We asked groups in Newcastle to read and review the manuscript of The Taxi Driver's Daughter by Julia Darling. The book was very popular with the groups and one reader was even inspired to write a poem about the book! A group in the Shetlands also won copies of the advance mansucript for their group to read and their review is also listed below.

Poem inspired by The Taxi Driver's Daughter
Denton Park Reading Group
Civic Centre Reading Group
Newcastle & Gateshead Staff Reading Group
Culture Café Reading Group
Westside Readers' Group (Shetland)

Poem inspired by The Taxi Driver’s Daughter

The tree plays a part in the story, being in
A park - a meeting place for everyone -
An escape; a wonderland for many.
A boy lost long ago,
Spoilt and evil presence,
With a spirited dove did he care.
A mixed up girl in need of a friend
Had chosen him to bed –
Foolish for a while;
Couldn’t see the fantasy.
Lucky she may be
To escape into reality.

(Poem by Catherine Tait of Denton Burn Reading Group)

Denton Park Reading Group

Our reading group was really excited to have the opportunity of reading a proof copy of this novel, particularly as it was set in our own home area. We found the book easy to read as it was broken down into small 'bites' of the story and moved quickly from one character to another, involving us with everyone at an early stage.

We are introduced to Louise, the mother, who goes to prison for a pointless shoplifting offence which she is unable to explain to anyone even herself as she has stolen a single shoe. We felt that this was a cry for help, which at the time went unheard. Her husband, and father of the two girls is Mac, who is frustrated by, and disillusioned with his life as a taxi driver. He has once held dreams of farming luxury lettuce but is unable to break out of his rut. He is unable to cope with or even relate to his 'loved ones' individual problems; and he has no viable method of communicating with them. He sees a relationship with his fare, Degna, as an escape route but guilt prevents him from pursuing this.

Nana Price muddles through life, trying to spice-up her humdrum existence by installing herself as an unwanted guest, under the guise of helping the family through their difficulties and in fact only compounds the problem. To get her through her worst moments she turns to her sherry bottle.

The products of this frustrated directionless family are the two wildly dissimilar daughters. Stella is obsessively tidy and hard working and has aspirations of achieving academic success. Her sense of duty, however, bogs her down into undertaking mundane tasks for the rest of the family. In her mother's absence she is prepared to step into her shoes and sacrifice her own future - and the others are all to happy to let her do that.

Caris is a real rebel, with all the conflicting emotions of adolescence. She cannot allow herself to enjoy life and needs to be disgruntled and frustrated (not to mention frustrating). Although she doesn't admit it, she is probably the one most affected by her mother's absence. Desperate for attention, she becomes involved with George, who is nothing short of very scary. She feels drawn to him as he too has problems in his background - but his problems are more deep-rooted and sinister. She needs an anchor and the Shoe Tree provides this for her at a difficult time. Even though we could cheerfully murder her, when we feel that she is in danger, we all want her safety and security.

Although we could not be described as 'liking' any of the characters initially, feelings of empathy with them grew as the story progressed together with an understanding of their problems and frustrations. We were glad that 'things turned out well', or at least not as badly as they may have done. We felt that the family had come through a very challenging time and had overcome their problems in their own individual ways, though not necessarily as a unit. From the frustration and dissatisfaction that they felt initially they eventually came to accept their lives were not so bad, and that they
could hold on the what they had, there would be some hope for them in the future - the dysfunctional family may start to function.

 We enjoyed the growing importance of the Shoe Tree in Caris' life and came to understand her feeling of loss when it is denuded. Its appearance on the book cover reflects its central role in the story.

The book grew on us and we felt that we echoed the family's journey towards understanding one another. We could certainly recommend it to readers with adolescent daughters. We would give the book four stars. (Out of Five)

Civic Centre Reading Group

I enjoyed this book. I found the characters to be intensely believable  - so much so that I thought I saw Caris and George on  a bench outside the Civic centre one morning. Mac epitomised the Geordie taxi driver to me and I loved picturing locations such as Jesmond Deane, Heaton Park and the rarefied perfumed atmosphere of Fenwicks…I thought this book was very warm and moving. Louise Metcalfe

The novel deals with a seemingly ordinary family who, until recently, have thought of themselves as happy. An event occurs which shakes the whole family to the foundations, affecting each member profoundly and ultimately they need to reassess themselves as individuals and as a family. This is a well written book with convincing and sympathetic characters.
Margo Scott

Newcastle & Gateshead Staff Reading Group 

‘The Taxi Driver’s Daughter’ is a fast-paced, episodic novel of loss and of a kind of redemption.

The image of the tree which runs throughout the book and into which Caris and George and apparently most passers-by throw shoes is never explained satisfactorily but is either a deeply significant symbol or an artificial aspect introduced by the author to provide a link to the community in which the main characters live.

