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Drive
Set mostly in Arizona and L.A., Drive is about a man who does stunt driving for movies by day and drives for criminals at night. Sallis combines murder, treachery and payback in a sinister plot with resonances of 1940s pulp fiction and film noir. Told through a cinematic narrative that weaves back and forth through time and place, the story explores Driver's near existential moral foundations, intercut with moments of bloody violence.
158 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2005
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About the author
James Sallis
179books390followersJames Sallis (born 21 December 1944 in Helena, Arkansas) is an American crime writer, poet and musician, best known for his series of novels featuring the character Lew Griffin and set in New Orleans, and for his 2005 novel Drive, which was adapted into a 2011 film of the same name.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,144 reviews
October 7, 2023
A SANGUE FREDDO
Ryan Gosling è Driver nel film del 2011.
Questa è la storia di uno di noi, cantava Adriano Celentano in una delle sue splendide canzoni di quell’epoca.
In realtà, in questo caso, non direi che è la storia proprio di uno di noi: in quanto il protagonista di questa vicenda è piuttosto peculiare.
Narrata in terza persona, qui si sviluppa la storia di un giovane senza nome: sempre e soltanto Driver, per sottolineare e metter subito in chiaro il suo talento. Driver guida come nessun altro.
Meglio di tutti gli altri stunt impegnati a controfigurare le star di Hollywood, o in acrobazie inseguimenti ribaltamenti scontri che finiscono sulla pellicola destinata al grande schermo.
Meglio di tutti gli altri autisti coinvolti in furti, con o senza scasso: quando c’� da organizzare una rapina che richiede un guidatore coi fiocchi, Driver è l’uomo giusto.
Carey Mulligan è Irene: nel film il suo personaggio ha un percorso più lungo che nel romanzo.
Ma ha delle regole precise: del piano non vuole sapere nulla, non partecipa alla preparazione e neppure alla rapina, non porta armi � si limita a guidare � e a scegliere il mezzo adatto allo scopo, che di solito preferisce acquistare di seconda mano, anziché rubare. Poi elabora e prepara l’auto lui stesso rendendola perfetta allo scopo.
Driver guida come nessun altro e rispetta il patto: ti aspetta fuori cinque minuti, non di più ma non di meno � il resto tocca a te.
Nessuno sa il suo vero nome, né dove abita perché cambia casa in affitto ogni paio di mesi. È sempre pronto alla fuga: tutto quello che possiede può stare in un sacco.
Il regista Winding Refn con Bryan Cranston che interpreta Shannon, amico di Driver.
Fino a dodici anni suo padre sfruttava la sua agilità e bassa statura per farlo intrufolare in pertugi, finestrelle, vie di fuga, e aiutarlo a svaligiare negozi e negozietti. Quindi, sì, driver è cresciuto alla scuola del furto.
Poi a dodici anni è cresciuto tutto in una notte, o giù di lì: da 120 a 185 centimetri. Suo padre non poteva più utilizzarlo.
E forse per questo l’uomo, l’adulto intendo, era diventato meno utile alla famiglia. E forse per questo, la madre, che collegata alla realtà non era poi tanto, una sera a cena l’ha sgozzato, coltellata e colpo di mannaia, sangue che spruzza.
Tutto davanti al figlio, al bambino. Ma subito dopo la madre s’� scusata.
Driver/Ryan Gosling col giubbotto che indossa per la maggior parte del tempo.
Così Driver finisce tra quelli che possono essere dati in affido.
Lo prende una famiglia che lo tratta bene.
Ma Driver scappa: a sedici anni vuole il suo spazio e la sua vita � ruba l’auto della coppia affidataria, lascia un messaggio in cui ringrazia e si scusa molto per il furto e parte in direzione ovest. La meta è la California.
Los Angeles, la mecca del cinema. Dove avvia la sua carriera nel cinema e nel mondo delle rapine.
Il film è molto stilizzato, a cominciare dall’aspetto visivo. Ma lo è anche narrativamente e nel montaggio.
La volta che per pietà e affetto contraddice alla sua regola, cioè rimane più a lungo dei cinque minuti stabiliti, è la volta che si mette nei pasticci. Guai seri, con conseguenze e diramazioni.
Uscire dai guai, risolvere la situazione, è l’azione principale di questo romanzo, scritto in modo secco, veloce, guizzante.
Ottima base di partenza per il bel film realizzato da Nicolas Winding Refn che vinse il premio per la migliore regia al Festival di Cannes del 2011.
Il film compatta la storia, mostra come parte della narrazione dell’oggi quello che nel libro appartiene alla zona ricordo (= flashback): il risultato è un film forte, veloce, ma anche molto stilizzato, un piacere per gli occhi.
E per il cuore.
Ryan Gosling è Driver nel film del 2011.
Questa è la storia di uno di noi, cantava Adriano Celentano in una delle sue splendide canzoni di quell’epoca.
In realtà, in questo caso, non direi che è la storia proprio di uno di noi: in quanto il protagonista di questa vicenda è piuttosto peculiare.
Narrata in terza persona, qui si sviluppa la storia di un giovane senza nome: sempre e soltanto Driver, per sottolineare e metter subito in chiaro il suo talento. Driver guida come nessun altro.
Meglio di tutti gli altri stunt impegnati a controfigurare le star di Hollywood, o in acrobazie inseguimenti ribaltamenti scontri che finiscono sulla pellicola destinata al grande schermo.
Meglio di tutti gli altri autisti coinvolti in furti, con o senza scasso: quando c’� da organizzare una rapina che richiede un guidatore coi fiocchi, Driver è l’uomo giusto.
Carey Mulligan è Irene: nel film il suo personaggio ha un percorso più lungo che nel romanzo.
Ma ha delle regole precise: del piano non vuole sapere nulla, non partecipa alla preparazione e neppure alla rapina, non porta armi � si limita a guidare � e a scegliere il mezzo adatto allo scopo, che di solito preferisce acquistare di seconda mano, anziché rubare. Poi elabora e prepara l’auto lui stesso rendendola perfetta allo scopo.
Driver guida come nessun altro e rispetta il patto: ti aspetta fuori cinque minuti, non di più ma non di meno � il resto tocca a te.
Nessuno sa il suo vero nome, né dove abita perché cambia casa in affitto ogni paio di mesi. È sempre pronto alla fuga: tutto quello che possiede può stare in un sacco.
Il regista Winding Refn con Bryan Cranston che interpreta Shannon, amico di Driver.
Fino a dodici anni suo padre sfruttava la sua agilità e bassa statura per farlo intrufolare in pertugi, finestrelle, vie di fuga, e aiutarlo a svaligiare negozi e negozietti. Quindi, sì, driver è cresciuto alla scuola del furto.
Poi a dodici anni è cresciuto tutto in una notte, o giù di lì: da 120 a 185 centimetri. Suo padre non poteva più utilizzarlo.
E forse per questo l’uomo, l’adulto intendo, era diventato meno utile alla famiglia. E forse per questo, la madre, che collegata alla realtà non era poi tanto, una sera a cena l’ha sgozzato, coltellata e colpo di mannaia, sangue che spruzza.
Tutto davanti al figlio, al bambino. Ma subito dopo la madre s’� scusata.
Driver/Ryan Gosling col giubbotto che indossa per la maggior parte del tempo.
Così Driver finisce tra quelli che possono essere dati in affido.
Lo prende una famiglia che lo tratta bene.
Ma Driver scappa: a sedici anni vuole il suo spazio e la sua vita � ruba l’auto della coppia affidataria, lascia un messaggio in cui ringrazia e si scusa molto per il furto e parte in direzione ovest. La meta è la California.
Los Angeles, la mecca del cinema. Dove avvia la sua carriera nel cinema e nel mondo delle rapine.
Il film è molto stilizzato, a cominciare dall’aspetto visivo. Ma lo è anche narrativamente e nel montaggio.
La volta che per pietà e affetto contraddice alla sua regola, cioè rimane più a lungo dei cinque minuti stabiliti, è la volta che si mette nei pasticci. Guai seri, con conseguenze e diramazioni.
Uscire dai guai, risolvere la situazione, è l’azione principale di questo romanzo, scritto in modo secco, veloce, guizzante.
Ottima base di partenza per il bel film realizzato da Nicolas Winding Refn che vinse il premio per la migliore regia al Festival di Cannes del 2011.
Il film compatta la storia, mostra come parte della narrazione dell’oggi quello che nel libro appartiene alla zona ricordo (= flashback): il risultato è un film forte, veloce, ma anche molto stilizzato, un piacere per gli occhi.
E per il cuore.
February 14, 2018
Great little neo-noir crime drama. I really liked the continuity, it jumped around a lot, and told the story from a few different perspectives.
It was short, sweet and well written.
It was short, sweet and well written.
