Drive - Tapa blanda

"Imagine the heart of Jim Thompson beating in the poetic chest of James Sallis and you'll have some idea of the beauty, sadness and power of "Drive..".[it] has more thought, feeling and murderous energy than books twice its length." --Chicago Tribune "Sallis is a gifted writer and he doesn't cram his story into this slim volume. Rather he distills it into a superbly potent brew that burns going down and explodes in the belly." --Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine "noir at its pulpiest best" --Library Journal "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" --Publisher's Weekly, starred review "a taut page-turner...It's a lovely piece of work that makes you wish some other writers would take lessons from him." --Washington Post "Imagine the heart of Jim Thompson beating in the poetic chest of James Sallis and you'll have some idea of the beauty, sadness and power of Drive..".[it] has more thought, feeling and murderous energy than books twice its length." --Chicago Tribune "Sallis is a gifted writer and he doesn't cram his story into this slim volume. Rather he distills it into a superbly potent brew that burns going down and explodes in the belly." --Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine "noir at its pulpiest best" --Library Journal "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" --Publisher's Weekly, starred review "a taut page-turner...It's a lovely piece of work that makes you wish some other writers would take lessons from him." --Washington Post" "Imagine the heart of Jim Thompson beating in the poetic chest of James Sallis and you'll have some idea of the beauty, sadness and power of "Drive"...[it] has more thought, feeling and murderous energy than books twice its length." --Chicago Tribune "Sallis is a gifted writer and he doesn't cram his story into this slim volume. Rather he distills it into a superbly potent brew that burns going down and explodes in the belly." --Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine "noir at its pulpiest best" --Library Journal "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" --Publisher's Weekly, starred review "a taut page-turner...It's a lovely piece of work that makes you wish some other writers would take lessons from him." --Washington Post Set on the streets and movie lots of L.A. and, finally, the desert highways of Arizona, Drive is the story of a professional driver who, by day, does brilliant stunt driving for the movies and, by night, drives get-away cars for criminals. The main character, known only as "Driver," is the absolute best in the business both businesses, actually. Thing is, he never, ever gets involved in the violence. "I drive. That's what I do. All I do." Well, there's a first time for everything and when Driver is double-crossed and almost killed his quest for payback is as relentless and as methodical as his driving: "Driver set the box with its large pepperoni, double cheese, no anchovies, on Nino's chest. The pizza smelled good. Nino didn't." Driver is the classic noir hero. As things spiral hopelessly out of control around him, he sets about imposing some sense of order on the chaos. There's a dignity to Driver's efforts that transcends his rather questionable methods. His character is etched with equal parts violence and pathos without at the same time lapsing into either stereotype or sentimentality. He is outside the law, over the line and way out past the signposts of conventional morality. Yet he knows more about "right" and "wrong" than all the cops, lawyers and judges combined. Driver came up from nothing. His hardscrabble existence included foster homes and eventually, inevitably, a life alone and on the road. Driving became his salvation. Along the way he developed a sense of honor and character that remains unshakeable as well as a resolve and an unwillingness to be crossed that is boiler plated. Driver's will, as Sallis describes it, is as solid and asimpregnable as the venerable Ford F-150: " graceless as a wheelbarrow, dependable as rust and taxes, indestructible as a tank. Brakes that could stop an avalanche cold, engine powerful enough to tow glaciers into place. Bombs fall and wipe out civilization as we know it, two things'll come up out of the ashes: roaches and F-150's handled like an ox cart, rattled fillings from teeth and left you permanently saddle sore, but it was a survivor. Got the job done, whatever the job was. Like him. -- James Clar, The Mean Streets (7.5.2005)

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. (Mystery)