The Chicago Writer

Drive, written by James Sallis and published by Mariner Books, is a plain-spoken, third-person, neo-noir novel, told primarily from the point-of-view of Driver, a stunt driver and armed-robbery get-away driver. Drive captures three stories—one of Driver’s childhood watching the Sid-and-Nancy parent relationship demolish his life, one of Driver’s time spent in LA, gaining fame and falling in love with a married woman, and one of his escape after becoming the scapegoat on a bad job and subsequently assassinating his would-be-assassins. 

The three acts of Drive are interspersed with one and other—so finding a direct narrative and understanding which the present is takes some digging. One moment, you’ll be in Driver’s shoes in LA as he helps Standard, the wife of his neighbor, Irina and the next moment, you’ll be in Arizona in a not-so-distant-future where Driver’s getting patched up after taking a window pane through the arm. Though it makes the book difficult to follow, each of the chapters are self-contained and tell a story in themselves. We don’t have to know that Driver’s parents killed themselves to appreciate him killing a thug with a key after his car becomes fucked with. And we don’t have to know that Driver’s only been able to depend on his long-friend, Doc, to appreciate that Driver would be there to call Doc’s daughter when he’s in the hospital. Despite how each of the three time-lines are tracked by several chapters, none of the time-lines intersect—in the end, the only thing that really ties them all together is Driver himself, because even the characters rarely cross between time lines. While the time lines help to illustrate Driver’s character, they don’t do much to illustrate his career, because most of the get-away jobs mentioned in the book fall apart in some way or another—yet, he’s still referred to as, “The Best,” though we only have their word for it.

What Sallis does well is creating a fantastic character we never get to see—a cowboy who struts into town and acts as an anti-hero that we can all see ourselves as, supposing we’ve driven a car before. His dialogue is sparse but poignant and he affirms himself as both chivalrous, feminist, and an alpha-male in every scene. Sallis does a great job defining the characters based on a few factors like thoughts or dialogue, including thoughts of other characters apart from Driver. In some cases, we even get to see what kind of man a character is by the way he himself perceives Driver. 

The novel is sparse with description—we hardly know what Driver looks like, though presuming he’s probably in his mid to late twenties, and we get only brief, vague descriptions of the other characters. Generally, character descriptions are defined mostly by lifestyle and the way each character speaks—some are obviously Hispanic while others are probably gangsters. The description remains vague for most of the book, until Sallis slows the down the action to illustrate, in great detail, the stunts that Driver pulls. In fact, the driving, the description of cars, and the ways the vehicles feel to Driver are the only things that come out vividly in Driver’s dulled, one-tracked senses. Every turn or tremor in the vehicle is described accurately using relatively simple, understandable mathematics, along with speed variations, mid-air turns, and other such stunts that keep driver in work and get him out of trouble. But the focus on the driving and the lack of scene or setting subdue climactic moments and in the end, we’re still sitting in the backseat waiting to feel the rush that we expect Driver to have felt.

Unfortunately for Sallis, having other characters perceive Driver takes us away from Driver’s point of view in a big way—and by the end of the book, you almost feel like the main villain is more interesting than Driver, because of how short-spoken and agreeable he is compared to Driver and because you’ve been faced with his cynical attitude and professional approach to dealing with adversaries. The point of view changes only exist in the last time line and in some cases seem kind of random, sometimes landing in the thoughts and feelings of a minor character that’s exaggerated only to make Driver seem like he might be a hero, even though it isn’t relevant to the story. And there are far too many minor characters—for a cowboy who struts into town, Driver certainly has a lot of friends, though keeping them all at a distance. Driver befriends a screenwriter, a mechanic, a fellow stunt car driver, a wandering truck driver, a broken down doctor, the husband of the woman he grows intimate toward, etc… most of which serve as mostly an outlet to express Driver’s own feelings when he doesn’t express them himself. 

My favorite quality of this book is its style though—the neo-noir, Hollywood crime story is defined by the language and the language is both true to life and classic noir lit. It creates a setting that immediately draws images of a dirty underworld of Los Angeles—therefore, making it an even dirtier underworld. The food is always greasy, the apartment is always shitty, the cars are nothing much to look at, but Driver still gets the job done, or so we assume. Either way, soft-spoken, Driver doesn’t fuck around and he emerges as an ideal anti-hero in a world saturated with crooks and criminals. 

The Riahi Rating:
★★★☆☆
3/5 stars. While the character of Driver is fun, the book could use a few hundred more pages of description and a little clarity on its purpose in Driver’s point-of-view.

