Cab driver epiphany
An amazing London cabbie moment on Saturday evening. I was surprised when he knew exactly where my street is and about the church (St Matthews) that's around the corner. But then he started talking about Arnold Wesker's plays, and before I knew it, he was onto Ibsen, Chekhov, Voltaire, Pushkin, Solzhenitsyn, Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Hesse, Thomas Mann. He had Lermontov's 'A Hero of Our Time' in the glove compartment.
Not only did he reel off the names, he talked about them with absolute understanding and intelligence. I read all these books and then promptly forget most of their contents. But this cab driver should have been lecturing at university. Lermontov being compared with Camus, the virtues of Gogol and Gorky's relationship with Stalin.
We asked him when he did all this reading. Well, he answered, I like to read in the morning with a cup of tea and a slice of toast. Often I have another slice of toast and I read for an hour and a half. And I always have a book in the cab with me.
Not only did he reel off the names, he talked about them with absolute understanding and intelligence. I read all these books and then promptly forget most of their contents. But this cab driver should have been lecturing at university. Lermontov being compared with Camus, the virtues of Gogol and Gorky's relationship with Stalin.
We asked him when he did all this reading. Well, he answered, I like to read in the morning with a cup of tea and a slice of toast. Often I have another slice of toast and I read for an hour and a half. And I always have a book in the cab with me.
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