Louise, the mother, is taken from them by a moment of weakness but her separation from her family helps her to grow and her new strength contributes to the upbeat ending which leaves the family but not necessarily this reader, in optimistic mood for their future.
 
One or two chapters stand out particularly; the failed love scene between Mac and Degna is very good as is the bullying of Caris by Layla, an all too believably horrible child.

The author catches the grimness and griminess of Northern provincial cities, not just Newcastle where the story is set, and the economic and intellectual poverty that besets them. She vividly portrays the incoherent reactions to their condition of Mac and Louise’s family but relieves the gloom with optimism for the future.

The book is written in short, sometimes very short, chapters that should distract but instead serve to quicken the pace. There are some peripheral and even some central characters that are slightly underwritten and might have been expanded to advantage, Maurice the gardener and Abdul the shopkeeper for instance, but as it is Julia Darling has written a succinct, enjoyable and exciting novel that is very worthwhile reading.      (MLY)

I'd read Julia's first novel Crocodile Soup and found it a depressing read so I was not too enthusiastic about reading The Taxi Driver's Daughter.

What a different second novel, I really enjoyed reading it. It was an easy read, but nevertheless a good read, telling the tale of a family who are heading toward 'dysfunctional'. They have lost sight of each other and their dreams.
The ending of the first chapter sucks you into the story immediately:
"It's mum," Stella whispers, her voice breaking "She's been arrested." You want to read on to find out why mum has been arrested.
I loved the idea of the Tree of Shoes, and people throwing their shoes up and making wishes, turning the tree into a shrine or a work of art. There is a lovely piece of irony in the chapter 'Park Management' - one of the workmen sent to dismantle the Tree of Shoes is a bit of an artist himself, he likes the tree with all of its shoes and doesn't want to see them go, he remarks:
'They wouldn't take it down if someone from fucking London had done it . . .someone 's put a lot of work into this."
I think the story mirrors some of the changes, which are happening in the region. The bright and shiny regenerated Quaysides of t Newcastle and Gateshead, contrasted against the run down, less fashionable, forgotten parts of the city.
Everything wasn't put right at the end of the story, but the family had hope. Hope that the future would be better.
I would definitely recommend this novel. (June O'Malley) 

It was interesting to read a novel set in Newcastle and set around something that does exist - a tree hung with shoes. I thought that the characters were well drawn and believable. The descriptive passages were very good at capturing the essence of the characters, for example Mac driving "like a man in a pot of treacle." However, I didn't particularly like the characters, the only one I had any sympathy for was Stella. Life revolved around the wayward Caris.

The middle section of the book was rather depressing, probably to emphasize the depressed nature of the characters, but I found it a bit hard going. I kept urging Mac to take his head out of the sand, stop being so gutless and help his family. In the end it takes a potentially serious accident to Caris to make him see that he has to take charge of his life and help his family. I
expected the ending to be a bit darker; I thought that either Mac or George would die. Maybe Mac's family would murder him and bury him beneath the tree! (Pauline)

I was impressed by the style of writing, which I found refreshing, I felt drawn into the minds of all the characters. I also appreciated Darlings tactic of giving a brief insight into the future lives of some of the sub characters; this I felt,
gave the book life. I liked how the author captured the Geordie language - but wondered how non-natives would interpret this style. I felt that I had an understanding of each of the characters - but I found
George the most complex and sometimes felt as if I did not understand his motives for his actions. I was confused by the introduction of George- initially I felt that he was going to be Caris's saviour from her destructive behaviour yet it was he who fuelled her rebellion.
I was annoyed by Nana Price's character. I thought she was selfish and irresponsible. I could understand the contempt that Mac may have felt Contempt that Mac felt  towards her and also the guilt, as she was a lonely old age pensioner with not much  to look forward to in life.

When Mac was at home you could sense the chaos around them, and you could understand why he sought the comfort of his taxi. I thought that he felt as if he was not in charge of his family and home, which was a feeling that he sought. That no one respected him, yet when he was behind the wheel of his taxi he was the king of the road and people needed him to get them from a to b. Also Mac's taxi was his space where he could escape. 

Mac, I felt should have been more assertive with his daughters and more vocal with his wife. Louise I felt should also have been more positive in her life, yet I felt as if she was happy to play the down trodden role as this gave her an excuse not to fulfil her dreams. The problem was that she would blame Mac for the life that they had.

The Vale was significant to me as it represented the social divide within the story. It was ironic that both households - rich and poor, still had the same family related problems and in a round about way the parents dealt with them in the same way, yet I sense that both families would say that they were poles apart, I felt that the Farrish Family is even more dysfunctional and that they are beyond saving. However I thought that the tree of shoes was a universal symbol of hope regardless of which side of the Vale people were from, I think that had it not been for the tree Caris would have felt desolate.