BONUS:
Why you should read Drive if you enjoyed the film.
Now, I don’t know how many of you have seen the film, Drive, starring Ryan Gosling, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, and adapted by Hossein Amini, but if you liked it as much as I did, you’ll notice that the entire novel is essentially streamlined to fit into a single narrative, unlike the three story novel that is Drive. Most of Driver’s friends have been focused into Shannon, Driver’s mechanic boss and stunt job coordinator. Furthermore, anything necessary to the story that appears in the novel’s flashbacks appear in the film as story-in-story, told from one character to another but with additional attitude in their voice depending on whom their audience is. Things that appear in the book as meaningless little inclusions come into the film, written to be more relevant toward the overall story and the two most important time lines of the book, focused on Driver’s adult life, are blended together efficiently to paint an overall better story in a much shorter time span. As if out of thought to the book, murders included in the book but had to be cut from the film because of characters or time lines not included make their way into the film with spurts of dialogue that were placed where they shouldn’t be. For instance, the way Rose kills Cook in the film is reminiscent of the way Driver’s parents murder each other in the novel. Furthermore, Driver is depicted in appearance as he should look and act based on his behavior in the book, finally well-rounding the character to perfection. Plus, the neo-noir is so stylistically apparent in the film by the music and cinematography that it seems impossible to question whether the director captured what Sallis attempted to within his narrative. I encourage any fan of the film to use the book as reference to their interest in the film or vice versa. 

A chapter from Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried (1990):

     It’s time to be blunt. I’m forty-three years old, true, and I’m a writer now, and a long time ago I walked through Quang Ngai Province as a foot soldier.

     Almost everything else is invented.

     But it’s not a game. It’s a form. Right here, now, as I invent myself, I’m thinking all I want to tell you about why this book is written as it is. For instance, I want to tell you this: twenty years ago I watched a man die on a trail near the village of My Khe. I did not kill him. But I was present, you see, and my presence was guilty enough. I remember his face, which was not a pretty face, because his jaw was in his throat, and I remember feeling the burden of responsibility and grief. I blamed myself. And rightly so, because I was present.

     But listen. Even that story is made up.

     I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth.

     Here is the happening-truth. I was once a soldier. There were many bodies, real bodies with real faces, but I was young then and I was afraid to look. And now, twenty years later, I’m left with faceless responsibility and faceless grief. 

     Here is the story-truth. He was a slim, dead, almost dainty young man of about twenty. He lay in the center of a red clay trail near the village of My Khe. His jaw was in his throat. His one eye was shut, the other eye was a star-shaped hole. I killed him.

     What stories can do, I guess, is make things present.

     I can look at things I never looked at. I can attach faces to grief and love and pity and God. I can be brave. I can make myself feel again.

     ”Daddy, tell the truth,” Kathleen can say, “did you ever kill anybody?” And I can say, honestly, “Of course not.”

     Or I can say, honestly, “Yes.”

Public Relations for Dummies, written by Eric Yaverbaum and published by Wiley, is instructional textbook on being a publicist. Because this is the second how-to I’m reviewing, I’ve decided to include an interview with the author that took place a year ago, when I first started using the book as a reference guide for publicity. The book has very clear-cut instructions on how to make the most of publicity, utilizing various press and resources, and dotted with anecdotes about the author’s own experiences and those of his co-authors. 

This book does a very effective job of telling you exactly what you need to do in order to successfully utilize publicity, starting with the planning stages, set up of a publicity office, and even motivating yourself to write press releases. No detail is overlooked—almost to the point where some of the instruction of the book is redundant, but not annoyingly so—because the author, in the book’s introduction, includes a note that the book is meant to have its pages flipped through to chapters necessary to your publicity needs. I read it front-to-back anyway.

Along with every suggestion, Yaverbaum includes a brief summary of a similar experience where he either learned the value of said tactic or how it was effectively used. Furthermore, he goes beyond mere instruction to dispel the myths of public relations and examine some of the most successful public relations campaigns of all time. Using his descriptive directions, I’ve even formulated public relations campaigns of my own that I’m slowly unveiling over the course of the next year.

What the book doesn’t do so effectively though is that, while most of it was updated for its 2nd edition, not all of it saw necessary updates. Many of the rules in the book are outdated—unnecessary now in the digital age, despite it being published in 2006. Though this is by no means the fault of the author, other chapters that have been updated can lead to confusion for the reader. I feel like this could have been solved easier with inclusion of a chapter tracking the PR trends up to the year that the second edition was published, with a timeline that denotes when certain practices fell out of fashion and new practices emerged—maybe even with a hypothetical timeline of how long those trends might last based on similar PR trends.

