The resident cynic in me was utterly charmed by this heartwarming tale of a down-on-his-luck insurance salesman who stumbles into a mysterious taxi that changes his life. Told as a parable, the story delivers a simple but moving message about living with positivity and generosity.
The “luck” the characters accumulate is the result of good deeds, but it functions more like karma than chance. Your choices add up, and their effects ripple outward, benefiting not only you but also future generations of your family. Good actions lead to good outcomes…eventually.
The Alchemist meets The Good Place: the messaging is straightforward, yet life-affirming and emotionally resonant. It won’t change your life, but it will put a smile on your face.
My thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
JUŻ PIĄTY RAZ ZMIENIAM OCENĘ XD (z 4 na 3, z 3 na 4, itd.)
ale mam problem z tą książką.
dużo mi dała, refleksyjna, motywacyjna, pokrzepiająca
z drugiej strony im dłużej o niej myślę po skończeniu, tym widzę więcej minusów 🥴 za mało rozbudowana jak na powieść (W KOŃCU OTULAJĄCA POWIEŚĆ, A NIE ZBIÓR OPOWIADAŃ), ma też trochę zbędnej zawiłości.
ale naprawdę mi się podobała i bardzo dobrze mi się to czytało, przekaz totalnie pode mnie, nawet się wzruszyłam 😅
6-7/10, a to jednak rozłam tu w gwiazdkach i aaaach, nie wiem czy bardziej 6 czy 7, ale jednak coś powyżej 6... więc niech będą ostatecznie te 4 gwiazdki 😆
A mysterious taxi ride with a driver who knows everything about you, and can even read your future with no fare charged. I followed Shuichi Okada through his misfortune as an insurance salesman after 20 clients suddenly canceled their policies on him. Stuck in a slump, his career seems to be falling apart and his spirit nearly broken. While being rushed that evening, Shuichi steps into a taxi with a driver who claims he can take passengers to their ‘next opportunity’. Thus a surreal journey started through shifting streets and memories, embarking Shuichi into an adventure; of luck, choices, kindness and courage.
Neat and addictive, and the idea of how luck isn’t random and is ‘created’ based on our attitude or judgement was so appealing. It was philosophical and elaborated so well that I enjoyed the interactions in between Shuichi and Takushi during the taxi rides. On series of flashbacks and life-lessons, of empathy, regrets, fears and how to accept frustration and see it as an opportunity or strength. It was heartwarming to see Shuichi’s dynamic, glad that he actually came home to meet his mother and learned the unexpected hope and dream of his late father; liked this part and how it leads to his scene with Yuko afterwards.
Loved the magic behind the surreal taxi rides and how thrillingly it interlinked each perspective— did not expect to get Yuko’s plot on the epilogue but somehow it answered my curiosity on the missing fares gap in between. Appreciate that glimpse of stories about Wakiya and the musician as well how the author gave me a definite ending at the end.
Adding this to my fav list of healing fiction cause as much as it feels like it was similar to any that I have read, the self-help part really warmed my heart, at times I just sit quietly and ponder about Takushi’s words while reading; his way of explaining about life really put a smile on my face.
“Life's full of things that you might think are the worst right after they happen, but as time passes and you reflect, you realize that they might have been for the better.”
This story was an inspiring and emotional read. I liked how it followed different characters and jumped through time without ever feeling confusing. The involvement of other POVs actually made the story more interesting and meaningful. The characters felt real, and I was drawn into their experiences and relationships. The book was just the right length, and the ending was both surprising and satisfying. The only part that pulled me out of the narrative flow was that some of the lessons felt too repetitive and unnaturally direct, especially during some of the taxi driver conversations.
Thank you to HarperOne and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a free advance copy.
Shuichi’s struggling to keep it together: he doesn’t know how much longer he can survive in the insurance sales business, he’s letting his wife down, his daughter in junior high school skips school and shows little motivation in her studies, and his relationship with his aging mother has long required intentional work. When he looks around and considers others’ lives, he believes he’s remarkably unlucky. As he feels discouraged, an enigmatic taxi driver pulls up out of the blue.
In their car ride, this wise and knowledgeable man challenges Shuichi’s philosophy on luck and life. Initially unimpressed by the driver’s expertise on the subject, Shuichi will slowly warm to the driver’s suggestions that “[l]uck isn’t good or bad but something to save and spend.” When Shuichi follows the driver’s prodding to live openly and fill his mind with happy thoughts, Shuichi notices that he can indeed become more sensitive to good opportunities: a good mood, positive thoughts, and taking an interest in other people’s interests plant seeds of cheer. He will fully embrace this ideology that encourages one’s earnest efforts, manifesting into energy that invests in society’s collective momentum of hard work and accumulative luck: “Life is a part of an eternal narrative of existence.”
