This was also made into a movie which I did not see, but the book was okay at times and at other times it felt like it dragged for me.. The main person was a stunt driver for movies during the day and then a getaway driver at night until everything went bad for him he was double-crossed for a murder and driving now was not so fun. At times I found this to be a really good book.

A very interesting crime drama. Stunt driver by day, crime driver by night. I can’t wait to view the movie.
Many thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

The inspiration for the major motion picture starring Ryan Gosling, Drive is a dark thriller that was named an Entertainment Weekly Top 10 Book of the Year and a Washington Post Best Book of the Year. This edition will feature extra materials, including a reading group guide and author Q&A.

Driver works as a stunt driver by day and a getaway driver by night. He drives, that's all-until he's double-crossed. And suddenly, driving isn't enough any more... but murder might be.

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I gave it 3.5 stars. It's good but I can't give it a 4 stars rating. The horror and the mystery throughout the book is amazing. I highly recommend this one if you're in need of a weird and creepy books to read!

Featuring ~ single 3rd person POV, stunt driver, violence, murder, crime, noir

This was just okay for me, not really my thing. All "Driver" does is drive. And did I miss his name or is it really Driver? That was kind of annoying. It was a quick read so that was nice.

Luckily, I was able to picture Ryan Gosling while listening/reading, but it would have been even better if he narrated too. This was turned into a movie back in 2011 in case you didn't know.

I was able to listen to the audiobook as well, so I went back and forth reading and listening. Narrated by Richard Powers for 3 hours and 28 minutes, easy to follow at 2-2.5x. He did a fine job.

Driver is a nomad of sorts and although he stays nearby to the LA area he has no fixed address and likes it that way. Because besides being a stunt driver he is also a driver for less legal situations. It is one of the situations he is hired for that he is almost Fadily double crossed he wants to know who’s behind it. When he realizes who stabbed him in the back he takes care of him and one thing leads to another when he finds me know the guy who hired out for the job he gives him the money with the condition what’s done is done and they’ll let bygones be bygones but we’re Nino also doesn’t keep his word, Driver Is dedicated to keeping his. While on the road to get revenge he also travels down memory Lane to the things that make him who he is. This isn’t a long book but a very good one. If you like revenge stories then you’ll love this book. I thought it was about stunt driving so I was pleasantly surprised when I found out it was something totally different. I received this book from NetGalley but I am leaving this review totally voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

The tone and style was just write for a short modern noir story. This was so much better than I expected, I am usually more into thrillers, horror, mystery novels, but this was exciting. The only thing I didn't like was the flashbacks, I feel like the story is too short to waste time on going back and forth, but overall it was a great read!

Originally written in 2005, Drive by James Sallis has been out of print for over a decade, since its last printing following the acclaimed movie of the same name. Now Poisoned Pen Press has brought a beautiful reprint edition back to the market, giving me the chance to evaluate both book and movie together.

Both iterations feature a getaway man known only as Driver. He’s the best there is, precise, prepared and professional. As he lays it out in both book and movie:

QUOTE
“I drive. That’s <i>all</i> I do. I don’t sit in while you’re planning the score or while you’re running it down. You tell me where we start, where we’re headed, where we’ll be going afterwards, what time of day. I don’t take part, I don’t know anyone, I don’t carry weapons. I drive.”
END QUOTE

By day, he’s a Hollywood stunt driver. Mostly, he keeps to himself, but that changes when he gets to know one of his neighbors, her son Benicio and Benicio’s dad, Standard. In the book, Irina is Latina, and the relationship between her, Driver and Standard is fairly easygoing, as she and Standard broke up well before he went to prison several years prior to her meeting Driver. In the movie, however, the role went to the very white Casey Mulligan, whose character is rechristened Irene and whose marriage to Standard is still very much valid, if emotionally fraught.