Early on in the book, Yaverbaum expresses what the Dummies book is and how they’re all built off the same outline and model, but he goes on to express that they’re not specifically for dummies—rather educated individuals who wish to be more educated without utilizing college resources. For those of you who know me, you know that PR fell upon my shoulders by accident and it wasn’t specifically my intention to become a publicist, as you know by my education in creative writing. However, this book has considerably improved my ability to craft press releases, to deliver information, and to stay in touch with editors and journalists in order to make the most of the publicity that I wish to deliver. If you’ve never worked public relations, this book can be a bit overwhelming, but for those with experience in the business, it can only help with instruction on organizing the thoughts of a publicist as they approach each plateau and building campaigns to grow a small business.

The one portion of this book that I felt unnecessary, however, was that in some chapters, Yaverbaum exceeds the realm of budding publicists by examining the trials that only a very well experienced publicist might contend with, like improving sales internationally and the dos-and-don’ts of pitching the New York Times. While this is handy information to have, it automatically intimidated me as a publicist as if I was suddenly thinking, “Have I been doing something wrong because I haven’t reached New York Times yet?” To that degree, I advise that you look into more novice related public relations guides before becoming deeply invested in this one, or at least while reading it, don’t feel distraught because you aren’t quite the publicist that Yaverbaum himself became.

The Riahi Rating:
★★★★☆
4/5 stars
Although the information isn’t all relevant, it is accurate and it does, in its own way, depict a means over the course of several years how a publicity campaign can grow an organization, although because it’s not done chronologically, it might steer new publicists away. Furthermore, the lack of publicity trending information makes it a difficult guide to depend on in 2012, even if most of the information is on par with unveiling a publicity campaign, which can mislead a publicist picking up the book 6 years after its publication date.

I would like to note, that’s a pretty good rating for an instructional guide and because I appreciate the book and the work of the author, I will now publish my interview with him from April, 2011, for my Fiction Writer’s Portfolio class, taught by Robert Duffer.

Eric Yaverbaum, founder of Ericho Marketing, various fund raising organizations, bestselling author, and writer of many books on marketing and public relations, gave me the skinny on being a writer in a publicist’s world and vice-versa. After arranging a phone conversation via e-mail with his assistant, Mr. Yaverbaum gave me a call one Friday morning to discuss these things, as well as the efforts put into his work and the results.

Behnam Riahi (BR): Why did you go into PR?

Eric Yaverbaum (EY): I just fell in love with marketing. PR was an accident because I was looking for a paid internship and the only person who would give it to me was Matthew Lesko. He paid me a hundred bucks a week and my paid internship is what made his book a New York Times bestseller. No one expected that to happen.

BR: Matthew Lesko?

EY: He’s this guy who does late night TV selling government information in a question-of-the-month suit. His first book was called Getting Yours: The Complete Guide to Government Domestic Assistance. It was a cut-and-paste job of a government document, making it a little more understandable he turned it into a book. I promoted it. I had no clue what I was doing, none, zero, which is a great asset in this industry. It was a shocking New York Times bestseller.

BR: Did you write before going into PR?

EY: No, I didn’t. I started out as a very lousy writer actually. I was a lousy writer as a kid, who had to get the attention of the press, and lousy writers didn’t cut it. It was pretty much learn how to write in a way that can get attention or you’re not going to be able to pay next month’s rent.

BR: So how did you start writing books?

EY: PR for Dummies was a nightmare for me, because that’s my stuff. In that case, the publishing house wanted me. They came to me to write that. When I did PR for Dummies, The Dummies Series was templated. They’re forcing your hand at the type of style you have to have, which was very hard for us at first. I had first developed a table of contents and then I had to write about every single, stupid one of my theories, which kills me, and I used a writer for that. I used a writer who is also a New York Times bestselling author who would sit and do an interview with me about each of the topics. We did one topic a day for every chapter. The world is very different from when I got into the business, but if you read that book and you really have a mind for it, that’s a great text book. The stories are getting out of date unfortunately. I have to write it again.

BR: What process went into your other books?

