing women.
  1. Overall, do you think that there is one unifying thread that brings together all the different taxi drivers profiled in the book?
  • Working hard and the challenges
  • They are all problem solvers
  1. In the introduction, Di Cintio starts by sharing his own opinions of taxis, and throughout the book he often adds his own commentary to the stories he hears. How do you think his thoughts about the drivers and the taxi industry evolved over the course of his conversations?
  • This not just a driver. This is a human with a story. A past, a life and a multitude of experience.
  1. How would you describe Di Cintio’s role in the story? Do you think that he did a good job in his role as chronicler of these individual’s life stories? Does he seem like a reliable and trustworthy narrator? 
  1. After seeing the book’s title, did you have any questions about “the secret lives of taxi drivers” that you hoped would be answered – but weren’t?
  • Wanted to be more forthcoming about issues with the industry and bad things that go on in the taxi business
  • The secrets are more to do with their personal stories and histories as opposed to their secret lives on duty
  1. Did this book alter your perceptions of taxi drivers and the industry? In what ways?
  2. What moments from Driven surprised you the most? How come?

Marcello Di Cintio Q&A:

  • Written about global events and areas and now focusing it on Canada for the first time
  • Traveling through the stories and learning about international histories through how they’ve framed these individuals and their own stories
  • Everyone had a love story and a war story and that led to giving each person their own chapter
  • Probably interviewed twice as many drivers than ended up in the book
  • Most drivers didn’t want to talk
  • This book was not about the taxi driving industry. It’s intended to be the stories about the taxi drivers themselves. It’s not about the day to day driving as it is about what led them to the seat itself.

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