I’ve seen some reviews liken The Lucky Ride to a parable; it certainly reads like that. The novel is lesson-forward, heavy on the moralistic teaching, and aggressive with its emotionalism. Major decisions hastily cause change and results. The biggest hurdle for me is the system of vicarious luck and the notion of a communal net-pos luck. Even an idealist like myself perhaps found this story more optimistic than I would’ve preferred, given the metaphysical organization of luck.
There’s a very particular kind of sadness that happens when you try your best and still feel like life is quietly punishing you.
That’s Shuichi, an exhausted insurance salesman who has just been dropped by a major client.
To make things worse, his reclusive daughter also decides to skip school, rather wasting time playing smartphone all day.
His world is still moving, but Shuichi’s stuck.
And I think most of us, even if not in such dramatic circumstances, have felt that paralysis before.
Then the taxi arrives.
The driver does not offer miracles or philosophical fireworks. What he does is more subversive: he teaches Shuichi to raise the temperature of his own mood.
Because luck, he says, is sensitive.
It gravitates toward people who are open, who greet the world with warmth rather than resentment. That idea stayed with me.
The lesson extends to his work. Shuichi is used to seeing relationships through a profit-loss lens, like many of us do, especially when survival is on the line.
But people aren’t calculators.
They know when you speak to them just to close a sale.
They can feel it when you treat them as a transaction instead of a human being.
What I loved most about this novel is how the author rejects the myth of sudden transformation.
Shuichi doesn’t wake up and become a better person overnight.
His change is slow, clumsy, sometimes frustrating, like trying to fix a life that you’ve already convinced yourself is ruined.
Every taxi ride gives him a different glimpse into how luck is built: through gratitude and sincerity.
That’s the point of this novel. It isn’t about being lucky. It’s about becoming someone that luck naturally wants to sit beside.
Gentle, grounding, and surprisingly practical.
A book that reminds you the biggest shifts in life often begin with something as small as the mood you choose to carry.
Thank you @putrifariza and @times.reads for this gifted review copy!
Looking for a short read that will offer a powerful and positive message? This is it! The Lucky Ride is such a heartwarming and timely book about creating your own happiness, being positive and present, and how your choices can impact others. It follows Shuichi who is down on his luck and ends up in a seres of magical taxi rides that teach him some surprising life lessons and offer him a chance at happiness. While reading it, I couldn’t help but absorb some of the same lessons as Shuichi. At only 264 pages (and it’s a rather small book in size), this is such a quick and impactful read.
To prevent the risk of spoilers, I shall make my review brief. This beautifully translated book by renowned Japanese Author Yasushi Kitagawa (as well as translated by Takami Nieda) explores the mundanity of everyday life and our reluctance to escape the misery we create in our own minds. Through what only can be described as a spiritual experience, Shuichi discovers how to find our own luck in a world we often pretend is full of misery instead of love and opportunity. He discovers stories of his loved ones that garnered raw emotion and also assisted in that change of perspective he so unwillingly but eventually sought out. For an individual who claims to despise anything that isn't non-fiction, I left this book with a greater sense of understanding of the beauty and majesty of ordinary people. I recommend this wholeheartedly to anyone.
i love this! a reminder that the ‘luck’ or shall i say blessings we experience today are as a result of our parents gathering that ‘luck’ for us through all their hard work. to have good luck you have to do good for others 🥹❤️
This was a lovely story about a grumpy, down-on-his-luck man who could do with a kick up the bum.
Shuichi, our main character, has just lost several important contracts in his insurance role and will have to make it up to his company. He has no idea how he’ll make up the repayments and will have to cancel a trip to Paris that he and his wife have been planning for a while.
To add to his worries, their teenage daughter has stopped going to school. She won’t talk to her parents and she doesn’t want to leave her room, and instead spends hours scrolling through social media every day.
I’m a grumpy old lady at heart, so it was easy for me to get drawn into Shuichi’s cynical world, but I was very happy when a random taxi showed up during his time of need. The taxi driver knew everything about Shuichi, past and present, and offers him free taxi rides until his ‘counter’ runs out.
During their rides, the taxi driver tells Shuichi stories about people he’s met and how they could have changed his luck if he had not been so bloody miserable.
There’s a lot of love, hope and grumpiness in this short but heartwarming story and the lesson to take away from it is you don’t know what will happen if you change your mindset and put a smile on your face.