June 12, 2017
Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: “Much later, as he sat with his back against an inside wall of a Motel 6 just north of Phoenix, watching the pool of blood lap toward him, Driver would wonder whether he had made a terrible mistake. Later still, of course, there'd be no doubt. But for now Driver is, as they say, in the moment. And the moment includes this blood lapping toward him, the pressure of dawn's late light at windows and door, traffic sounds from the interstate nearby, the sound of someone weeping in the next room....�
Thus begins Drive, a new novella by one of the nation's most respected and honored writers of noir fiction. Set mostly in Arizona and L.A., the story is, according to Sallis, ..."about a guy who does stunt driving for movies by day and drives for criminals at night. In classic noir fashion, he is double-crossed and, though before he has never participated in the violence ('I drive. That's all.'), he goes after the ones who doublecrossed and tried to kill him." .
My Review: It's 153pp of very noir-y noir. It's got an anti-hero just as antiheroic as you want him to be...he knows how to do everything, drive, fight, drink, kill, pick a noir skill and Driver (no other name) has it.
I'm a sucker for that kind of all-rounder. I like Sallis's New Orleans series featuring Lew Griffin, too, but this begins a new-to-me series of noir novellas featuring Driver. I'll be back for more.
It's violent, but not graphic. The killings all take place in front of our eyes, but apart from the short and matter-of-fact reports of the means and aftermath of each killing, there's no ghoulish lingering on the pain or the gore. That means the reader's not stuck to the floor of the book in sticky goo, like in many violent novels.
It's taut, not verbose. In this age of no thought left unexpressed, no feeling left unaired, no absurdity left unplumbed in the gazillionologies of two-thousand-page forest-rapers, that feels like the first cool breath of autumn after the horrid belchings of summer.
Sallis, a serious writer, author of a biography of Chester Himes that's the gold standard on that underknown talent, delivers a happy surprise to the committed reader of darker books and more gritty crime fiction. He brings something fresh to something familiar. He abides by every convention of the genre he's chosen to work in and still gives a take on the tropes that's not hackneyed. The reason is he can write quite simple, Hemingwayesque sentences, and make them sound like he means them in both content and feeling.
Well, there it is. If you like that, you'll like Drive, and if not, you won't.
PS: Apparently there was a movie made of this book last year. Ryan Gosling and Bryan Cranston starred. I haven't seen it, but the plot summary is enough different from the book that I don't care if I do.
The Publisher Says: “Much later, as he sat with his back against an inside wall of a Motel 6 just north of Phoenix, watching the pool of blood lap toward him, Driver would wonder whether he had made a terrible mistake. Later still, of course, there'd be no doubt. But for now Driver is, as they say, in the moment. And the moment includes this blood lapping toward him, the pressure of dawn's late light at windows and door, traffic sounds from the interstate nearby, the sound of someone weeping in the next room....�
Thus begins Drive, a new novella by one of the nation's most respected and honored writers of noir fiction. Set mostly in Arizona and L.A., the story is, according to Sallis, ..."about a guy who does stunt driving for movies by day and drives for criminals at night. In classic noir fashion, he is double-crossed and, though before he has never participated in the violence ('I drive. That's all.'), he goes after the ones who doublecrossed and tried to kill him." .
My Review: It's 153pp of very noir-y noir. It's got an anti-hero just as antiheroic as you want him to be...he knows how to do everything, drive, fight, drink, kill, pick a noir skill and Driver (no other name) has it.
I'm a sucker for that kind of all-rounder. I like Sallis's New Orleans series featuring Lew Griffin, too, but this begins a new-to-me series of noir novellas featuring Driver. I'll be back for more.
It's violent, but not graphic. The killings all take place in front of our eyes, but apart from the short and matter-of-fact reports of the means and aftermath of each killing, there's no ghoulish lingering on the pain or the gore. That means the reader's not stuck to the floor of the book in sticky goo, like in many violent novels.
It's taut, not verbose. In this age of no thought left unexpressed, no feeling left unaired, no absurdity left unplumbed in the gazillionologies of two-thousand-page forest-rapers, that feels like the first cool breath of autumn after the horrid belchings of summer.
Sallis, a serious writer, author of a biography of Chester Himes that's the gold standard on that underknown talent, delivers a happy surprise to the committed reader of darker books and more gritty crime fiction. He brings something fresh to something familiar. He abides by every convention of the genre he's chosen to work in and still gives a take on the tropes that's not hackneyed. The reason is he can write quite simple, Hemingwayesque sentences, and make them sound like he means them in both content and feeling.
“What’d you need?" {Manny}
"Desuetude." {Driver}
"Reading again, are we? Could be dangerous. It means to become unaccustomed to. As in something gets discontinued, falls into disuse."
"Thanks, man."
"That it?"
"Yeah, but we should grab a drink sometime.�
Well, there it is. If you like that, you'll like Drive, and if not, you won't.
PS: Apparently there was a movie made of this book last year. Ryan Gosling and Bryan Cranston starred. I haven't seen it, but the plot summary is enough different from the book that I don't care if I do.
January 22, 2025
This is an excellent contemporary noir novel in which a character becomes caught up by circumstances largely beyond his control and must then struggle to somehow survive.
The main protagonist, Driver, is a stunt driver for the movies, and there's none better. But he also moonlights driving for robberies, and the thrill is principally in the driving itself rather than in the monetary rewards. He makes his position clear to anyone who wants to employ his services: "I drive. That's all I do. I don't sit in while you're planning the score or while you're running it down. You tell me where we start, where we're headed, where we'll be going afterwards, what time of day. I don't take part, I don't know anyone, I don't carry weapons. I drive."
Apart from his driving, Driver leads a minimalist existence, moving frequently, paying cash, leaving virtually no trail. But then, as must always happen in a book like this, things go wrong on a number of levels; Driver winds up alienating some very bad people and the game is on.
This is a beautifuly written book, lean and taut without a single wasted word. One hopes that the release of the movie made from the book will finally garner for it and for James Sallis the wider attention that both he and this book certainly deserve.
James L. Thane
The main protagonist, Driver, is a stunt driver for the movies, and there's none better. But he also moonlights driving for robberies, and the thrill is principally in the driving itself rather than in the monetary rewards. He makes his position clear to anyone who wants to employ his services: "I drive. That's all I do. I don't sit in while you're planning the score or while you're running it down. You tell me where we start, where we're headed, where we'll be going afterwards, what time of day. I don't take part, I don't know anyone, I don't carry weapons. I drive."
Apart from his driving, Driver leads a minimalist existence, moving frequently, paying cash, leaving virtually no trail. But then, as must always happen in a book like this, things go wrong on a number of levels; Driver winds up alienating some very bad people and the game is on.
This is a beautifuly written book, lean and taut without a single wasted word. One hopes that the release of the movie made from the book will finally garner for it and for James Sallis the wider attention that both he and this book certainly deserve.
James L. Thane
April 25, 2025
4.5 stars
short review for busy readers:
Superb addition to the cop-less crime genre. Fractured timeline that mirrors the shock/disorientation of the focus character, who is excellently chosen for the story. Literary leaning and contemplative, but with excellent action scenes and a high body count.
in detail:
Crime novels are just like any other genre. You have the straight forward ones, the tropey ones, the cosy ones...and you also have the literary and experimental ones.
Like the 1970s classic , "Drive" falls into the latter bracket. Both are experimental in form, meaning a non-linear timeline, no character introductions, dialogue that may (or may not) be important and no explanations of what's going on. The reader is thrown in and commanded to swim with the sharks.
What impressed me most about this novel was not the style (this time!), but the choice of mmc: Driver. That's both his profession and his name. He's one of the best stunt drivers in Hollywood, and for some extra pocket money, he's the getaway car driver for various robberies.
He doesn't plan, he doesn't organise. He drives. End of story. But for some people, that's no excuse. He's involved, and involved for them = dead.
How Driver manages to extract himself from danger and get his revenge on the people who set up a failed robbery that left 2 dead is perfectly explained by his stuntman job. He's not superman. He's just learned from other stuntmen how to pull some unexpected and potentially lethal moves.
What an excellent, unique choice of character!
I thoroughly enjoyed this short novel, even if I couldn't follow all of the flashbacks. Looking forward to the sequel!
short review for busy readers:
Superb addition to the cop-less crime genre. Fractured timeline that mirrors the shock/disorientation of the focus character, who is excellently chosen for the story. Literary leaning and contemplative, but with excellent action scenes and a high body count.
in detail:
Crime novels are just like any other genre. You have the straight forward ones, the tropey ones, the cosy ones...and you also have the literary and experimental ones.
Like the 1970s classic , "Drive" falls into the latter bracket. Both are experimental in form, meaning a non-linear timeline, no character introductions, dialogue that may (or may not) be important and no explanations of what's going on. The reader is thrown in and commanded to swim with the sharks.
What impressed me most about this novel was not the style (this time!), but the choice of mmc: Driver. That's both his profession and his name. He's one of the best stunt drivers in Hollywood, and for some extra pocket money, he's the getaway car driver for various robberies.
