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Drive (Drive #1)

3.53 of 5 stars 3.53 · rating details · 2,443 ratings · 400 reviews

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 lat...more

Paperback, Film Tie-In, 192 pages

Published 2011 by No Exit (first published September 1st 2005)

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May 01, 2012 Lou rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: october-reading, noir, thriller, adapted-to-screen

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 stun...more 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.

"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."

Visit here for movie trailer (less)

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May 13, 2012 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: noir, mystery, crime, 2000s

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 h...more

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Dec 01, 2011 Marnie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Dopo aver visto il bellissimo film con Ryan Gosling, mi sono precipitata a leggere questo. Mi intrigava la storia di come questo sociopatico eremita, poeta della guida, potesse mettere in gioco tutto per amore.
Esistono due tipi di Driver, quello Sallisiano e quello Goslinghiano. Mentre quest'ultimo appare come una silenziosa creatura, che trasuda emozioni solo con gli occhi, l'altro ci viene rappresentato come molto più "duro", più feroce ed espansivo. Se quello cinematografico ha come unico sc...more

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May 28, 2012 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: pop-lit

Chris and I both loved the film adaptation of Drive and thus wanted to read the novel, well novella really, that it is based on.

The screenplay definitely takes it in a different direction, adding far more romance than the novel includes, which I can't help but like, but there's a lot in the book that doesn't get captured - scraps and pieces of who Driver is before he comes to LA. While you wouldn't think the inspiration for one of the best action films of 2011 would, the novel deals with huge t...more

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Sep 12, 2007 Terry rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: neo-noir fans; anybody

Shelves: modernnoir

Driver (the only name we know him by) is physically small, perhaps even slightly S-L-O-W, son of a small-time burglar, a reader of noirs by George Pelecanos, a Hollywood hanger-on and stunt driver. Despite these deficits, he can drive like some NASCAR fool, but better because he drives the streets on special jobs evading cops, improvising like a jazz musician. That's all he does: Drive. He eschews muscle-jobs or killings.

But when one of Driver's associates shotguns two innocent bystanders while...more

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May 15, 2012 Ben Winch rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: anglo, american, pulp

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...more

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Oct 30, 2010 Charles rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: thriller, mystery, friendsbooks

This is a noir novella, and is a masterpiece. Some folks are troubled by the fact that sections are told out of linear sequence. I didn't find that a problem. I think it's one of the best noir books ever.

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Apr 25, 2013 Bill rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literary, thriller

A Minimalist Getaway Driver

Sallis, J. (2005). Drive. New York: Harcourt/Harvest.

Hollywood stunt driver, Driver, also works as a getaway driver and sometimes hit man. There isn’t a wasted word in this 158 page novel, which is enjoyable for anyone who appreciates how difficult it is to say only what needs to be said. On the other hand, at this degree of minimalism the story becomes only a series of images. It is easy to forget who characters are, what is going on, what people’s motives are, especi...more

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Feb 09, 2013 Carlos Garcia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Aunque tiene una narrativa algo extraña y confusa, los lectores que se queden con las páginas de James Sallis van a encontrar una novela existencialista con toques muy obscuros, no tan diferente de El Extranjero de Albert Camus.

El haber visto la adaptación a filme de la novela (la razón original por la que quise leerla, y que puedo recomendar hagan lo mismo) me ayudó a imaginarme físicamente los entornos y los actores, y en esto caso creo que enriqueció mi experiencia por una sola razón: la adap...more

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Jan 29, 2013 Nathan Nix rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

You don’t hear it too often, but in this case, the film was better than the book. Not that the book was bad--the film was just that good. Performances aside, the film’s approach to the story was far more streamlined and focused, which I felt ended up being more effective. (And I’m not talking about linear vs. non-linear, which I didn’t have any issue with in the novel.) What the book really has going for it is James Sallis’ eye for detail and ability to turn a city foreign to me into what felt l...more

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Oct 27, 2012 Charlynn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Take a crime novel, strip it of almost everything that could be considered excess or unnecessary, and what's left is Sallis' Drive. Ebbing and flowing through time, each chapter is a scene. Sometimes, they're grisly; sometimes, they're nothing but a mere memory, but each moment is essential to the story. There are no passages of poetic prose to describe a setting and very few emotions to speak of. Everything is cold. Bleak. It's like living - no, existing in the dark, only for there to be brief,...more Take a crime novel, strip it of almost everything that could be considered excess or unnecessary, and what's left is Sallis' Drive. Ebbing and flowing through time, each chapter is a scene. Sometimes, they're grisly; sometimes, they're nothing but a mere memory, but each moment is essential to the story. There are no passages of poetic prose to describe a setting and very few emotions to speak of. Everything is cold. Bleak. It's like living - no, existing in the dark, only for there to be brief, fleeting moments when the curtains are pulled back or, more accurately, a lamp is switched on, temporarily illuminating a precise moment before everything goes dark once again. And there's nothing beautiful in this book either. Drive is unapologetic about its ugliness, and perhaps this is why it is so fascinating. It's not unheard of for a book to feature a sympathetic antihero - either a vigilante seeking justice on someone else's behalf or a bad guy who has good intentions but just can't seem to find his way out of the bottom, but that's not Driver; that's not Drive. This novel is populated with characters who do varying degrees of bad things either because they want to, because they can, or because what else are they supposed to do. To the average person, it makes no sense - these decisions the book's characters make, but that doesn't mean that the story itself is incomprehensible. Rather, it's glaringly competent in its honesty, and, true to form, sometimes the truth can be shocking.

