Your Driver Is Waiting by Priya Guns
Priya Guns’ debut is a five-star ride, dripping in vivid sensuality: a Taxi Driver for the Uber generation and a heart-rending tale of queer lust across social strata
Damani – a driver for the RideShare app and the protagonist of Priya Guns’ Your Driver Is Waiting – focuses on three things: getting paid, taking care of her grieving mother and, time-permitting, building muscle. Overworked and exhausted, she collides with the picture-perfect Jolene. And it’s not long before Jolene and her (surprise, surprise) 5-star passenger rating end up in the back of Damani’s car. Shorter still before Damani is right there with her, kneeling in the footwell.
From the first drop-off point, it’s obvious that the two are worlds apart: while Damani is being exploited by a tech giant, Jolene writes platitudes on placards at 'fundraisers'. Ostensibly a two-hander between two people in lust, the peripheries of Guns’ novel are swamped with people who just don't seem to know what they’re campaigning for anymore. At the daily protests that block Damani’s path, "Workers' rights for ALL workers!" stand shoulder to shoulder with "Jesus had two dads!" in one consolidated shout into the void.
The chemistry between the central characters is violently vivid, each word precision-engineered to throw the reader when the differences prove too much, too scary, for Jolene. Yet when she enters self-preservation mode, Damani’s network of drivers are the collateral damage. The rest is best unspoilt, but this is a novel about scope. When we make big things small, our actions – however small to us – have impacts beyond our control.
Atlantic Books, 2 Mar