He doesn't plan, he doesn't organise. He drives. End of story. But for some people, that's no excuse. He's involved, and involved for them = dead.
How Driver manages to extract himself from danger and get his revenge on the people who set up a failed robbery that left 2 dead is perfectly explained by his stuntman job. He's not superman. He's just learned from other stuntmen how to pull some unexpected and potentially lethal moves.
What an excellent, unique choice of character!
I thoroughly enjoyed this short novel, even if I couldn't follow all of the flashbacks. Looking forward to the sequel!
February 5, 2021
“I drive. That's what I do. All I do.�
Drive sort of announces itself as (neo)noir from the first:
“Much later, as he sat with his back against an inside wall of a Motel 6 just north of Phoenix, watching the pool of blood lap toward him, Driver would wonder whether he had made a terrible mistake. Later still, of course, there'd be no doubt.�
James Sallis dedicates this book to Ed McBain, Lawrence Block and Richard Stark, mystery/detective greats; books written in tribute to authors in a genre will be recognized for the ways in which they are honoring them, but then presumably for doing something beyond what his mentors have done. Genre is especially a conversation with the history of the genre. You expect from contemporary noir a sense of nostalgia for the old noir and something new.
Some ingredients you need for noir in the Block.Stark tradition: You need some existential philosophizing:
“Maybe he should turn around. Go back and tell them that’s what life was, a long series of things that didn’t go down the way you thought they would.
Hell with it. Either they’d figure it out or they wouldn’t. Most people never did�
and
“‘Think we choose our lives?�
‘No. But I don't think they're thrust upon us, either. What it feels like to me is, they're forever seeping up under our feet.’�
In other words, are you the driver of your own fate or are you driven by external forces? Is there free will or are we fated by biology and social forces?
We also need an enigmatic cool main character: A lone wolf. A man of few words, an outsider:
“He existed a step or two to one side of the common world, largely out of sight, a shadow, all but invisible.
In this case Driver is an orphan who steals a car from his foster parents when he is sixteen and at some early point becomes a driver. And this is what from the first that he can do well:
“He could drive like a sunnavabitch.�
Driver knows cars inside and out and he knows how to handle them (This may be a reader requirement for noir, too, the sense of expertise). He becomes a driver in two principal ways: He works on films as a stunt driver as his day job and drives getaway cars for criminals at night. I would say it is here that the book sort of takes a step out of the ordinary for me. Of course Hollywood is known for its car chases (as a person of a certain age I think The French Connection and Bullitt, but there are endless examples, many of them visually exciting, working against the boring daily notion of the police procedural).
In other words, films such as the ones Driver performs in (as a stunt double, not even the “real� character in the film) are a kind of fantasy performance of reality, whereas in Driver’s getaway jobs, there is supposedly a level of actual realism: Actual people may die as he drives! At one point he actually gets a speaking part in a film, as one actor becomes unavailable. The director raves about the scene’s authenticity and encourages Driver to go into acting. But aren't both jobs examples of performance, convincing the director that he is the best driver and then executing that, and convincing the boss in charge of a heist that he is the best driver and executing that? What’s an authentic portrayal of reality?
The plot, you ask? Well, if you stare into the abyss. . . . so there's a double cross, more violence than you had expected.
There’s a kind of commentary on authenticity in film here, but also on noir itself: What does it take to become a convincing noir anti-hero? These ideas move the book up from three to four stars for me. And yeah, I liked the film version with Ryan Gosling.
Drive sort of announces itself as (neo)noir from the first:
“Much later, as he sat with his back against an inside wall of a Motel 6 just north of Phoenix, watching the pool of blood lap toward him, Driver would wonder whether he had made a terrible mistake. Later still, of course, there'd be no doubt.�
James Sallis dedicates this book to Ed McBain, Lawrence Block and Richard Stark, mystery/detective greats; books written in tribute to authors in a genre will be recognized for the ways in which they are honoring them, but then presumably for doing something beyond what his mentors have done. Genre is especially a conversation with the history of the genre. You expect from contemporary noir a sense of nostalgia for the old noir and something new.
Some ingredients you need for noir in the Block.Stark tradition: You need some existential philosophizing:
“Maybe he should turn around. Go back and tell them that’s what life was, a long series of things that didn’t go down the way you thought they would.
Hell with it. Either they’d figure it out or they wouldn’t. Most people never did�
and
“‘Think we choose our lives?�
‘No. But I don't think they're thrust upon us, either. What it feels like to me is, they're forever seeping up under our feet.’�
In other words, are you the driver of your own fate or are you driven by external forces? Is there free will or are we fated by biology and social forces?
We also need an enigmatic cool main character: A lone wolf. A man of few words, an outsider:
“He existed a step or two to one side of the common world, largely out of sight, a shadow, all but invisible.
In this case Driver is an orphan who steals a car from his foster parents when he is sixteen and at some early point becomes a driver. And this is what from the first that he can do well:
“He could drive like a sunnavabitch.�
Driver knows cars inside and out and he knows how to handle them (This may be a reader requirement for noir, too, the sense of expertise). He becomes a driver in two principal ways: He works on films as a stunt driver as his day job and drives getaway cars for criminals at night. I would say it is here that the book sort of takes a step out of the ordinary for me. Of course Hollywood is known for its car chases (as a person of a certain age I think The French Connection and Bullitt, but there are endless examples, many of them visually exciting, working against the boring daily notion of the police procedural).
In other words, films such as the ones Driver performs in (as a stunt double, not even the “real� character in the film) are a kind of fantasy performance of reality, whereas in Driver’s getaway jobs, there is supposedly a level of actual realism: Actual people may die as he drives! At one point he actually gets a speaking part in a film, as one actor becomes unavailable. The director raves about the scene’s authenticity and encourages Driver to go into acting. But aren't both jobs examples of performance, convincing the director that he is the best driver and then executing that, and convincing the boss in charge of a heist that he is the best driver and executing that? What’s an authentic portrayal of reality?
The plot, you ask? Well, if you stare into the abyss. . . . so there's a double cross, more violence than you had expected.
There’s a kind of commentary on authenticity in film here, but also on noir itself: What does it take to become a convincing noir anti-hero? These ideas move the book up from three to four stars for me. And yeah, I liked the film version with Ryan Gosling.
May 16, 2012
What the f**k is this about? Why's the chronology all skewed? Does Driver give back the money or doesn't he? If he does, why?! And what's in the bag he leaves for his foster parents?!! If he doesn't, then why's he so pissed at Nino for not honouring the deal? Who set him up anyway? Why?! How?!! Maybe there are answers in here - maybe I just can't be bothered finding them. But my strong impression is that Sallis can't be bothered either, that to him it's all about style, and that some part of him wishes he wasn't a crime writer anyway, and didn't have to bother with things like plot or suspense. In the bio on the back flap of my edition it says 'he has also written an avant-garde novel, Renderings'. I mean, Jeez, doesn't that whet your whistle? Who uses a word like 'avant-garde' to describe his own work anyway? And Renderings?! Add to this the utterly vague and epigrammatic use of a Borges quotation at the story's climax (I'm a Borges fan and I don't even have any idea why he's quoting it) and you have the portrait of a conflicted writer. A shame too, cos his style ain't half bad at times: a good line in tough-guy talk, a strong sense of place. But in every respect he has a tendency to skate across the surface, using brevity as subterfuge rather than the transparent medium it should be. Action scenes? I got lost in them. Sometimes one would make sense and it was great; other times I couldn't be bothered digging beneath the vagueness of the prose for explanations and it fell flat. And the plot's the same, either sketched in so hastily that even Sallis doesn't have a grip on it or else boiled down so far that whatever he's trying to convey is making it to only half his readers at best and I'm not one of them. The back flap also says he wrote a biography of Chester Himes, and I have the sneaking feeling it was the one I read a few years back and didn't think much of. Maybe I'll see the film but I don't think I'll be reading any more of his novels. Wasted talent.
March 22, 2016
Long story short: I saw this book at the library and I wanted to read it. I saw the movie a few years ago and it's one of my favorite movies and I wasn't even aware that it was a book, and the book is only 150 pages with pretty big font so I was able to finish it in a little over an hour, but wow this was nothing like the movie. I mean it was, but it wasn't. I didn't like how it was written, it's so detached from the main character Driver, and maybe it's meant to be that way (I mean we don't even know his real name, he's referred to as Driver throughout the entire book) but I didn't care for that. It was impossible to be attached to any characters in this book, really.
Any time any characters died in this book it seemed to have little to no affect on Driver, and the writing style was so hard to get into. I didn't like how nearly every other chapter had some random flashback of his childhood that was almost always irrelevant to things happening in the story.
