Mean Streets: Confessions of a Nighttime Taxi Driver

Debbie Feisst is the reference/Internet resources librarian in the
Information Services Division of the Edmonton Public Library.

Peter McSherry has seen it all. A Toronto taxi driver for over 30 years,
he knows the ins and outs of the cab business and has an uncanny insight
into human behaviour. This street-smart account gives readers a
fascinating glimpse into Toronto’s nighttime streets and the
characters who inhabit them. Many of the stories in Mean Streets have
also appeared in Taxi News.

The book is divided into two parts. Part 1 consists of a series of
chapters devoted to McSherry’s beginnings in the taxi business and his
dealings with such people as taxi company owners, dispatchers, and what
he refers to as “stiffs and runners” (people who duck out of cabs
without paying the driver). From traffic accidents and loan sharks to
street people and celebrities, his subject matter is described in a
conversational tone with language that is used on the streets. He is
brutally honest in his depictions of his dealings with prostitutes,
transsexuals, and drug users, but it is not done in a misogynistic or
homophobic way. Part 2, “Vignettes,” is a smorgasbord of some of the
more interesting fares that McSherry has had over the years, including a
350-pound sex-line worker and an injured sparrow that he drove to a bird
sanctuary. Some of the stories may surprise, shock, even sadden you.

McSherry’s first foray into non-fiction, The Big Red Fox: The
Incredible Story of Norman “Red” Ryan, Canada’s Most Notorious
Criminal (1999), was a finalist for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best True
Crime/Non-Fiction. Mean Streets was short-listed for the 2003 Edna
Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction.

McSherry is likely not your average taxi driver, and while he is a
gifted writer with teacher education training, he continues to crawl
into his cab night after night. After reading this book, you will never
look at your cab driver the same way again.