Driving the Saudis: A Chauffeur's Tale of the World's Richest Princesses (plus their servants, nannies, and one royal hairdresser)
When the author, a Hollywood hyphenate (actor, voiceover artist, producer), came into an unexpected financial crisis, she needed to find a quick fix to keep the cash flowing. Because you don’t need a special driver’s license to drive a limousine, and because some of her actor friends told her it was a pretty good gig, she decided to become a chauffeur—just temporarily, you understand. But she didn’t expect to wind up driving around some of the world’s wealthiest people, members of the Saudi royal family. The book has a Lives of the Rich and Famous feel about it, but it’s not all about the money and the people who spent it (sometimes in utterly staggering quantities). In addition to the money, there’s some sentiment here, too, as the author comes to know these people, who seem to come from another world, and learns they aren’t so different, after all. Larson turned her experiences into a stage show, from which this memoir is derived. --David Pitt