By day, Driver is a stunt driver; at night, he's a getaway driver. That's it, though. He doesn't do anything else on the jobs he takes; just drives. And this works for him. Job after job - whether professional or not-so-professional, he does what needs to be done, and he does so better than anyone else. But then something goes wrong, and it becomes personal for Driver. When things get personal for him, they also get messy, and, when things get messy, he starts to do more than just drive - at first because of necessity, and then because he chooses to do so. Through everything, though, he never loses sight of what he does best.

Likewise, what Sallis does best is create a mood for his novel with very few words. Despite Driver's skills and success, he lives a very simple, basic life that's essentially all about survival. This Sallis depicts through his emphasis upon the overabundance of food in Drive, upon his descriptions of the cars. Just like with his writing style, he doesn't include much beyond the necessities in Driver's life. These two things Sallis also uses to emphasize Driver's ability to adapt, to be a chameleon, taking on the habits of those around him - he eats what they eat; he drinks what they drink - and taking their vehicles as his own. Driver says what everyone wants him to say... which is very little throughout the book, making the silences themselves all the more powerful and important. Staccato and hopeless in nature, Drive's, Driver's, progression... if one can even call it that... is precisely what one would expect from a novel which recalls 1940's noir, but this doesn't make it any less fascinating or haunting, meaning that Sallis' work is one that will stay with readers for far longer than the actual reading experience lasted.

The only complaint against the novel is what also makes it so riveting: it's starkness. For those who relish rich descriptions, this book is enjoyable as a departure, but it could never serve as a benchmark for those readers' taste or preference.(less)

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Sep 29, 2012 Taylor Ross rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Growing up in LA, I was really impressed by Sallis' depiction of the city. Driver's personality is perfectly flawed, and equally personified in the way he drives. A lone ranger-always on the move, drifting from one street to the next...He is never rooted in one place and is always on the run. He identifies with the city of LA in the sense that he is always moving...

"Walking away from Benito's, Driver stepped into a world transformed. Like most cities, L.A. became a different beast by night. Fina...more

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Sep 20, 2012 Leodora Murphy rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is one of those books that leaves you thinking and not thinking at the same time. A lot of stuff happens in this book, but it's written as if they were everyday occurrences, which I think is kind of what Sallis wanted it to be. James Sallis is a very competent writer - he knows what he's doing. It's smooth, elegant and devestatingly blunt and violent at the same time.

You don't really get into the feel of any of the characters, you don't care what happens to them, yet you know almost everyt...more

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Sep 13, 2012 Richard rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Rating: 4* of five

The Book Description: “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 o...more

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Jul 05, 2012 Alyce Rocco rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Did not much like reading James Sallis' book, Drive. Novels often tell a story using flashbacks, but drive flipped and flopped through time, so much it was hard to tell if an event was happening in now time or in the past or after the murder at the start.

I kept expecting more details to emerge about that killing, because I had a hard time picturing exactly how it happened. The story reads like a first person narrative, tough guy, but it is not, which added to the confusing read. Drive could have...more

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Jun 23, 2012 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 stylis...more

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May 22, 2012 Tfitoby rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: black-as-night

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 sepa...more 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 Don Winslow and David Goodis 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.

D.K. Holm 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.(less)

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May 11, 2012 Samolakisses rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Are all these people giving this novella and movie 4 and 5 star reviews morons? I checked out the book AFTER seeing that monstrosity of a movie and I couldn't get into it. It was so terrible. How in the world did anyone allow this thing to be made into a movie is beyond me?

Don't listen to all of these people recommending the movie either. They have terrible taste in cinema. Long awkward silences by the characters, terrible dialogue and situations, and Ryan Gosling seems to be mentally impaired...more

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Mar 19, 2012 Jacki rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult-fiction

Like so many others, I'm sure, I read this after watching the movie. I'm not big on "crime and mystery" type novels, but the movie hooked me and left me with so many questions--mostly about the protagonist. Questions like, "Who the hell was he?" and "Does he ever get a name?"