The only thing I really liked about this book is the fact that Driver is a stunt driver for movies in Los Angeles, I thought that was a really interesting job to read about. I also like that it takes place in Los Angeles, and the way it captures the essence of Los Angeles perfectly with the shitty apartments and sketchy streets and loud Spanish commercials playing next door all day long. I totally get it and it's so accurate.
Other than that this book is completely forgettable which is a shame because I absolutely love the movie. This is one of those rare occasions where I say don't waste your time reading the book, the movie is so much better.
Any time any characters died in this book it seemed to have little to no affect on Driver, and the writing style was so hard to get into. I didn't like how nearly every other chapter had some random flashback of his childhood that was almost always irrelevant to things happening in the story.
The only thing I really liked about this book is the fact that Driver is a stunt driver for movies in Los Angeles, I thought that was a really interesting job to read about. I also like that it takes place in Los Angeles, and the way it captures the essence of Los Angeles perfectly with the shitty apartments and sketchy streets and loud Spanish commercials playing next door all day long. I totally get it and it's so accurate.
Other than that this book is completely forgettable which is a shame because I absolutely love the movie. This is one of those rare occasions where I say don't waste your time reading the book, the movie is so much better.
May 1, 2012
Driver did not want to know the details of the job he was on, all he did was drive.
He was on the streets in the beginning without a penny to his name then a fate encounter in a bar hooked him up with the stunt car driving world. You won't find this great story telling but a biography of one man's plight in the concrete jungle. He was not brought up with a silver spoon in his mouth but was street savvy and knew how to get by. He could out smart the players. As always the glamorous life of a stuntman by day and getaway man by night comes with it's dangers and he finds himself a problem in the shape of a mobster and tries to stay alive. I found it enjoyable to have the written word describe stunts and driving in general, a change from watching it on the big screen. The movie adaptation is out so I had to read this novel first instead of his other titles. I hope to read more of his works in the near future.
He was on the streets in the beginning without a penny to his name then a fate encounter in a bar hooked him up with the stunt car driving world. You won't find this great story telling but a biography of one man's plight in the concrete jungle. He was not brought up with a silver spoon in his mouth but was street savvy and knew how to get by. He could out smart the players. As always the glamorous life of a stuntman by day and getaway man by night comes with it's dangers and he finds himself a problem in the shape of a mobster and tries to stay alive. I found it enjoyable to have the written word describe stunts and driving in general, a change from watching it on the big screen. The movie adaptation is out so I had to read this novel first instead of his other titles. I hope to read more of his works in the near future.
"Driver'd been out three days before to get a car. He always picked his own car. The cars weren't stolen, which was the first mistake people made, pros and amateurs alike. Instead, he bought them off small lots. You looked for something bland, something that would fade into the background. But you also wanted a ride that could get up o its rear wheels and paw air if you needed it to. Himself, he had a preference for older Buick's, mid-range, some shade of brown or gray, but he wasn't locked in. This time what he found was a ten-year-old Dodge. You could run this thing into the side of a tank with no effect. Drop anvils on it, they'd bounce off. But when he turned the motor over, it was like this honey was just clearing its throat, getting ready to talk"
"Desperate times, desperate measures.
Well out of the city, out where the first of a crop of white windmills, lazily turning, wound sky down to desert, Driver sailed without warning onto an exit ramp and into a one-eighty. Sat facing back the way he'd come as the Mustang raced towards him.
Then he hit the gas."
May 22, 2012
Did you see the movie yet? I saw it last year, expecting to be overwhelmed by a genius piece of film making; the hype was massive, the right people were saying the right things, Oscars were mentioned and instead what I got was a very good but not brilliant, subtle piece of noir film making.
Moving on to today and I have read the novel, complete with the face of Ryan Gosling on the cover, my first experience of James Sallis and a novel that has been called "a minor masterpiece by at least two separate reviewers on the cover alone. Having been burned once by Drive related expectation I was slightly less excited than I ordinarily might have been on finding this book.
Driver himself is a very good character for this kind of novel, the strong and silent type, single minded and determined to succeed, if you fuck with him you'll regret it. He's a man conflicted over his lifestyle and through several flashbacks you get a feel for who he is and where he's been and what's contributed to who he is now. This conflict doesn't hold him back however as in true existential noir protagonist style he accepts his course in life and is prepared to live and die by his actions.
It is the flashback style that I have most problem with, at times I couldn't help but get lost in the timeline, working hard to remember which minor character/friend/ally/enemy was which and realising than it didn't really matter with most of them. Whilst you could say that this was a strength of the book, a stylistic choice boldy taken (and if it was I applaud Sallis for succeeding,) that doesn't help when you're taken out of the smooth flow of the history of Driver because you can't help but think about these things. Blame me or the writer?
The other problem is that there are probably a dozen minor/homogenous characters to think about. These two negative aspects to the novel were actually improved upon in the movie. It's almost unheard of I know, but I actually think the movie adaptation of this novel was (not better) an improvement in terms of storytelling and atmosphere. They removed any confusion (but also ambiguity) and streamlined the plot by amalgamating the many minor characters of the novel in to a few key figures.
There were two standout performances from Sallis' supporting cast, I was reminded of both and with his use of Nino and Doc respectively. In their few brief appearances they helped to give the novel a bit of substance and humanity, foreshadowing Drivers fate with two similar yet quite different exits and enhancing the effect of the existential despair that runs through the 187 pages.
offered the term "film soleil" in opposition to the traditions of film noir and whilst Sallis doesn't push Drive to such polar extremes from traditional noir he is driving you in that direction. You are left with a feeling of bright sunshine as opposed to dark smokey rooms; images of wide highway roads that stretch on forever in contrast to those dirty streets populated with the villains of Chandler and dusty trailer parks on the edges of deserts instead of row upon row of cramped boarding houses are left in your mind when you put this one down.
Moving on to today and I have read the novel, complete with the face of Ryan Gosling on the cover, my first experience of James Sallis and a novel that has been called "a minor masterpiece by at least two separate reviewers on the cover alone. Having been burned once by Drive related expectation I was slightly less excited than I ordinarily might have been on finding this book.
Driver himself is a very good character for this kind of novel, the strong and silent type, single minded and determined to succeed, if you fuck with him you'll regret it. He's a man conflicted over his lifestyle and through several flashbacks you get a feel for who he is and where he's been and what's contributed to who he is now. This conflict doesn't hold him back however as in true existential noir protagonist style he accepts his course in life and is prepared to live and die by his actions.
It is the flashback style that I have most problem with, at times I couldn't help but get lost in the timeline, working hard to remember which minor character/friend/ally/enemy was which and realising than it didn't really matter with most of them. Whilst you could say that this was a strength of the book, a stylistic choice boldy taken (and if it was I applaud Sallis for succeeding,) that doesn't help when you're taken out of the smooth flow of the history of Driver because you can't help but think about these things. Blame me or the writer?
The other problem is that there are probably a dozen minor/homogenous characters to think about. These two negative aspects to the novel were actually improved upon in the movie. It's almost unheard of I know, but I actually think the movie adaptation of this novel was (not better) an improvement in terms of storytelling and atmosphere. They removed any confusion (but also ambiguity) and streamlined the plot by amalgamating the many minor characters of the novel in to a few key figures.
There were two standout performances from Sallis' supporting cast, I was reminded of both and with his use of Nino and Doc respectively. In their few brief appearances they helped to give the novel a bit of substance and humanity, foreshadowing Drivers fate with two similar yet quite different exits and enhancing the effect of the existential despair that runs through the 187 pages.
offered the term "film soleil" in opposition to the traditions of film noir and whilst Sallis doesn't push Drive to such polar extremes from traditional noir he is driving you in that direction. You are left with a feeling of bright sunshine as opposed to dark smokey rooms; images of wide highway roads that stretch on forever in contrast to those dirty streets populated with the villains of Chandler and dusty trailer parks on the edges of deserts instead of row upon row of cramped boarding houses are left in your mind when you put this one down.
September 28, 2022
Featuring ~ single 3rd person POV, stunt driver, violence, murder, crime, noir
This was just okay for me, not really my thing. All "Driver" does is drive. And did I miss his name or is it really Driver? That was kind of annoying. It was a quick read so that was nice.
Luckily, I was able to picture Ryan Gosling while listening/reading, but it would have been even better if he narrated too. This was turned into a movie back in 2011 in case you didn't know.
I was able to listen to the audiobook as well, so I went back and forth reading and listening. Narrated by Richard Powers for 3 hours and 28 minutes, easy to follow at 2-2.5x. He did a fine job.
*Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press, the author and NetGalley for the ARC. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review*
Follow me here � ~
This was just okay for me, not really my thing. All "Driver" does is drive. And did I miss his name or is it really Driver? That was kind of annoying. It was a quick read so that was nice.
Luckily, I was able to picture Ryan Gosling while listening/reading, but it would have been even better if he narrated too. This was turned into a movie back in 2011 in case you didn't know.
