I found a cheap hardback copy of DRIVEN on abebooks back when it first
came up here for discussion. I was surprised when it arrived to find
it was inscribed by Gehman to a friend.
When in the earlier discussion, I made some comment about Gehman's
shallow celebrity writing not offering much hope for his fiction. I
want to take back that snobbish dismissal. The opening of the novel is
quite good with a fine midnight scene at a small Tennessee jail of a
third degree session. Every detail at the jail rings true. Even more
impressive to me is that Gehman manages to create an escape from that
jail that this reader, at least, gulped down without much trouble. The
pace of the story's opening lives up to the promise of the title.
Gehman can certainly write.
But then I experienced something similar to what John described. Once
the story goes back in time to explain how an average guy blessed with
a 1950s All-American good life ends up throwing it all away, I began to
lose interest and put the book down and never went back.
Richard Moore
--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, John Williams <johnwilliams@...>
wrote:
>
> Richard Gehman. There are 11 copies on abebooks right now, all cheap.
> I've started it a couple of times and it's clearly pretty good, but
once
> put down I didn't have too much compulsion to pick it up again.
>
> John
> >
> >
>
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