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From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. I drive. That's what I do. All I do." So declares the enigmatic Driver in this masterfully convoluted neo-noir, which ranges from the dive bars and flyblown motels of Los Angeles to seedy strip malls dotting the Arizona desert. A stunt driver for movies, Driver finds more excitement as a wheelman during robberies, but when a heist goes sour, a contract is put on his head and his survival skills burn up the pavement. Author of the popular six-novel series set in New Orleans featuring detective Lew Griffin (The Long-Legged Fly, etc.) and such stand-alone crime novels as Cypress Grove, Sallis won't disappoint fans who enjoy his usual quirky literary stylings. Reading a crime paperback, Driver covers "a few more lines till he fetched up on the word desuetude. What the hell kind of word was that?" Lines such as "Time went by, which is what time does, what it is" provide the perfect existential touch. In this short novel, expanded from his story in Dennis McMillan's monumental anthology Measures of Poison, Sallis gives us his most tightly written mystery to date, worthy of comparison to the compact, exciting oeuvre of French noir giant Jean-Patrick Manchette.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Sallis has a bloodhound's nose for noir. Whether in the celebrated Lew Griffin novels or in his several stand-alones, his characters are always trapped--trapped by their inability to effect change in a malign world, trapped by their own character flaws, trapped by the wrong girl, trapped by walking into the wrong place at the wrong time. Sometimes they know they're trapped, and sometimes they are the last ones to know, but Sallis always knows; he can smell it in their pores, and he makes us smell it, too. So it is with Driver, the antihero of this quintessential noir novella about a loner with a passion for driving fast cars. He's a Hollywood stunt driver by day and a getaway car driver by night, but he has no interest in either movies or crime: he just wants to drive. Life won't let him, of course, and eventually he figures that out, as he sits in a Motel 6 near Phoenix, "watching the pool of blood lap toward him." Sallis shows us how he got there in one crisply written, spot-on scene after another. At one point, near the end of the book, Driver reflects that we neither choose our lives nor have them thrust at us. Instead, "they're forever seeping up under our feet." You won't find a better definition of the noir worldview than that, and you won't find a more textbook example of how to express that view in fiction than in this hypnotic little story about driving circles around your life. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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First Sentence
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. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
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. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Don't see what all the fuss is about.,
This review is from: Drive (Paperback)
Currently halfway through the book, and it's been page after page of garbage. Run-on sentences, clumsy metaphors, pages of narration that tries too hard to be clever and just winds up being tedious and boring, followed by important points that just get glossed over. It's the kind of book that devotes two hundred words to what someone has for lunch, but skips over the getaway from a pawn shop robbery with "they barely got away." One chapter takes place from the perspective of a different character, but doesn't let on that we're not following the main character until halfway through -- we're back to the main guy in the next chapter, with no clear indication of the switch. It contains some of the worst descriptions I've ever read. I have no idea why people enjoyed this book, and can only assume they haven't read a lot of books for comparison.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Drive,
This review is from: Drive (Paperback)
This book, like the movie, has kept me wanting more! Its not a long story, but in the first 2 paragraphs will have you hooked!
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.9 out of 5 stars (61 customer reviews) 12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Every word counts,
By The Pro From Dover - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Drive (Hardcover)
Every word counts in this "sunshine noir" by noted mystery writer James Sallis. Drive is that rare thing, the proverbial novel you cannot put down. Yet, Sallis never cheats by loading up on worn plot devices. Instead, this slim volume pares the story down to its barest essestials, just plot and character, stripped of artifice. And drive. Yes, the story hurtles along, moving fast, but always under control. Do you think you have seen it all with noir? If you think so, then you owe it to yourself to pick up Drive. Sallis uses some familiar devices, but the story he tells and the character he tells it through, the "Driver," are new. Drive will keep you hanging until the last sentence. That's drive enough for anyone.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
a marvelously dark read!,
By woodstock_ap "woodstock_ap" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Drive (Hardcover)
Readers who delight in noir have a treat in store.This short novel moves back and forth in both time and place, following a few weeks in the life of Driver - a character who provides no other name. He has a double career - first as a stunt driver for the LA film industry, self trained and among the best in the highly skilled group of specialists. And in the evenings and between film jobs he drives for thieves and con men. But that is all he does - drive. No burglary, no guns, no other participation. A moonlighting venture goes wrong and sends Driver in search of those who double crossed him. In spare prose, important people in Driver's past and present life are clearly drawn and believable, some presented only as traces from Driver's memory. Although fragmentary, these brief references provide perfect motivation for Driver's actions as he moves toward his moments of revenge. He is a man not always on the right side of the law, or even of a just society, yet in Sallis' hands he becomes a man worthy of respect. 14 of 19 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
excellent hardboiled crime thriller,
By Harriet Klausner - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Drive (Hardcover)
Los Angeles based Drive lives up to his name day and night. During the day he works in films as an action drive while at night he drives the getaway car in criminal activities. His current evening job has Drive working a heist just north of Phoenix. As he sits in the vehicle waiting for his teammates, The New Guy who cooked up the job and hired Drive, Dave Strong who aptly provides muscle, and Blanche, who offers the sexy distraction, he notices another car sitting in the nearby alley, mirroring what Drive is doing.Shots are fired; Blanche races into Drive's car with the money; urging him to take off. Drive leaves with the other vehicle on his back; he gets rid of the tail by cleverly using the police to stop the other car. However that night at the motel, the thugs from the other car arrive shooting at Drive and Blanche leaving her and the two adversaries dead; Drive has a ton of money, but first must clean up the double cross if he is to use it without someone trying to murder him. DRIVE is a throwback tale to the Noirs of the late 1940s and 1950s starring a tough individual who steps over the legal line, but only so far until the double-cross and attempts on his life turn him into a retaliatory machine. The story line is action-packed with a strong support cast that provides a look at the support Hollywood role of a driver as well as a first class criminal tale. Fans will want to hitch a ride with James Sallis as he provides an excellent hardboiled crime thriller. Harriet Klausner |
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