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Drive (Drive, #1)

James Sallis

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Oct 18, 2024 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was ok

Shelves: suspense-thriller, crime, neo-noir, audio, hard-boiled, saw-the-movie-b4-i-read-the-book, its-short-sjsogotpa

What this book pretends to be: a neo-noir crime novel about a guy who's an excellent driver.

What this book actually is: a detailed list of all the food Driver & his buddies eat. SO MANY DESCRIPTIONS OF FOOD!! Was Sallis on a diet when he wrote this? Every other scene, we're reading all about the food, the menu, the side dishes, the particular types of wine. Sallis can't stop thinking about food.

Also, it's really annoying to not give your character a name but use their "nickname" constantly. What this book pretends to be: a neo-noir crime novel about a guy who's an excellent driver.

What this book actually is: a detailed list of all the food Driver & his buddies eat. SO MANY DESCRIPTIONS OF FOOD!! Was Sallis on a diet when he wrote this? Every other scene, we're reading all about the food, the menu, the side dishes, the particular types of wine. Sallis can't stop thinking about food.

Also, it's really annoying to not give your character a name but use their "nickname" constantly. The way this was written, this guy needed a name. The "nameless protagonist" schtick only works when the name is never needed, and you finish the book and suddenly realize "hey! I don't know that character's name!" If you have to call him "Driver" a hundred times, it starts to feel rather twee.

The movie was better. In fact, it's hard for me to believe that such an exquisite movie was made from this pile of confused dog poop. Sure, Refn combined a few of the characters in this book and left out a few other subplots, but streamlining the plot is the nature of converting a book into a movie. The subplots and extra characters are not what weakened this book. It's the idiotic chronology that made a hash of things in the book. Refn wisely took that spaghetti and straightened it all out and told things in order. This isn't Pulp Fiction, people. We don't need to get fancy and jump all around. Just tell the damned story. Neo-noir is meant to be spare, not fancy.

I listened to the audiobook, which perhaps was not a good choice. Richard Powers' voice doesn't have the gravitas needed to deliver a staccato neo-noir crime story, and he can't do different voices so dialogue often got confusing. There was never any indication of past or present so the chronology was incredibly confusing.

I'm seeing all the four and five star reviews of this book, and I'm wondering if I would have liked it a lot more if I'd read the book instead of listened to the audiobook. ...more

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