The answer to the latter is "no." But I did get a lot of satisfaction out of reading his back story. Where the movie did a great job at giving you a likeable, but mysterious protagonist with strong character traits, the book...more Like so many others, I'm sure, I read this after watching the movie. I'm not big on "crime and mystery" type novels, but the movie hooked me and left me with so many questions--mostly about the protagonist. Questions like, "Who the hell was he?" and "Does he ever get a name?"

The answer to the latter is "no." But I did get a lot of satisfaction out of reading his back story. Where the movie did a great job at giving you a likeable, but mysterious protagonist with strong character traits, the book gives you a talented, but troubled child that grew up to be a talented, but troubled man--emotionally disconnected from everyone. Even his one possible love interest didn't seem to phase him when she disappeared off the map of the book.

It was hard to read this book after watching the movie first. The two are very different. I'm not sure I can compare them all too well. One thing that I really loved about the movie was it's simplicity, tight scripting, and vexing story line. Ok, that's 3 things. (Also, Ryan Gosling's face after he pulverizes the guy in the elevator; no book could capture that expression.) The book, though succinct, was not as tightly woven as the movie. I missed that. In the movie, every little thing and person mattered--from the mask he put on to the number of times Irene passed him in the building before he noticed her. Everything was carefully chosen, placed, mentioned, and played into each other for the ending. In the book, Sallis brought in characters that disappeared without leaving an imprint; dream sequences and flashbacks that helped to fill out character, but may not have been necessary.

I can't be too hard on the book. I enjoyed it. I really did. It was entertainment. And don't tell my brother, but it was a nice break from trying to wade through Brothers Karmozov. I read this in a day. Which means I probably missed a lot of the subtleties. Mostly, I'm satisfied with how it fleshed out the movie character and answered my questions. And that's what I read it for. (less)

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Mar 11, 2012 Dima Yakovenko rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

Крайне неоднозначная получилась книга. Повествование излишне запутано: часто просто не понимаешь в каком отрезке времени происходит событие, о котором сейчас читаешь. Да и сам стиль текста оставляет желать лучшего: ругательства, мат и различные уличные выражения только режут слух, однако, что удивительно, книга невероятно легко читается, все написано очень простым, хотя и отвратительным, языком. За что ругать точно не за что, так это сюжет, ведь он прост, но до безумия хорош, как и персонажи это...more

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Feb 24, 2012 Nicholas Doyle rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-without-pictures

So I recently watched the movie version of Drive and thought it was a fun movie, although I will admit it's a pretty slight film, more style than substance. I didn't realize it was based on a novel, but I saw the kindle edition while I was poking through Amazon looking for something to read on my lunch break. It was only $5, so I decided to check it out. While I wouldn't necessarily say the book was bad, I will say it's a pretty boring, without any of the stuff that usually makes books like this...more

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Jan 28, 2012 Kirk rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've rounded up to four for the sake of symmetry but really, this was a 3-1/2er for me. Knocked 'er off one night in about two hours after seeing the movie wouldn't be out for another week and that Amazon was hocking it for less than $6. I love the idea of this book but I think it's better in theory. Or maybe just not fully realized. This essentially old school Camus with a detached narrator who's such a high plains drifter he not only can't connect but has no desire to. Or so the premise wants...more I've rounded up to four for the sake of symmetry but really, this was a 3-1/2er for me. Knocked 'er off one night in about two hours after seeing the movie wouldn't be out for another week and that Amazon was hocking it for less than $6. I love the idea of this book but I think it's better in theory. Or maybe just not fully realized. This essentially old school Camus with a detached narrator who's such a high plains drifter he not only can't connect but has no desire to. Or so the premise wants you to believe. In reality the episodic glimpses of Driver's life pass by without really trying to cohere in some overall thematic statement. I get the point that not making a statement may be the point, but without some internal threading of significance the whole shebang can feel as much an exercise in style as anything else, with Driver's life whizzing by as fast as the people who flit in and out of his life. I kept waiting for some larger idea to gel about the speed at which we live, the desire for velocity as escape, but, hey, why deal with that when we can talk about pizza and beer and Mexican food. The sort of improvised feel of it all even introduces some odd inconsistencies. If Driver is so aloof and unattached, why does he care about the chicolita with the kid or his screenwriter friend Manny? And what's at stake with the whole gotta-kill-my-way-outta-this-mess main plot? Who was Blanche and why do we care? I'll even say the scenes of Driver driving felt a little artificial to me---yeah, yeah, we get the D. can make his mark, etc etc, but I kept waiting for way more specific descriptions of how a car runs during a stunt or getaway. Otherwise, it all feels a little Fast & Furious-y. Finally, a plea to noir writers: can we do away with people shitting their pants at the moment of death? We get it---the ultimate humiliation. But seriously, I've read four books in a row in which murder victims, whether bad guys or good guys, evacuate, void, and express their bowels (and not in that order). I'm waiting for the next character to take the chocolate egress. Never have I felt the need to shoot some Pepto-Bismol from a couple hundred pages of fiction. Enough soiling oneself already. No more doodoo need be done. Remember how Popeye in Sanctuary pooped himself upon hanging? It happens in Hemingway's early vignette about Sam Cardinelli's execution, but he only pulled a number two once, so we don't need to rename that book INcontinence OUR TIME.

