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Working the Hard Side of the Street
"Working the Hard Side of the Street – L.A. Cab Stories is an anthology of powerful, caustic, original tales by Kirk Alex about the ups, downs, and hard knocks of Hollywood's seamy underbelly. The perspective of a "fly-on-the-wall" cab driver provides a piercing realism and insight into the vicious clashes and personal struggles that lie hidden underneath the entertainment capital's glossy, photo-touched exterior. Working the Hard Side of the Street is recommended as a gut-wrenching read for both its candor and bravado." –The MidWest Book Review
97 pages, ebook
First published June 3, 2012
About the author
Kirk Alex
72 books14 followersKirk Alex’s stories & poems have appeared on internet sites such as: http://scars.tv/cgi-bin/framesmain.pl..., schlock.co.uk., www.fictionontheweb.co.uk, https://literallystories2014.com, et al. His horror novel Lustmord: Anatomy of a Serial Butcher was a finalist in the Kindle Book Review’s Best Book Awards of 2014. He is also the author of the 4-volume Edgar “Doc” Holiday thriller series, the multi-volume Chance “Cash” Register blue-collar/working stiff series, and a few other novels and story collections, as well as several volumes of free verse.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 22, 2020
"Working the Hard Side of the Street" is not a book to be read if you are depressed.
He's never named but is a taxi driver in LA back in the 1990s. His customers are hookers and men looking for them, drunks, paranoid, schizophrenic and almost all reek of degraded humanity.
And, most of the time, he is fairly miserable, usually over the loss of the love of his life.
It's an unusual book in the sense that it makes you feel happier with the little you have, that you are not scraping the bottom of the barrel.
I don't know if the various stories are true or pastiches or just made up but they seem realistic.
For what it's worth I can't see Kirk Alex writing "Working the Sunny Side of the Street."
He's never named but is a taxi driver in LA back in the 1990s. His customers are hookers and men looking for them, drunks, paranoid, schizophrenic and almost all reek of degraded humanity.
And, most of the time, he is fairly miserable, usually over the loss of the love of his life.
It's an unusual book in the sense that it makes you feel happier with the little you have, that you are not scraping the bottom of the barrel.
I don't know if the various stories are true or pastiches or just made up but they seem realistic.
For what it's worth I can't see Kirk Alex writing "Working the Sunny Side of the Street."
April 8, 2015
Working the Hard side of the Street is refreshing yet quite daunting on my spirit. I did find the eight stories interesting. As someone not from the US, you tend to obtain a certain image of the cab drivers in America thanks to television. These stories were eye-openers as I have realized a cab driver must be a Counselor, Psychiatrist, Doctor, Cupid and seemingly insane themselves just to understand the people they encounter.
Each story has its own thought provoking action. From being grateful as a woman not living the type of lives as those wanting to get to the top and what they will do to get there. Quite a few stories made me realize how lucky I am. We all know it is a tough World out there though within these stories is a different kind of being tough, being strong. It's not physical but entirely mentally and emotionally necessary.
The details within are a tad bit grim for my personal taste though I would not have understood the impact of each story if described otherwise. All-in-all something different and I enjoyed it. Drama, mystery, horror and love all nicely packed into eight well written stories. If you want to know what a cab driver's life is like, be sure to want to know the answer... And enjoy the ride.
Each story has its own thought provoking action. From being grateful as a woman not living the type of lives as those wanting to get to the top and what they will do to get there. Quite a few stories made me realize how lucky I am. We all know it is a tough World out there though within these stories is a different kind of being tough, being strong. It's not physical but entirely mentally and emotionally necessary.
The details within are a tad bit grim for my personal taste though I would not have understood the impact of each story if described otherwise. All-in-all something different and I enjoyed it. Drama, mystery, horror and love all nicely packed into eight well written stories. If you want to know what a cab driver's life is like, be sure to want to know the answer... And enjoy the ride.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews