James Sallis

Driver, a man who makes a living doing stunt driving for films during the day and by driving for criminals at night, finds himself caught in the middle when he is double-crossed by some former partners and is forced to take violent means to protect himself and to seek revenge on his betrayers, in a short novel that evokes the world of classic noir. Reprint.

Drive

Evan

Unfortunately for "Drive", I think this is a rare case where the film does a better job with the story than the source material. I found the book entertaining enough (I'd like to give it 2.5 stars), it was certainly a good idea to keep chapters tight to fasten the pace. But I think the character of Driver doesn't need the backstory given sporadically throughout this chapter of his life, a chapter that feels sort of nonsensically connected in this medium versus the movie where it's just a string of bad luck and the clashing of small worlds in a big city.
 I recommend the book if you're a big fan of the movie like I am, however I should say that you can expect a definite downgrade. If learning more about the Driver ruins the charm and mystique for you (and honestly, it should), then this book can and should be avoided.

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.

Nora 

Very L.A. lit, neo-noir with all those frostings on the side. It's all very flavorful, like those last juices at the bottom of smoothie being sucked out a rainbow twirly straw. LA is this ruined city, with every piece of glimmer found in the cracks is stretched to the end. Sallis shows that moment rights before the bubblegum bubble pops and falls back into the mountains of rubble that is LA.

quite different from the movie (which i've watched) but i can see why this was right up optioned for a cinematic treatment. it reads like a hardboiled noir screenplay, in a good but improbable way. loved it.

Luca Conti

Joseph Kuuire

I don't know about this. The beginning started off well and then all of sudden, I'm lost. The chronology and timelines get messed up. I don't know what is present day and what's past. It became difficult to follow. I guess watching the movie beforehand also kind of messed it up for me when reading but the book was still difficult to follow

vive

Dominik

devin.reads

Francis Buggey

Margarete 

Devin Jones

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.

zilver 

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.''

Drive

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