I was able to listen to the audiobook as well, so I went back and forth reading and listening. Narrated by Richard Powers for 3 hours and 28 minutes, easy to follow at 2-2.5x. He did a fine job.
*Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press, the author and NetGalley for the ARC. I am voluntarily leaving my honest review*
Follow me here � ~
May 1, 2011
There's an old adage amongst some of us online reviewers that kinda/sorta goes like this: if you have to resort to frequently using words like "perfect," "riveting," "startling," and "stunning," you're more than likely describing what the story isn't for the average person because the average person -- the casual reader, Joe Six Pack with a good in his hands -- tends to find these adjectives descriptive of very specific events in his life ... events like falling in love, throwing the game-winning touchdown pass, and having a child. As a consequence of such overblown rhetoric, James Sallis' DRIVE ends up being memorable only on the grounds that one was duped into believing such a middleground neo-noir tale is destined to be literature's next classic when it'll probably be nothing in the next ten years.
Yes, it's "lean," and it could quite probably be read in a single sitting if not in a handful of hours, and, yes, it's full of the pretty-sounding, poetic prose any reader of Sallis has come to expect, but there's little meat on these bloodied bones: Driver sticks to what he does well -- he drives, be it for movie studios or as the getaway driver for a handful of hardened criminals -- but, once he's double-crossed, you find out he's a wealth of other talents in extracting revenge on those who set him up. The grim reality here is that no one REALLY sets Driver up; he simply takes the wrong job at the wrong time, and, as generally happens in noir tales, there's a price to be paid. Driver isn't fond of paying such a price, so he hits back at those he try to take him for a ... well ... er ... for a ride.
Unfortunately, unlike some of the other reviewers, I found the narrative extremely difficult to follow, as Sallis attempts to successfully unfold this yarn out of chronology -- think of it as sort of an even hipper, jet set, PULP FICTION type narrative where some events are even told twice ... with the same exact words and from the same point of view. It's a gamble -- a highly calculated gamble -- and I didn't feel it came off very well here. As a matter of fact, it forced me to flip back to the earlier section in the book to make certain I wasn't somehow lost in this 160-page novel.
Yes, DRIVE is certainly a noir tale, but it's hardly 'hard-boiled,' as Ohio's ThisWeek tries to make its readers believe. It's been my experience that critics who don't dabble in 'hard-boiled' literature usually do this -- attach the adjective to what they believe is 'hard-boiled' in order to sound relevant -- and this tends to produce a flattening effect: less people question the validity of the description and, instead, pick up the book and read. I give credit to Sallis to creating a inventive modern day noir, but, at this cynical, I give his salivating critics credit for selling more copies than was humanly necessary.
Yes, it's "lean," and it could quite probably be read in a single sitting if not in a handful of hours, and, yes, it's full of the pretty-sounding, poetic prose any reader of Sallis has come to expect, but there's little meat on these bloodied bones: Driver sticks to what he does well -- he drives, be it for movie studios or as the getaway driver for a handful of hardened criminals -- but, once he's double-crossed, you find out he's a wealth of other talents in extracting revenge on those who set him up. The grim reality here is that no one REALLY sets Driver up; he simply takes the wrong job at the wrong time, and, as generally happens in noir tales, there's a price to be paid. Driver isn't fond of paying such a price, so he hits back at those he try to take him for a ... well ... er ... for a ride.
Unfortunately, unlike some of the other reviewers, I found the narrative extremely difficult to follow, as Sallis attempts to successfully unfold this yarn out of chronology -- think of it as sort of an even hipper, jet set, PULP FICTION type narrative where some events are even told twice ... with the same exact words and from the same point of view. It's a gamble -- a highly calculated gamble -- and I didn't feel it came off very well here. As a matter of fact, it forced me to flip back to the earlier section in the book to make certain I wasn't somehow lost in this 160-page novel.
Yes, DRIVE is certainly a noir tale, but it's hardly 'hard-boiled,' as Ohio's ThisWeek tries to make its readers believe. It's been my experience that critics who don't dabble in 'hard-boiled' literature usually do this -- attach the adjective to what they believe is 'hard-boiled' in order to sound relevant -- and this tends to produce a flattening effect: less people question the validity of the description and, instead, pick up the book and read. I give credit to Sallis to creating a inventive modern day noir, but, at this cynical, I give his salivating critics credit for selling more copies than was humanly necessary.
February 10, 2017
*Re-Read in 2015 (originally read in May 2011)*
I've been on sort of a casual James Sallis binge lately, so I decided to squeeze in a re-read of the first book I read by him. I liked it a lot more this time, which might be due to the fact that I'm more familiar with his writing, or I'm in just a different mindset. In Drive, Sallis tries his hand at a hard-boiled, Parker-style heist story. And while being true to all the conventions of the genre, he still infuses it with his own trademark style: minimalist but effective prose, a non-linear structure, and HEAVY emphasis on character over plot development.
Our main man (only known as Driver) is a skilled stunt driver for the movies by day and still manages to hold a part-time job as a wheelman for thieves. As with Sallis's other work, this is more of a character portrait, and Driver is definitely an intriguing character, tough but still private and introspective. He wouldn't hesitate in stabbing a hard-ass in the throat, but also wouldn't hesitate to walk to a local payphone and call a screenwriter friend whenever he needs help understanding a difficult word he reads in the used paperbacks he buys at the cut-rate store. And the book also has an awesome first chapter, and one of my favorite opening paragraphs in fiction:
I've been on sort of a casual James Sallis binge lately, so I decided to squeeze in a re-read of the first book I read by him. I liked it a lot more this time, which might be due to the fact that I'm more familiar with his writing, or I'm in just a different mindset. In Drive, Sallis tries his hand at a hard-boiled, Parker-style heist story. And while being true to all the conventions of the genre, he still infuses it with his own trademark style: minimalist but effective prose, a non-linear structure, and HEAVY emphasis on character over plot development.
Our main man (only known as Driver) is a skilled stunt driver for the movies by day and still manages to hold a part-time job as a wheelman for thieves. As with Sallis's other work, this is more of a character portrait, and Driver is definitely an intriguing character, tough but still private and introspective. He wouldn't hesitate in stabbing a hard-ass in the throat, but also wouldn't hesitate to walk to a local payphone and call a screenwriter friend whenever he needs help understanding a difficult word he reads in the used paperbacks he buys at the cut-rate store. And the book also has an awesome first chapter, and one of my favorite opening paragraphs in fiction:
Much later, as he sat with his back against an inside wall of a Motel 6 just north of Phoenix, watching the pool of blood lap toward him, Driver would wonder whether he had made a terrible mistake. Later still, of course, there'd be no doubt. But for now Driver is, as they say, in the moment. And the moment includes this blood lapping toward him, the pressure of dawn's late light at windows and door, traffic sounds from the interstate nearby, the sound of someone weeping in the next room.
October 15, 2007
The NY Times called James Sallis's Drive, "a perfect piece of noir fiction," but as usual they've got their heads up their asses, since Drive is a book that would be more accurately described as, "a perfect piece of shit." Sallis is actually a pretty good writer line-by-line and paragraph-by-paragraph, but he can't construct a book-length narrative to save his life. Drive jumps around in time, mostly to disguise the fact that its plot is stupid, its main character is less interesting than Of Mice and Men's Lenny during a nap, and every action in the book is contrived. Hard-boiled crime fiction should be simple, at least on the surface. When it's not, it's usually because the author has nothing to say.
November 8, 2013
This is an adult mystery novel, a perfect example of noir fiction. It's only about 150 pages long, but Sallis really packs a punch. His writing is powerful and so well-crafted it should be framed as a work of art. This book reminded me why I fell in love with noir fiction in the first place. If you like Hammett, Chandler, Cain and Himes, you will love this book. Also highly recommended: Cyprus Grove, another new, fine mystery from Jim Sallis. As the LA Times recently said, Sallis is so good he deserves to be a national bestseller. That he isn't just proves that quality fiction is not always popular fiction, and vice versa.
September 16, 2021
Nicolas Winding Refn's film is far superior to this book. Whilst reading, I had to think of Ryan Gosling looking cool as hell in that ScorpionsatinJacket to get the most out of it.
November 20, 2023
3 Stars for Drive (audiobook) James Sallis read by Richard Powers.
This is the story of a young man who has only one skill, and that’s driving. Driving got him into the movies as a stunt driver and driving ultimately got him connected with the wrong kind of people as a getaway driver.
This is the story of a young man who has only one skill, and that’s driving. Driving got him into the movies as a stunt driver and driving ultimately got him connected with the wrong kind of people as a getaway driver.
April 10, 2019
"Something radically new, the producer tells me. Think Virginia Woolf with dead bodies and car chases, she says."
"And you said?"
"After shuddering? What I always say. Treatment, redo, or a shooting script? When do you need it? What it pays?"
Manny is a fictional scriptwriter in the city of dreams, the only friend of a taciturn kid known only by his nickname, 'Driver' . Both of them are professionals, they work for pay, one to write movies, the other to drive the cars as a stuntman. If you don't believe there can be such a thing as an existentialist novel with dead bodies and car chases, then I present to you James Sallis, about the best writer I know who can deliver it.
Driver wasn't much of a reader. Wasn't much of a movie person either, you came right down to it. He'd liked 'Road House', but that was a long time back. He never went to the movies he drove for, but sometimes, after hanging out with screenwriters, who tended to be the other guys on set with nothing much to do for most of the day, he'd read the books they were based on. Don't ask him why.
The novel oozes style and menace. It dances around deftly around highbrow references only to plunge you suddenly down in the gutter with blood slipping through your fingers from a bullet in the guts. The time frame is fractured and rearranged, jumping back and forth in the story until, like the movie version, it becomes more of a visceral experience than a by-the-numbers heist script. Which is also a valid description, by the way.
I drive. That's all I do. I don't sit in while you're planning the score or while you're running it down. You tell me where we start, where we're headed, where we'll be going afterwards, what time of day. I don't take part. I don't know anyone. I don't carry weapons. I drive.
Driver is a runaway kid from one of the hot Midwestern states. He travels light, but he carries a heavy baggage of trauma from witnessing his mother cut his father's throat at the dinner table. He doesn't talk much, but he has street smarts that allow him to sell out his one marketable skill. Officially, to the movies as a stuntman, and unofficially as a runaway driver in hit and run 'scores' . Like most professional men, his word is his honor, and he is both reliable on the sets and principled with the criminal underworld. When one of the clients betrays him and lands him in hot water with the mob boss who ordered the fake robbery, Driver must go against the organization and its paid killers. He brings to the game the full force of his skill and determination. Soon dead bodies and car chases are all over the place.
When he walked, his arms flailed about and he shambled. If he tried to run, often as not he'd trip and fall over. One thing he could do, though, was drive. And he drove like a son of a bitch.
That's the thriller part of the novel, but there are also numerous quiet, introspective moments, showing Driver to be much more mature and self aware than his green years would led one to believe. These lyrical touches are what put James Sallis on my favorite writers list before, and why I consider he is in top form here, also.
He existed a step or two to one side of the common world, largely out of sight, a shadow, all but invisible. Whatever he owned, either he could hoist it on his back and lug it along or he could walk away from it. Anonymity was the thing he loved most about the city, being a part of it and apart from it at the same time.
or,
He understood well enough that life by very definition is upset, movement, agitation. Whatever counters or denies this can't be life, it has to be something else.
I saw the movie version before I read the book. I admit that the adaptation is one of the best treatments I have seen recently of a written material, yet I would still recommend both, the novel especially for the elegant, evocative writing that is so hard to capture on screen.
Hell of a country, hell of a country. Anything's possible, anything at all. Even if it does look like God squatted down here, farted, and lit a match to it.
I'll never look at pictures of Arizona with the same eyes after reading lines like this.
June 24, 2017
When the best thing I can say about a book is that at the very least I can say I've read it, that’s sort of like saying, “Oh, chicken pox, I had that once! Root canal with Novocain wearing off, yup, I know the feeling. ! Hemorrhoids, and explosive diarrhea, I hear you!”—well, you get my drift�
Writer James Sallis's novella, “Drive� reads like something that would be assigned in a freshman English college course: a terrible, post-modern action tale with tons of characters, ever-changing POVs and a time-line all skewed so that important events happen in the middle instead of at the end, therefore losing any impact on the reader, and you don't care when the story's over.
It’s also one of the most boring books I've read. Director Nicolas Winding Refn has directed THREE of the most boring movies I've seen: "Valhalla Rising," "Bronson" and “Only God Forgives.� So how did these two artists combine together to make a movie I LOVED?
The book and movie are so different; this is one of those rare cases where the movie excelled and the novella fell flat. Ryan Gosling played Driver as a man of few words who forms intense attachments to a select few. The Driver of this book is verbose and has lots of friends. It had to be the retro 80’s style and awesome soundtrack that fooled me into thinking the book would be just as slick and enjoyable as the film.
This book belongs in the ninth level of literary Hell, consigned to those who commit treachery, as I was duped into thinking this would be a masterpiece. I purchased this book thinking it was going to be an intense crime-noir; instead it just ended being a crime that made me snore.
1/2 star/F
Writer James Sallis's novella, “Drive� reads like something that would be assigned in a freshman English college course: a terrible, post-modern action tale with tons of characters, ever-changing POVs and a time-line all skewed so that important events happen in the middle instead of at the end, therefore losing any impact on the reader, and you don't care when the story's over.
It’s also one of the most boring books I've read. Director Nicolas Winding Refn has directed THREE of the most boring movies I've seen: "Valhalla Rising," "Bronson" and “Only God Forgives.� So how did these two artists combine together to make a movie I LOVED?
The book and movie are so different; this is one of those rare cases where the movie excelled and the novella fell flat. Ryan Gosling played Driver as a man of few words who forms intense attachments to a select few. The Driver of this book is verbose and has lots of friends. It had to be the retro 80’s style and awesome soundtrack that fooled me into thinking the book would be just as slick and enjoyable as the film.
This book belongs in the ninth level of literary Hell, consigned to those who commit treachery, as I was duped into thinking this would be a masterpiece. I purchased this book thinking it was going to be an intense crime-noir; instead it just ended being a crime that made me snore.
1/2 star/F
April 8, 2018
Das nenne ich mal eine kurzweilige Lektüre.
Ein junger Mann kommt nach Hollywood. Das Einzige, was er wirklich gut kann ist Autofahren. Und so wird er Stuntfahrer in Filmen, die ihn nicht interessieren und darüber hinaus Fahrer bei Verbrechen, über die er keine Details wissen will. Das geht natürlich nicht lange gut und mit Driver (einen anderen Namen erfahren wir nicht) versinkt der Leser in einem Strudel aus Gewalt und Gegengewalt.
Das Ganze erinnert im Stil sehr an alte Noir-Geschichten, Desillusionierung und Kühle dominieren die Szenen, auch wenn Driver leise Sympathien für einige seiner Weggefährten entwickelt. Wir erfahren das Ein oder Andere über Drivers Vergangenheit und sehen am Ende, wohin es ihn über die Romanhandlung hinaus treiben wird.
Ein typischer Dialog:
„Glaubst du, wir suchen uns unser Leben aus?�
„Nein. Aber ich glaube auch nicht, dass es uns aufgedrängt wird. Mit kommt’s eher so vor, als würde es ständig von unten nachsickern.�
Eine nette Zutat sind die immer wieder zitierten Filme, die einem Lust aufs Anschauen machen � und das, obwohl der Protagonist sich doch so garnicht für dieses Metier interessiert.
Ein junger Mann kommt nach Hollywood. Das Einzige, was er wirklich gut kann ist Autofahren. Und so wird er Stuntfahrer in Filmen, die ihn nicht interessieren und darüber hinaus Fahrer bei Verbrechen, über die er keine Details wissen will. Das geht natürlich nicht lange gut und mit Driver (einen anderen Namen erfahren wir nicht) versinkt der Leser in einem Strudel aus Gewalt und Gegengewalt.
Das Ganze erinnert im Stil sehr an alte Noir-Geschichten, Desillusionierung und Kühle dominieren die Szenen, auch wenn Driver leise Sympathien für einige seiner Weggefährten entwickelt. Wir erfahren das Ein oder Andere über Drivers Vergangenheit und sehen am Ende, wohin es ihn über die Romanhandlung hinaus treiben wird.
Ein typischer Dialog:
„Glaubst du, wir suchen uns unser Leben aus?�
„Nein. Aber ich glaube auch nicht, dass es uns aufgedrängt wird. Mit kommt’s eher so vor, als würde es ständig von unten nachsickern.�
Eine nette Zutat sind die immer wieder zitierten Filme, die einem Lust aufs Anschauen machen � und das, obwohl der Protagonist sich doch so garnicht für dieses Metier interessiert.
October 5, 2017
Rock Solid Noir
Short, compact, deadly noir. Just wonderful work. Simple, basic, gritty. There are sentences and phrases here that tell whole volumes. This shows that you don't need to put out a five hundred page treatise. Like classic pulp fiction, this is right on target, right to the point.
Like Richard Stark's Parker, Drive is the only name you know this guy by. And it's the only thing he knows how to do. Hollywood stunt driver by day and the world's best getaway driver by night. Drive yearns to drive in capers. The problem is his partners never seem to focus only on the task at hand. They are often too busy changing plans and double-crossing. And in life, few things ever go as planned.
Short, compact, deadly noir. Just wonderful work. Simple, basic, gritty. There are sentences and phrases here that tell whole volumes. This shows that you don't need to put out a five hundred page treatise. Like classic pulp fiction, this is right on target, right to the point.
