Yellow Cab
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
After twenty years working on film and series shoots, Benoît Cohen is drained. His enthusiasm gone, a desire to stop writing and put down the camera takes over. In the city for a year, he still wonders about how best to absorb the rich diversity of the cosmopolitan metropolis, settling on a simple idea: he will become a taxi driver. Behind the iconic Yellow Cab, behind the fantasy of freedom and independence, behind the faces of his thousands of passengers, Benoît discovers a world to which he is a stranger. He dives into his new life with the idea of turning it into a screenplay for a future film, but the material he collects from this social experiment marks him deeply, leading down unsuspected paths: First, the administrative maze that leads to the taxi driver’s license. Then the world behind the scenes. And finally, the prejudices that surround the profession and lead customers, cops, and the entire city to look at it—quite randomly—either with indifference, kindness, or aggression. The project transforms into an autobiographical novel interspersed with reflections on the creative process, and with the help of Chabouté, it is now a sensitive, deeply human graphic novel with breathtaking illustrations that pay vibrant tribute to New York City.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Eisner nominated artist Chabouté (Park Bench) captures the restless spirit of New York City in this comics odyssey adapted from the 2018 memoirs of filmmaker Cohen (Mohammad, My Mother & Me). The burnt-out artiste determines that becoming a taxi driver will salve his woes, offering a palate-cleansing mundane day job and, he hopes, plot fodder for a new script. But the red-tape-ridden route to a license proves complicated and expensive, with moving deadlines, closed offices, ever-changing regulations, and confounding micromanagement. Cohen finally gets the go-ahead to pick up fares, contending with traffic cops and other unexpected encounters along the way. He cruises the streets with eccentric passengers in his backseat, from bawdy-talking businessmen to a silently weeping young woman, all drawn in precise portraits. Cohen mulls over what his fictionalized script might be ("Important: show these moments of solitude and waiting"), and it all comes full circle when he helps a nervous new taxi driver negotiate his first day. Chabouté's wide, detailed panels and hallmark silhouetting portray the diversity of the five boroughs, with exquisitely lined architecture, subway cars, and vehicles in backdrop. The quiet desperation recorded between "Points A and B" feels reminiscent of Harvey Pekar slice-of-life comics crossed with Jim Jarmusch's Night on Earth. It's a truly cinematic study of the grit and glory of the city. Correction: An earlier version of this review incorrectly identified Chabouté as having won an Eisner award.
