Melissa Plaut was born in 1975 and grew up in the suburbs of New York City. After college, she held a series of office jobs until, at the age of twenty-nine, she began driving a yellow cab. A year later she started writing "New York Hack" (newyorkhack.blogspot.com), a blog about her experiences behind the wheel. Within a few months, the blog was receiving several thousand hits a day. Melissa Plaut lives in Brooklyn.
Advance praise for Hack
“This fast, funny behind-the-scenes tour of taxi driving in New
York takes fascinating detours through issues of sex, class, and
finding your life’s purpose. Melissa Plaut is the Anthony Bourdain
of cabbies.”
–Janice Erlbaum, author of Girlbomb
“When was the last time you shook your head in wonder? If it’s been
too long, read Melissa Plaut’s brave, lurid, and completely
improbable tale of life behind the wheel. You’ll look at cabbies
differently. You’ll look at the world differently. Hack rekindles a
sense of adventure we seem to have lost along the way.”
–David Goodwillie, author of Seemed Like a Good Idea at the
Time
“Forget the Peace Corps–Melissa Plaut will tell you that cab
driving truly is the hardest job you’ll ever love. Hack is an
honest and intrepid account of life in the front seat. Use a
ten-dollar bill to bookmark your copy. When you’re done reading,
you’ll use it to tip your next cab driver. Oh yes, you will.”
–Wendy McClure, author of I’m Not the New Me
“Hack is an intimate portrait of New York City from within one of
her most popular landmarks: the taxicab. Step inside; each page
will ferry you through a hundred human stories about the stress of
living in-between. From this carousel of urban life, Melissa Plaut
opens the door to a new perspective on a misunderstood profession,
and tells a redeeming story about the spirit of adventure that can
be kindled within each of us–-whoever we are, and wherever we are
going.”
–Travis Hugh Culley, author of The Immortal Class: Bike Messengers
and the Cult of Human Power
“Hack is the beat of the asphalt moving fast under our feet as we
speed with Plaut through the city labyrinth on an always strange
and new adventure.”
–Doug Aitken, artist
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