Like Richard Stark's Parker, Drive is the only name you know this guy by. And it's the only thing he knows how to do. Hollywood stunt driver by day and the world's best getaway driver by night. Drive yearns to drive in capers. The problem is his partners never seem to focus only on the task at hand. They are often too busy changing plans and double-crossing. And in life, few things ever go as planned.
November 25, 2009
Drive is stark, brutal, beautiful, and perfect. Language cut to the bone but retaining a beautiful flow.. Emotional, detailed descriptions of food, music and cars while the equally omnipresent violence and death is presented in a matter of fact dead pan. A narrative pitched between 40's noir, 70's cult flick, and a French existential novel. Funny, furious and readable, Sallis should be ranked with, while not quite resembling, American existentialists like McCarthy, Denis Johnson, Lucius Shepard, The Coens, Jim Thompson, and Peckinpah, and world writers like Camus and Borges. This book is a great introduction to the fiction of a writer who I already loved as an essayist and critic.
May 12, 2020
James Sallis' hard-boiled crime noir about the career and move towards violence and death in the life of a Hollywood stunt driver turned getaway driver. Not as bad as it sounds! 5 out of 12.
June 24, 2012
Like most of the recent reviewers, I read this after seeing the movie, which undoubtedly changed how I viewed the book. Still, I have to say that I preferred the movie, and not just because of this: 
Although I won't lie, that face definitely helps. Oof.
Style-wise, Drive was pretty fantastic. It's got such a cool, urban, haunting sort of tone going for it, and the writing could be really great.
But in terms of substance, it was just sorely lacking. Mysterious, invincible Driver makes for a stylish idea, but he was so abstract and mysterious and invincible that that's all he was - an idea, not a character. The book jumped around and was so vague about the characters that I had no idea what was happening or who it was happening to. This book is beautiful but empty.
The movie kept the style but added clarity, and that's why I ended up enjoying the movie more. By all means, read the book if it sounds interesting to you - it's short and quick and interesting. But it could have been much better than it was.
Although I won't lie, that face definitely helps. Oof.Style-wise, Drive was pretty fantastic. It's got such a cool, urban, haunting sort of tone going for it, and the writing could be really great.
But in terms of substance, it was just sorely lacking. Mysterious, invincible Driver makes for a stylish idea, but he was so abstract and mysterious and invincible that that's all he was - an idea, not a character. The book jumped around and was so vague about the characters that I had no idea what was happening or who it was happening to. This book is beautiful but empty.
The movie kept the style but added clarity, and that's why I ended up enjoying the movie more. By all means, read the book if it sounds interesting to you - it's short and quick and interesting. But it could have been much better than it was.
January 26, 2025
Another cool Phoenix noir. Killer opening sentence throws the reader immediately into Driver's violent world. Driver's story is unconventional while honoring the traditions of noir/crime novels. Recommended.
January 2025 - 2nd reading for a book club. I think reading this book for the 2nd time clarified much of the confusion I had when I first read this book back upon its initial publication. The plot still leaves a few questions, but I don't know that getting answers matters as much as the ride does. The language is the selling point. The first line is the hook. The characters are ciphers but reveal just enough to give the reader a line to understand them. I'd recommend it.
January 2025 - 2nd reading for a book club. I think reading this book for the 2nd time clarified much of the confusion I had when I first read this book back upon its initial publication. The plot still leaves a few questions, but I don't know that getting answers matters as much as the ride does. The language is the selling point. The first line is the hook. The characters are ciphers but reveal just enough to give the reader a line to understand them. I'd recommend it.
March 7, 2022
Most reviews of DRIVE concentrate on its sleek darkness, its studied cool, its shadowy elliptical qualities, its stylized noir, its sharply drawn fantasia of an unknowable man with no name and no home, the kind of man every man who reads DRIVE wishes to be on some level as he grapples with kids and a mortgage and a flat marriage and a unflat body. All great parts of this slim novel's appeal.
For me, the draw of DRIVE is in its constant controlled crackle of ... interestingness. Nothing is wasted here, and even the quiet moment have a low pulsing compulsion to them. For instance, the way a character or a car is described. Many novelists would go for static physical recitations, but James Sallis, as he is in every passage and on every page, is sees things in a way that makes the reader shiver in quiet delight, the way the mind's eyes interprets what it sees before the man behind the mind is aware of the connection the mind has made. A good example: "Jodie’s former ride was a Ford F-150, graceless as a wheelbarrow, dependable as rust and taxes, indestructible as a tank. Brakes that could stop an avalanche cold, engine powerful enough to tow glaciers into place. Bombs fall and wipe out civilization as we know it, two things’ll come up out of the ashes: roaches and F-150s. Thing handled like an ox cart, rattled fillings from teeth and left you permanently saddle sore, but it was a survivor."
Or: "Espresso Man was young. Late twenties maybe, black hair cut short and troweled in place with what looked for all the world like Vaseline. Shine UV on that hair, it would fluoresce. Round-toed, clumsy-looking black shoes stuck out under the cuffs of his pants. Beneath his coat he wore a navy blue polo shirt. Wine Man, fiftyish, wore a dark dress shirt with gold cufflinks but no tie, black Reeboks, and had his grey hair pulled back into a stubby ponytail. Where his young partner walked with the deliberate, measured step, the meatiness, of a bodybuilder, Wine Man just kind of drifted. Like he was in moccasins, or touched down only every third or fourth step."
I don't know many novelists who see or think that way, or are even capable of BEING that way. Most see moments like this as moments to pass through. Sallis, by contrast, sees everything along the journey as a destination.
It's moments like that, that make DRIVE a five-star experience for me even as the plot is hard to follow (which I think it's meant to be) and the role of character isn't always clear (also intentional, I suspect). This isn't a novel of plot, this is a novel of little moments and observations and silences that share apace with a plot strictly for form's sake. A novel that's relentlessly pleasurable on every page, whatever its plotting issues, can't be much less than perfect. And I say that as something less than a James Sallis fan; I was less than admiring of the impenetrability of SARAH JANE or the disorienting interiority of CYPRESS GROVE, for instance. But his talent has never been in question, and when it aligns with character and form, it's something rare and amazing to see.
For me, the draw of DRIVE is in its constant controlled crackle of ... interestingness. Nothing is wasted here, and even the quiet moment have a low pulsing compulsion to them. For instance, the way a character or a car is described. Many novelists would go for static physical recitations, but James Sallis, as he is in every passage and on every page, is sees things in a way that makes the reader shiver in quiet delight, the way the mind's eyes interprets what it sees before the man behind the mind is aware of the connection the mind has made. A good example: "Jodie’s former ride was a Ford F-150, graceless as a wheelbarrow, dependable as rust and taxes, indestructible as a tank. Brakes that could stop an avalanche cold, engine powerful enough to tow glaciers into place. Bombs fall and wipe out civilization as we know it, two things’ll come up out of the ashes: roaches and F-150s. Thing handled like an ox cart, rattled fillings from teeth and left you permanently saddle sore, but it was a survivor."
Or: "Espresso Man was young. Late twenties maybe, black hair cut short and troweled in place with what looked for all the world like Vaseline. Shine UV on that hair, it would fluoresce. Round-toed, clumsy-looking black shoes stuck out under the cuffs of his pants. Beneath his coat he wore a navy blue polo shirt. Wine Man, fiftyish, wore a dark dress shirt with gold cufflinks but no tie, black Reeboks, and had his grey hair pulled back into a stubby ponytail. Where his young partner walked with the deliberate, measured step, the meatiness, of a bodybuilder, Wine Man just kind of drifted. Like he was in moccasins, or touched down only every third or fourth step."
I don't know many novelists who see or think that way, or are even capable of BEING that way. Most see moments like this as moments to pass through. Sallis, by contrast, sees everything along the journey as a destination.
It's moments like that, that make DRIVE a five-star experience for me even as the plot is hard to follow (which I think it's meant to be) and the role of character isn't always clear (also intentional, I suspect). This isn't a novel of plot, this is a novel of little moments and observations and silences that share apace with a plot strictly for form's sake. A novel that's relentlessly pleasurable on every page, whatever its plotting issues, can't be much less than perfect. And I say that as something less than a James Sallis fan; I was less than admiring of the impenetrability of SARAH JANE or the disorienting interiority of CYPRESS GROVE, for instance. But his talent has never been in question, and when it aligns with character and form, it's something rare and amazing to see.
October 2, 2011
I liked the film because it didn't take itself too seriously. It was "Grand Theft Auto: The Movie" complete with Vice City's sexy pink font.
The book has less of a sense of humour, and it presented a much stranger world. What was with all the weird friendships in bars? Do straight American men really buy each other burgers and then go back to a trailer to drink bourbon and watch movies? Aren't these "tough guys" ever self-conscious? Driver leaves a huge amount of money, a homeless dog and a thoughtful note at the home of his adopted parents. A bit cheesy? A bit too "man from Milk Tray"? Did the character not think "Shit, I feel like someone in a movie"?