Driver and Standard eventually decide to pull a job together. In the book, their partnership goes on for a while before things go south. In the movie, their one job is merged with the heist that sets Driver on a quest for revenge, turning him from getaway man to assassin as he tracks down the people who seem to know only how to betray others, refusing to leave him alone despite his best efforts at ending things at least professionally, if not amicably.

The 2011 film takes the elegantly fractured continuity of Mr Sallis’ noir novel and reframes Driver’s story in a linear framework, slashing certain roles while expanding others for older, famous actors. Director Nicolas Winding Refn’s depiction of Driver’s getaway work is impeccable, particularly in his opening sequence. I wasn’t as much a fan of the predictable love triangle indulgences, or of the scenery-chewing by the aforementioned older actors. Most bizarre of all to me was the choice to have Driver get gratuitously violent with a woman he suspects of setting him up, a scene not present or even hinted at in the book. But this adaptation was good enough to win Mr Refn Best Director at Cannes, and the movie overall was considered a critical and commercial success, with a long tail as a cult hit.

In all honesty, I far preferred the novel, with its more painful, less sentimental treatment of Driver’s relationship with Irina and her family, as well as its deeper delve into Driver’s past and what made him the way he is:

QUOTE
Up till the time Driver got his growth about twelve, he was small for his age, an attribute of which his father made full use. The boy could fit easily through small openings, bathroom windows, pet doors and so on, making him a considerable helpmate at his father’s trade, which happened to be burglary. When he did get his growth he got it all at once, shooting up from just below four feet to six-two almost overnight, it seemed. He’d been something of a stranger to and in his body ever since. When he walked, his arms flailed about and he shambled. If he tried to run, often as not he’d trip and fall over. One thing he could do, though, was drive. And he drove like a son of a bitch.
END QUOTE

I’m glad I got a chance to experience both book and movie for the first time this year. While the movie was, for me, passable entertainment for its hundred minutes – with several admittedly stylish sequences in both that opening chase scene and the kiss in the elevator – I found its source more compelling, with greater depth and diversity and far less cliched material. It’s easy to see how this spare, almost bleak novella is considered a modern classic, with Driver almost as much Western hero as noir protagonist, a man with no name who rides into town and enforces his harsh but not unwarranted brand of justice. Fitting given that the action takes place almost entirely in California and Arizona, with the arid landscape a constant backdrop for this dark tale of criminal excess and loss.

Read this if you haven't seen the movie. If you have seen the movie (which I have) you might find it lacking but that's not the fault of Sallis but rather the dynamic portrait and music of the film. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Poisoned Pen Press for an advanced copy of this slice of noir set on the highways of the west coast.

Explaining pulp stories and their attraction to readers is hard. Is it the writing, the dialogue, the violence. The lunk falling for a dame, the bad guy with a set of morals that ends in a redemptive death. The criminal life, the macho ideal. The getting out the door with nothing if the heat shows up outside the door, when just going to get buy milk seems like so much work. To me it was the writing, the spareness, the words that were not said, the descriptions that didn't need to tell the writer what to see. James Sallis I think read many of the same books I was buying by the box load on the last day of my library's book sales. Drive is a lean, though not mean, story of a man trying to ride through life, but who's rearview mirror is full of trouble, and the horizon doesn't look much better.

Driver, as we know him by, just drives. That's his life, his passion, and all he wants. Doesn't need to know, doesn't care. By day he drives for Hollywood, A- list, B- movies, tv shows, whatever is needed on the screen he will do. At night between eating out and drinking much, he works for the criminal class, getaways a specialty, as long as the pay is good. Until a job goes wrong. And people start dying, and the Driver finds himself on a new road, revenge.

A short pulpy little story with an enigmatic hero, violence, great food, lots of drinking, violence, and a lot of white line fever driving. Sallis has a real grasp on the story, changing narrators, going forward, back and even to the side in time, but never losing the wheel, keeping the story straight, even with a few curves, and a few side roads, that I thought would be bigger, but turned out not to be. The writing is smooth and very assured, be on food, clothing, cars, engines, or how Hollywood hanger-on types talk. Driver is a character you want to know more about, but frankly we know enough, we just want to see him win. There is a timeless to the writing. What decade does this take place in. Is this the past, and everything is leading to now. For a small book there is a lot to contemplate.

