Anyway, anyone who knows me even slightly will know I'm a sucker for Nicolas Winding Refn's 'Drive', starring Ryan Gosling. It's one of the most stylish, slick, gritty crime thrillers I've seen in a long time, and definitely harkens back to such thrillers from the 80s. I think the film, along with this growing culture of "80s revival" artists/groups/movements etc., have influenced me quite strongly, to the point where I sort of which I was born a decade or two earlier, just so I didn't have to put on the hipster glasses and be a pretentious dolt about it.
Understanding the film was based on a novel, written by James Sallis in 2005, I set off to track down a copy, only to find a sequel had been released, entitled Driven, that very month. Expect to see a review of that quite soon, possibly tomorrow.
Drive starts as it means to go on, in that the story opens chronologically half-way, in which our hero - who is only identified as the Driver, a mysterious figure with a troubled upbringing and a dual identity; a stunt driver and mechanic by day, and a getaway driver by night - back up against a wall, blood-smeared and in the company of 3 bodies in a motel, realizes this is definitely a job he shouldn't have taken up.
Sallis does an excellent job of setting the scenery, down to every delicate and grisly detail, a chime which rings throughout the story, presenting you with a deep, vivid piece of fiction, that, despite being over much sooner than many would hope, still gets the job done.
The narrative tends to jump about quite a bit, which is somewhat jarring and superfluous, especially for a book as short as this. One chapter (3-4 pages is the average) is set in modern day LA, the next will be more exposition on the Driver's past, and so on. On a personal level, I have no idea how this could be fixed, because as distracting as it can be, the flow of the story never seems to let up.
There are a number of changes in the translation from book to screen, as some characters may be entirely different in appearance, name or personality; some may not even appear. As someone who saw the film first, this aspect threw me off slightly, as I thought I knew what would happen to certain characters, and something entirely the opposite befell them. After the first few chapters, you tend to get over this fact. If, like me, you saw the film first, of course.
The book, however, does give a lot more backstory on the Driver, who hails from Tucson, Arizona. Growing up, he'd spend most of his time working with vehicles, and even help his father out with burglaries. A, let's say, domestic incident, forces the Driver to live with foster parents for the remainder of his teens, until he decides to go off on his own, taking the family car with him. This behaviour seems to be the nature of the Driver throughout the book, a wanderer, never staying in the same spot for more than a few months. The story catches him around L.A, where getaway jobs seem to be plentiful, even if the rare occasion involves the client's throat being punched in with car keys.
Yeah, this book tends to get rather gory, but is never over-indulgent with it. The violence seems almost decisive, methodical in nature, fitting for a noir thriller but could still cut it in a more conventional crime story, or the big screen, which it did... very well.
Drive is remarkably (if not disappointingly) short; at only 191 pages, and the sequel seems even shorter. However, I can confirm that the saying 'great taste, less filling' applies here. I can only hope the same applies to Driven, which I have not yet started. Judging by the size, it looks like I could read it in an afternoon, maybe a bit longer than that. I shall be back with my review of Driven when I get round to it!
In other news, yes, I AM working on other projects, which I hope, all being well, you will see in the next few weeks. One of which, relating to an interesting interview with Winding Refn a few months back, relating to a "Drive 2", in which he hopes to feature two drivers, one of which being the rival of Ryan Gosling's character. Very intriguing news indeed. I hope that if this film is made, it keeps the style of the first one. I'm sure we can trust Winding Refn on this one, though.
Until next time, farewell.
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