All right, enough negativity. Here's where the book to me gained some gravitas. The contrast between Driver and the gangster Bernie. There's something almost operatic about their final meal together, very Godfatherish in its grandiosity. Honestly, I could've enjoyed a contrast between button-lipped Driver and chatty cathy Bernie throughout. It's Bernie who yammers his way toward theme over that final meal, and even if the point feels a little Nathanael West/Horace McCoy (westward expansion has run its course/there's no more frontier) I was grateful somebody in the middle of all this gear-shifting was verbal. Too bad Bernie doesn't enter the book until 3/4 of the way through.

I also thought the ending was pitch-perfect---nicely giving the whole story the feel of a fable.

Overall, I enjoyed it. Certainly Sallis deserves his props after a long enviable career that includes a boffo bio of Chester Himes. I like the structure---which feels heavily indebted to Memento---but in the end it maybe felt a little too random. I was missing those deep-earth architectonics that would show me some contriving. We know the world is coming apart at the seams, that everything is fragmented and floating off in bubbles of impermanence. Let's let art in general and the novel specifically remind us of the pleasures of the well-wrought form.(less)

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Oct 09, 2011 Brian Crawford rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I made a review as brief, fleeting, and colorless as the novella.

The story was compelling enough to read within two days, but the plot and characters were seriously underdeveloped. At times, I found the dialogue to be unrealistic and unconvincing. Driver is never really as shrewd and savvy as he is made out to be. The plot is heavy-handed and very rushed. Sallis rarely slows down to establish the scenery or the characters' actions. The characters kind of float by with disembodied voices, and we...more

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Sep 15, 2011 Tony rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-crime-detection

Sallis, James. DRIVE. (2005). ***.
I missed this short novel when it came out a few years ago, and decided I’d better catch up pretty quick. The film adaptation is due out this month! Again, I have nothing but good things to say about Sallis. He is a marvelous writer with the ability to describe character and place with a minimum of the right word choices. His choice of language is almost lyrical – even when describing acts of violence. In this novel, we meet Driver, the main character’s name. I...more

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Aug 15, 2011 Diarmuid Hester rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

James Sallis' Drive is in many ways an inversion the noir thriller, for whom plot and character are historically enshrined (such that, like much genre fiction, each instance is often simply another adumbration of the same). Traditional tropes remain (the murder, the chase, the blonde, the staccato dialogue) yet narrative progression is dislocated, changing gears mid-sentence and mysteriously shifting pace and setting. Character development also seems superfluous: though we quickly move through D...more

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May 01, 2011 Trekscribbler rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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-winnin...more 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. (less)

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Oct 02, 2011 David rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: big-white-square

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 thoug...more

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Sep 25, 2011 Rebecca rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I saw this movie last week and decided to read the book. This is one of a handful of experiences where I've liked the movie better.

"Drive" is an interesting tale but told out of sequence and often confusing. At times Driver seems like a young adult, barely in his twenties. At others, he seems to be pushing 50 and you wonder what all that liquor and fatty food is doing to his heart. The clues in the text don't help. Some of the references are for sixties cars so you think you're in the sixties bu...more

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Jul 02, 2011 Ed rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Another book about a getaway driver, DRIVE is a tightly written, dirty, gritty fast read. Sallis is an excellent writer who really focused on character development somewhat at the expense of the rather thin plot. There were some brilliant turns of phrase in this book and the non-linear narrative style worked for me, though it might not work for everyone. I was hooked from the first sentence, one somewhat reminiscent of an old Parker book;

"Much later, as he sat with with his back against an insid...more

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Oct 08, 2011 Simon rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After seeing the film adaptation I was excited to see how the book stood up as I personally find films that are “based on a book” turn out to be much better, how I was wrong!

The story kicks of with Driver being held up in a Motel room standing over dead bodies and sustaining injuries to himself which pulls you in and immediately makes you want to read more. Now I am usually a fan of this style of writing, tempting the reader with what is going to happen later in the story and then enjoying the t...more

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Some, ambiguous expressions in James Sallis' 'Drive'	2	25	Feb 27, 2012 03:23am

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About James Sallis

James 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.

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Quotes from Drive

“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.” — 9 people liked it

“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.” — 7 people liked it

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