I have read James Sallis study of three mystery writers, Difficult Lives on Jim Thompson, Chester Hines and David Goodis and enjoyed it. This is the first fiction I have read by him and really enjoyed it. I have not seen the movie, and wonder if they really could capture the character well. Recommended for fans of the three men mentioned early, and for fans of Donald Westlake's Parker series, written under the alias of Richard Stark. I could see Driver being one of the few guys Parker would like working with, a professional who keeps his mouth shut and does his job. Really good pulpy adventure.

'I drive. That's what I do. All I do.'
'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, the story of a man who works as a stunt driver by day and a getaway driver by night. He drives, that's all -until he's double crossed.
Really enjoyable read totally recommend
Thank You NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press
I just reviewed Drive by James Sallis. #NetGalley

It’s not that the story wasn’t written well - but I guess I could not connect to the characters. I loved the violent opening - three dead and our protagonist in trouble - but what followed the flashbacks to coming to Hollywood to drive - stunts and crime - bores me

I really liked this story and the main character was brilliant. This book is an absolute thril ride. Highly recommended zx

This book is a re-release of the 2005 novel, with additional material including a reading group guide and Q&A with the author. The premise and execution of this book is short, sweet and simple; Driver is a stunt driver by day, and getaway driver by night. When he is double crossed after a job gone wrong, he seeks revenge against those who double crossed him. While that’s a clichéd storyline, the writing is excellent, conveying a dark, gritty “noir” vision of Hollywood and Los Angeles. The structure of the book was confusing initially, as the timelines of the novel jump around quite a bit – but after a while the narrative starts to make sense. This is a cool little book, but for me lacks the re-readability factor. 3.5/5 stars. The book is due out in September 2022. Many thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for the ARC.

Smart, Slick, Punchy…
A stunt driver by day, a getaway driver by night. Driver is the best there is. It’s what he does. Nothing more. That is, until he’s double crossed. Told in a punchy, smart, slick narrative and laced with edgy humour, this is more than a simple plot of revenge. Searing American noir, vividly portrayed.

Drive is one of the most hard-boiled and gruesome noir stories to bless the genre in the past decade. A short and sweet narrative, James Sallis takes you through a transformative journey of a man known only as the Driver. The magic of the narrative lies in the realization that you start to root for Driver even with the glaringly obvious violent streaks in his dark personality that would ordinarily put you off.
In the moody vibe of LA glistening with neon signs and dark roads, The Driver spends his days working as a stunt driver and moonlights as a getaway driver with an ironclad set of rules. When a getaway goes awry, he must survive the onslaught of killers sent his way by a vicious gangster.
James Sallis elegantly encapsulates the noir theme of Hollywood. The situational descriptions, including everything from dialogues to the vroom of the Driver’s getaway vehicle, are personified as quintessential elements that add to the whole experience of reading Drive. The Driver himself is a character of conflict as you’ll find yourself rooting simultaneously for and against him when he breaks out of the good-guy act to deliver unbridled violence.
The chapters switch back and forth between timelines and I was a bit lost at the beginning but once the narrative settles in, the switches become understandable and even important to establish The Driver as a poignant character without him uttering more words than necessary.
Drive is a crisp, dark, and unsettling thriller that goes 0 to 60 quicker than you can say WOAH. James Sallis’s economy of words does not detract from the experience of a grim story told with relentless pacing. While I do wish the narrative would have been more streamlined and fleshed out, Drive works as a short read to have with your nighttime cup of coffee while imagining the classical LA backdrop.

If you want a quick, action-driven novel, this will work for you. If you’re looking for a character-driven story with a lesson you can take with you, look someplace else. Solid for its genre.