Drive (Paperback)

~ James Sallis (Author) "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..." (more)
Key Phrases: Bernie Rose, Miss Dickinson, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

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.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Critics agree that James Sallis, author of the Lew Griffin mystery series, "may be one of the best mystery writers that most readers have never heard of" (Knight Ridder Tribune). In Drive, he combines murder, treachery, and payback in a sinister plot resembling 1940s pulp fiction and film noir. Told through a complex, cinematic narrative that weaves back and forth through time and place, the story explores Driver’s near-existential moral foundations while revisiting its root cause: his hardscrabble, troubled childhood. Dark and gripping, Drive packs a powerful punch.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 158 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (September 5, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156030322
• ISBN-13: 978-0156030328
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #527,041 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Noir classic: short, dark, lingering., January 17, 2006

By	Jerry Saperstein (Evanston, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)

This review is from: Drive (Hardcover)

A few paragraphs in and you can smell the musty 40s. Gooseneck lamps, gently rounded cars, double-breasted suits. Everyone smoked. Everyone drank. Everyone ate steak.

But it's the modern day in LA. Driver leaves his foster home at 16. Makes it to L.A. Becomes a stunt driver. Along the way he develops a sideline of driving getaway cars.

A robbery goes wrong. Driver escapes with the loot and a woman robber. Someone tries to kill Driver: doesn't succeed, but takes out the woman.

Driver is a gentle soul. I drive, that's all is his ethic. But someone wants more and Driver doesn't like anyone on his trail.

Sallis is a master of noir. In 158 pages, he bangs out a complete morality play in which there is no good, no bad: just is, just what is there. Driver doesn't have a past or a future. Just a moment that demands certain things be done. Rootless, but not souless, Sallis paints his portrait in subtle strokes, all the more telling for that.

Sallis dedicates this work to Ed McBain, Donald Westlake and Larry Block, three great American writers. Sallis is, in my opinion, matched only by Block. McBain was great, but Sallis is better at noir.

"Drive" is a pleasant escape into a different reality, a true gem.

Jerry

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a marvelously dark read!, September 10, 2005

By	woodstock_ap "woodstock_ap" (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews

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.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fasten Your Seatbelt, May 26, 2006

By	Gary Griffiths (Los Altos Hills, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (VINE VOICE)

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This review is from: Drive (Hardcover)

Moody, dark, and atmospheric, "Drive" is the perfect refresh of the pulp crime masterpieces of McBain, Westlake, and Block; a raw and rugged little novel of a guy we know only as Driver, Hollywood stunt driver by day and getaway man for criminals by night. A simple tale - Driver gets set up on a robbery gone bad and plots his revenge on the mobsters who, as it turns out, have badly underestimated their mark. But here the story takes a back seat to form. For as a writer, James Sallis has serious chops. Seedy characters and shady deals twisted around lean and mean prose lurching from halting street talk to phases that turn so slick you'd think Cormac McCarthy was reinvented. And throw into this mix a nonlinear story line that hooks and jabs and keeps you off balance while building the mystique of this surrealistic little gem. Charlie Huston, Dean Swierczynski, and Victor Gischler - new masters all of contemporary noir. Add James Sallis to the head of that class. Unsettling, disturbing, brilliant - read it.