Culture Café Reading Group

As a group we were split 50/50. There were those who thought it was a really good read and gave it four stars, then, there were those who found it a rather depressing experience and only gave it two stars.

Here is a selection of our reviews:

Well written, beautifully descriptive, the following phrases stood out for me:
“Not faraway from the room in which they waited, the optimistic River Tyne glittered, and the new bridge arched itself in a yawn of delight”
“The park is moist with disappointment.”
“The city ahead is a heap of twinkling jewels.”

A really good read; wonderfully accurate descriptions of Newcastle using the minimum of words – an almost poetic, economic use of words. Most of the characters were very credible particularly Caris, Stella, Mac, Louise and the unfortunate Mr. Fortuba. I was less sure about the grandmother. The relationships and dialogues between the characters were also very credible and realistic particularly Caris/Stella/Mac and Margaret/Layla/Caris. I really cared for this family and wanted a positive ending.  George gets his well-deserved end- this was a relief! (Liz Armstrong)

I enjoyed reading the book and its crisp and direct style appealed to me. I also enjoyed recognising some of the settings around Tyneside. I felt there wasn’t a great deal of character development though I could see that as a family the main characters were moving towards some kind of resolution of their problems by the end of the book. The author seemed to have a very good sense of what teenage angst was all about, and she got into their skins in a very realistic way. An interesting read.

Julia Darling’s rather staccato style and its general bleakness made reading this novel a rather depressing experience. I found it difficult to relate sympathetically to the characters and I thought the plot somewhat surreal. However, the ending did present a ray of hope for this dysfunctional family; it would perhaps survive, and with the catalystic release of the mother from prison would now be set on a more positive course for its future happiness.

A good read. A book you can put down and pick up again. Claris is a typical stroppy teenager who strays a bit but returns to her family at the end.

We all really appreciated having the opportunity to read this novel before it goes to print and we hope we get the opportunity to read the sequel!

Westside Readers' Group (Shetland)

 We were really pleased to get an unedited novel like this - it felt really special reading something before the general public.  

Opinion was split about the cover: some of us felt it fitted the book, and liked the mistyness of it, the fantasy element, and the way it wasn't overstated; others didn't like it, felt it didn't fit the book and wouldn't attract
people.  Which led us in to who the book was aimed at. 

Gundil had sent it to her 15 year old niece, and Marsali was wanting to read it with her 4th year - she thought they'd enjoy the modernity, the accessible style, the characters.  In general, the group agreed that it would appeal to older
teenagers, and had enough for them to think about to make a good school text.  However we didn't feel the cover would attract them, if that was the target audience. we talked a bit about what cover we thought would go with
the book.  Something bright and brash didn't seem right; a photograph of a real shoe tree might not be magic enough.  There was a short, discussion about how we chose books; some of us went almost entirely on the cover,
others went by author or publisher, an interesting title, or by reading the first few pages.  Some of us felt we would be put off reading a book by not liking the cover but to others, it made no difference.  We also spoke a bit about the title; Kirsty didn't feel it would attract her, and wondered if 'The Shoe Tree' might be better.
 
We wondered a bit about the age of the writer.  Marsali was impressed by the way she'd taken us into the head of so many varied characters such as a middle aged man, a tantrum-ish teenager. She also liked the way that the 'good child' Stella had perhaps the most serious problems. Bo particularly liked Nana.  Leigh hadn't realised the
author was female; she'd taken it for granted, reading the opening, that it was a male author.  She liked the minor characters too, such as the park keeper and the teacher, and others agreed with her.

We talked for a bit about the message of the book.  We liked the way the family were shown sticking together and coping, and agreed it would be an awful shock for a family like this if the mother was taken in for
shoplifting and assaulting a policeman. Was the overall message not to get stuck in a rut, that things don't have to keep going the same way, you can change them, you can change yourself?  We talked about the symbolism of the
tree; we thought it might refer to playing and fantasy and doing your own thing and also, to hope.  It reached everyone and made them cheerful. Was it linked to the Tree of Paradise?

We were all agreed that it was a quick, enjoyable read - we all zapped through it in a small number of sittings.  Not everyone liked the style. Marsali doesn't generally like present-tense writing, but thought this was
a good example; others found it irritating.  Presumably the layout, with speech not indented, will change in the finished book?  Mary felt the sentences were rather overworked; Kirsty agreed, bringing up the 'almost
edible pink ears' - a bit too writerly at times.
 
Overall, opinions were divided.  Fiona and Kathleen felt it was a 'train book'.  Kirsty felt it wasn't exciting enough to really hold her, but was a good easy read; Emma agreed. Caroline, Marsali, Bo and Gundil did enjoy it and found it interesting.