Customer Reviews

Confessions of a Key West Cabby

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Considering we live in Key West, when I go into the book store I rarily if ever look at the 'touristy' books. While standing in line waiting to pay for my daughters new books, there was "Confessions of a Key West Cabby" next to the register. I flipped through it while waiting to be rung up and at the last second threw it in the pile. When I got home I started reading and did not put the book down till I was finished. Mr. Suib managed to introduce me to people and places in Key West that I never knew existed, or that I took for granted every day. Now I have his book in the back seat of my car as I drive around on daily errands I look around for that Pink Cab (and they are EVERYWHERE) with Michael Suib so I can score and autograph. Worth a read, over and over again for visitors, locals and wishful thinkers everywhere.

This book should be savored over a couple of weeks....... a story a day max. It should be used like a smile machine. When you think you can't find any humor in the daily grind of life, pop it open and consume a couple of minutes of a poet/story teller/taxi drivers take on life.

I've read this book twice and it makes me want to go back to Key West twice as badly. Great color and vivid characters. A good read

I have been a faithful reader of Michael's column in the Miami Herald for as long as I can remember; this book contains the "best of his best" personal insights about the people who both live and visit this very special island.

You'll see your friends and enemies, your family and yourself in his delightfully written characters. Best if all, you'll be transported to Key West page by page - in all of its insanity and beauty.

Want to escape and take a quick trip? Buy this book - and buy one for a friend!

I have visited Key West every year for the past 15 years. I read Michael's column in the Miami Herald every week. I read the Key West Citizen every day.
"Confessions" was a pleasure to read. The form of the book is a series of about 70 or 80 articles Mr. Suib has written about driving a cab in Key West. It reminded me of the many reasons I love Key West. The book also pointed out the obvious problems within the Conch Republic. But it is the people who live & visit there who make Key West very special. And Michael writes about those people colorfully.
I may not agree with all of Mr. Suib's political views but his writings provide me with a connection that I deeply appreciate. My favorite article in the book is "My Wife is Gonna Kill Me" because it explains the old "Barracuda Ploy".

I've been following Michaels' weekly transcripts in the Miami Herald for over a year now.He's got some great stories to share with his readers from that tiny island nation 90 miles from the Cuban coast..Michael makes it seem you're sitting in the back of his pink taxi strolling along Duval Street...You too will have that same feeling..Enjoy..

"Confessions" is a "must read" for anyone who is planing on visiting Key West, or has in the past. I lent my copy to a co-worker who was about to go to that so-called Island Paradise. She said it was very helpful to her because it gave he a better understanding of the island than she would have had going in cold, so to speak! Michael Suib's columns in general give the reader valuable insight of the world of "the tourist industry;" not an easy industry in which to be employed. My impression of Michael Suib's columns is that they are windows into our American culture, using typical and not-so-typical tourists as barometers. "Key West Cabbie" celebrates the islands' spectacular beauty, but doesn't try to deny the squalor and ugliness. It's as if Key West is a metaphore for Americans at play: fun and carefree but w/ a dark underbelly.

I began visiting Key West in 1979 before moving here permanently in 2001. I guarantee you Michael Suib has captured the true flavor of this "One Human Family" community, plus a univeral understanding of everyone's psyche, no matter where you live. Each vignette is right on the money. And, each one had me saying, "Oh, this is the best one in the whole book," to be followed by, "No it's this one; no, that one!"

Michael has the uncanny talent of getting to the very base of the human experience, and through humor, pathos, empathy and love of his fellow humans, shows us the best and worst of the human condition.

This book is a triumph of the human spirit. Michael Suib, poet, soul-searcher, talent extraordinaire, a giver and one of the "good people," of this world (along with his soulmate, Nancy Butler-Ross), has captured the soul of Key West and the human race wherever. Relish, savor, bathe in this book in which you will often see yourself. It doesn't get any better than this.

A quick, fun read. His stories say a lot about the human persona and our interactions/reactions with/to each other. We could all be a lot kinder to each other.

Key West has more than it's share of exotic flowers, birds and people. Michael Suib, driving a taxi down its not-so-mean streets, focuses on the people, tourists and townies alike, portraying them with an anthropologist's eye and a lover's heart.