I read 'Drive' on the morning of July 4th all in one sitting; it's only 153 pages. Part 85 of my Ryan Gosling fixation/rabbithole. And while it was an interesting read and I will keep the book, I uhhh prefer the movie.
I wanted to write a bit about it because I did like it, and also list some movie/book differences in anyone is interested.
The book is fast paced and kind of dreamy and vague at times. Chapters often jump between his childhood, growing career/popularity, and the current Standard/Bernie/stolen money conflict. I guess I've never read noir before, which the 'conversation with the author' in the back defines as 'classic tragedy removed from nobles and set down among ordinary folk.'
Driver is surrounded by a lot of tragic people, but avoids a lot of it himself tbh by being smart and hard to catch. He's much more Lone Wolf-ish in the book and does NOT act near-overwhelmed by the violence he has to commit, the way Ryan Gosling portrays him in the movie. It's just what he needs to do and that's that. And the scorpion jacket was also 100% made up for the movie, he does not wear that or have any particular 'look' in the novel. He's also 19-20 which I did not expect lmao and he drinks a LOT. Frankly he has the drinking habits and speaking patterns of a man who's 30ish not 20ish.
MANY characters drift in and out of Driver's life, the ones in the movie are a small chunk of them. Shannon is a famous stunt driver, not an auto shop owner, and he dies doing a routine stunt. Irene is Irina in the book, a Latina woman who was married to Standard 'for about 10 minutes'. Standard is not actually bothered by Irina hanging out with Driver, and he asks Driver to look out for her and Benicio if he dies. But then Irina is shot in the head by a rando and Benicio shipped off to grandparents in Mexico. It's briefly stated that Driver writes to him for a year and Benicio sends drawings back. Then Driver does try reaching Benicio by phone but the number doesn't work. Then Driver never thinks about him again.
All the above characters exist for 5-10 chapters out of 31. Eventually the conflict with Bernie and Nino takes center stage, but much of the novel is Driver's day-to-day stunt work (he is VERY in-demand) wandering through seedy places in the city that he clearly feels comfortable in, and multiple paragraphs lovingly describing Mexican food that reminded me a little of feast descriptions in Redwall lmao. It's never stated, but I bet Book!Driver understands some Spanish.
There's some very memorable bits of writing in the book, and I do kinda like the dreamy feel of it. One writing choice that irked me a tiiiiny bit was the author sometimes removing the subject which would ordinarily be at the start of a sentence ('The, There It, I'). Weirdly this happens more in the narration/description than spoken dialogue. This can make sentences sound like they're being spoken by a hillbilly in a rocking chair, or a cowboy. Paraphrasing, but imagine sentences like >> Was a party at the neighbor's house last night. Man upstairs has been known to talk. Brother's in town this week. Can always find a man like him on these streets. << TOO much of that annoys me a tiny, petty bit, sorry
That said, Mr. Sallis I was *NOT* familiar with your prolific game...didn't realize this guy has written a crapton of books already, Drive is just 1 piece of his large pile of writings within a variety of genres. I gotta respect an author who's cranked out tons of work, brought tons of his ideas to life, would that I could get shit done like this. Also, poking around some articles and YT vids...he really liked the movie! :)
gracieabrams
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