The police are totally shit. Driver is having meals with people in busy restaurants and then killing them in the car park. No fear of arrest. Three people shot dead in a motel: Driver takes a moment to calmly look over the interior of the Chevy and leaves at his leisure. And yet stealing from a pawn shop requires screeching away at top speed and everyone screaming at each other.
The book has less of a sense of humour, and it presented a much stranger world. What was with all the weird friendships in bars? Do straight American men really buy each other burgers and then go back to a trailer to drink bourbon and watch movies? Aren't these "tough guys" ever self-conscious? Driver leaves a huge amount of money, a homeless dog and a thoughtful note at the home of his adopted parents. A bit cheesy? A bit too "man from Milk Tray"? Did the character not think "Shit, I feel like someone in a movie"?
The police are totally shit. Driver is having meals with people in busy restaurants and then killing them in the car park. No fear of arrest. Three people shot dead in a motel: Driver takes a moment to calmly look over the interior of the Chevy and leaves at his leisure. And yet stealing from a pawn shop requires screeching away at top speed and everyone screaming at each other.
May 14, 2012
There was so much to like about this book but there were also some things that really bugged me as well. Driver is a mysterious protagonist but I felt he talked far too much for something that would have been more suited as the strong silent type. I’m not sure if he was supposed to be written that way but for me, the impression I received from the character and whenever he spoke, didn’t seem to fit my image of him. There has been a recent movie made about this book and I’m keen to see it but I have a feeling there will be a huge difference between the book and movie. I can see a linear story (which I’m ok with) but I can also see them doing the Hollywood thing and try to make a romantic connection between Driver and one of the women from this book. All in all, this book is well worth reading and I’m looking forward to reading the sequel Driven.
Full reveiw can be found on my blog
Full reveiw can be found on my blog
December 7, 2022
I guess that I saw the movie first, but I turned it off pretty quickly so I saw maybe 20 minutes or so. That was years ago. I went back and re-watched the whole thing after finishing this very confused novel. I’d have to say that they salvaged a mediocre movie from this very less-than-mediocre novel.
I don’t mind authors telling readers how it is, but at least justify it:
He always picked his own car. The cars weren’t stolen, which was the first mistake people made, pros and amateurs alike. Instead, he bought them off small lots.
Stealing a car that you’ll use to commit a felony doesn’t seem like a bad move; buying someone else’s used piece of shit that you’re going to abandon seems stupid and costly.
Here's another bit where the writer doesn't know what he's talking about.
Then, just like a dance step, right foot forward, slide the left, pivot on the heels, he had Cook in a choke hold. Same stuntman taught him that.
“Hey, relax. Guy I learned this from told me the hold’s absolutely safe on a short-term basis,� he said. “After four minutes, the brain starts shutting down, but up till then—�
Four minutes? Try about eight seconds. This is a common error in books and films. Another example was in No Country for Old Men when Chigurh strangles the cop with his handcuffs. The cop is bucking like a bronco for half a minute when he would have been out cold in second flat, something anyone who has practiced judo or jit-jitsu knows only too well. A minor point, but they add up.
The protagonist is Driver, no last name. He tries to give his name but is interrupted. This is a gimmick and either it works for the reader or it doesn’t, but in and of itself it hardly represents anything substantial, yet I think this is what attracts readers. The author was obviously out for style over content and tried way too hard in spots:
Bending down, foot planted on the man’s arm, Driver pulled it out. A short-barrelled .38. As though the poor little thing had had a nose job to help it fit in
That’s just bad, or stupid, or both. It's definitely not funny, and this novel could have used a bit of humor.
In this sequence Driver is being followed and can’t lose the tail. How good of a driver could he be if he can’t lose a one vehicle tail? Not very. I don’t really even understand what is happening here, but it sounds stupid:
Well out of the city, out where the first of a crop of white windmills, lazily turning, wound sky down to desert, Driver sailed without warning onto an exit ramp and into a one-eighty. Sat facing back the way he’d come as the Mustang raced towards him.
Then he hit the gas. He was out for a minute or two, no more. (no fucking idea what this means) An old stunt man’s trick: at the last moment, he’d thrown himself into the back seat and braced for the collision (braced what?).
The cars struck head-on. Neither was going to leave on its own steam, but the Mustang, predictably, got the worst of it. Kicking his door open, Driver climbed out.
I thought his name was Driver, not Crasher?
The novel never really makes much sense and the action is never skillfully depicted, I guess that would have cramped his style.
I don’t mind authors telling readers how it is, but at least justify it:
He always picked his own car. The cars weren’t stolen, which was the first mistake people made, pros and amateurs alike. Instead, he bought them off small lots.
Stealing a car that you’ll use to commit a felony doesn’t seem like a bad move; buying someone else’s used piece of shit that you’re going to abandon seems stupid and costly.
Here's another bit where the writer doesn't know what he's talking about.
Then, just like a dance step, right foot forward, slide the left, pivot on the heels, he had Cook in a choke hold. Same stuntman taught him that.
“Hey, relax. Guy I learned this from told me the hold’s absolutely safe on a short-term basis,� he said. “After four minutes, the brain starts shutting down, but up till then—�
Four minutes? Try about eight seconds. This is a common error in books and films. Another example was in No Country for Old Men when Chigurh strangles the cop with his handcuffs. The cop is bucking like a bronco for half a minute when he would have been out cold in second flat, something anyone who has practiced judo or jit-jitsu knows only too well. A minor point, but they add up.
The protagonist is Driver, no last name. He tries to give his name but is interrupted. This is a gimmick and either it works for the reader or it doesn’t, but in and of itself it hardly represents anything substantial, yet I think this is what attracts readers. The author was obviously out for style over content and tried way too hard in spots:
Bending down, foot planted on the man’s arm, Driver pulled it out. A short-barrelled .38. As though the poor little thing had had a nose job to help it fit in
That’s just bad, or stupid, or both. It's definitely not funny, and this novel could have used a bit of humor.
In this sequence Driver is being followed and can’t lose the tail. How good of a driver could he be if he can’t lose a one vehicle tail? Not very. I don’t really even understand what is happening here, but it sounds stupid:
Well out of the city, out where the first of a crop of white windmills, lazily turning, wound sky down to desert, Driver sailed without warning onto an exit ramp and into a one-eighty. Sat facing back the way he’d come as the Mustang raced towards him.
Then he hit the gas. He was out for a minute or two, no more. (no fucking idea what this means) An old stunt man’s trick: at the last moment, he’d thrown himself into the back seat and braced for the collision (braced what?).
The cars struck head-on. Neither was going to leave on its own steam, but the Mustang, predictably, got the worst of it. Kicking his door open, Driver climbed out.
I thought his name was Driver, not Crasher?
The novel never really makes much sense and the action is never skillfully depicted, I guess that would have cramped his style.
April 7, 2018
If the narrative style of Pulp Fiction and the raw action of Steve Mcqueen's classic Bullitt had a child together, this book would probably be that child. It's cool, slick, slim, and efficient. And it still manages to be remarkably touching at times. This little novel is as American as a Mustang with a roaring V8 and a cold Budweiser on a hot California day, but it is also an alluring and poetic description of a stuntman and part-time getaway driver who lives simply, kills violently, and drives fast. In direct contrast with the other characters who flit in and out of the story, always scheming and double-crossing and trying to predict the paths their own lives will take, Driver finds that life is so much simpler behind the wheel of a car. Style over substance doesn’t always work well in fiction, but in Drive the style almost seems to become the substance, and effortlessly at that. The plot is straightforward enough, and focuses mostly on our young Driver as he escapes and battles those who have double crossed him in the seedy California underworld. But it’s not so much the plot that drives this book as much as the poetic descriptions of Driver’s world, the tantalizing meals in dive bars and diners, vivid action sequences, and the revolving door of nuanced characters.
I quite enjoyed Drive, as quick of a read as it was. It is a contrasting achievement of grit and hidden philosophy, and for that I commend Sallis. Here he has written a novel that is refreshing in the way it takes the common tropes of the genre and turns them on their heads. The tone of Sallis' novel ebbs and flows in a blend of existential prose and almost deconstructionist storytelling that is quite rare for crime-noir. Beneath the cars and the noir-laced dialogue is a book that is almost sweet, almost violent, almost poetry, and definitely fast.
I quite enjoyed Drive, as quick of a read as it was. It is a contrasting achievement of grit and hidden philosophy, and for that I commend Sallis. Here he has written a novel that is refreshing in the way it takes the common tropes of the genre and turns them on their heads. The tone of Sallis' novel ebbs and flows in a blend of existential prose and almost deconstructionist storytelling that is quite rare for crime-noir. Beneath the cars and the noir-laced dialogue is a book that is almost sweet, almost violent, almost poetry, and definitely fast.
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