Drive / James Sallis

   I thought I had two books to review, but it turns out: I DON'T. I've just got one, and part of me doesn't feel like posting about it because there are few movie-versions-of-books that are quite so polarizing as Drive. People either hate Drive or they love Drive and I must admit: I'm in the latter camp. I watched Drive by myself in a movie theater in Auckland and when it ended I said "WOW". However, I went into it expecting very long shots and little dialogue so maybe I was prepared. I also watch many old movies, and have a deep and abiding love for film noir, so maybe all these contributing factors are the reason I love Drive and others don't. It's a mystery. I didn't actually know that Drive was based on a book, until I was at Chapters with a pal of mine and she said, "hey, look at this" and it was Drive by James Sallis and even though she isn't exactly fond of Drive-the-movie, she still found Drive-the-book for me. Thanks, man.

   This book opens with the scene in the hotel after the job goes wrong (you know which one?) which is a bit odd, since this event occurs at the middle of the story. When I moved along to the second chapter I said "what the what" before realizing that J Sallis used a device we in the biz like to call non-sequential storytelling. I am casting about for other books that use this device, and the only one I can think of at the moment is Slaughterhouse-5. The story doesn't follow a chronological sequence of events, but jumps around, and no: Drive does not include time-travel or alien abductions. It includes a lot of driving and a bunch of murderin'.

   I enjoyed this very short book (very short AND very large print, wowza. It barely takes up 180 pages) but I have some reservations in laying out an internet-wide recommendation. There are three dead bodies and a spreading pool of blood in chapter one, and it escalates from there. Plus a great deal of crime and etc. To be honest, I usually have reservations about giving a sweeping recommendation to anything. Qualms about everything, all the time. The communities I am a part of are very varied, and people's tastes/tolerances are as well, and I don't know what effect any given book will have on the people around me. If you had read everything I've ever read, in the same order and at the same point in your life, then I could be confident in foisting certain books on you. As it is, I can only say "I found value in this book for a variety of reasons and feel that others would appreciate it as well in favorable circumstances."