EY: Every book, I would say, there’s a different answer to how you approach the writing of it. My very first book that McGraw-Hill published is called I’ll Get Back To You, which was actually, of all my books, the only book that ever made the New York Times bestseller list. I tell a story in there, with the general manager of the Orlando Magic when Shaquille was there and they were winning NBA championships and I said, “Well, I want to get that GM in the book.” And my researcher said, “You can’t get him in there.” And I said, “Why not? Did anyone even try?” So I picked up the phone and I asked for him. I called up Orlando Magic and asked if he was available and they put me through to his assistant and I said, “Is he in? I’m writing a book, I’d love to include a page on him or a chapter on him.” She put me through. I mean, in five minutes. 

The last book I wrote was called Life’s Little College Admission Insights. It was a knock-off of a Lesson Learned When I Was a Kid. I wanted to do a book that was just as shallow, but it still involves work and research. In Life’s Little College Admission Insights, I could do whatever I wanted. I wrote it with my daughter who was applying to college at the time and being a best-selling author didn’t hurt her cause. I taught her how to do the research, we set up the model together almost completely done electronically, I taught her how to write a page, put one together on everybody who contributed, and it was just the total process and we wrote a table of contents and filled it. In that case, it was just individual people’s advice, we wanted to have the best collection of the greatest admission councilors. There was no real criteria for what made a great one. What made a great one was someone who gave us good insights and someone we could get the legal permission for them, because that’s part of the process of book writing. But it was a lot of fun, I’m grateful for that experience.

My biggest book was Leadership Secrets of the Most Successful CEOs. That was my nicest book. I had an entire plan that worked. I did that book by myself. It sold a million copies, but it was not a New York Times bestseller. 

BR: How does writing influence your work as a publicist?

EY: What it does show is the power of the medium and the medium is the media and the media is the place that I have crafted my career in. It really all boils down from writing. With my career, the fact that I’m an author drives people to me, so it makes a lot of sense for me to keep fresh books coming out, but they are work.

If anyone tells you there’s one way to do PR, they’re wrong. What I love, at this stage of my career, is when some kid tells me why he’s got a better idea and we do it and it works. It’s a constant learning experience. I love people who don’t know what the hell they’re doing and they do it better. There is no play book here.

PR for Dummies I did because it feeds my practice. People want to work for me, people want to hire me, the book is number one it its category, and it drives people to me. You walk into my office and I hand you one of my books, it still has some “moxxy,” you know? Some prestige to the actual book for the author.

BR: How does PR influence your writing?

EY: What I do basically is I manage the news, which is really an oxymoron because the news hasn’t happened yet, but I will tell you what’s going to happen tomorrow. I do it all the time. Winston Churchill said, “History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.” Well, that’s kind of what I do for a living. I write the stuff in advance and I like that.

My goal was to write a book every other year. I think practically, maybe every three or every four. Airplanes are very efficient places for me to write. The art of writing is of rewriting. Get published and make sure that your writing is on the internet. But don’t put it out there until you’re ready to put it out there. Once it’s on the internet, there’s no taking it back.

BR: So what do you see in the future of these industries?

EY: My generation: I’m still reading books, I’m still reading the newspaper every day. I don’t care how many different forms I can get it in. I’m not reading anything electronically and when I really have to study something, it has to be on a piece of paper. My daughter gets her information in a different way than me and that with the virtual world, things reverberate around it. The office I’m sitting in now is my most teched out office. 16 TV screens and six computer screens, so I have a lot of technology in here. I like this office the most. I watch stories break on twitter and I watch them flash across the 16 screens that I’m looking at and I’m saying, “Shit. Someone tweeted about that four minutes ago. Where were you? Where are you seeing that?” It all falls together, the internet just speeds it up.

Criminal Class Press, publishers of Criminal Class Review, opened up their literary contest this month for the first time: Engines of Deceit. 

For $10, a story of 2,500 words in length and set between the 1930s and 1950s has the possibility of winning one of three prizes: $200 & print/e-publication, $75 & print publication, and $25 & print publication.

The contest will be guest judged by: Aimee Bender (The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake) and Anne N. Marino(The Collapsible World).

Contest ends July 1st, 2012. 

“We get a lot of great authors giving stories to Criminal Class Press. It’s about time that we gave back.”

-Kevin Whitely, Criminal Class Press Founder & Editor

minh-tam: You know, I remember seeing that book on your bookshelf and was actually going to page through it. Were I not planning on going into education, I'd probably go into PR. But that's cool that you got to interview the author. How did that come about?

Guess you’ll have to wait and see.

minh-tam: I look forward to reading your book review of it.

Well, before I get to that, I’d like to review the book I’m currently reading. Don’t laugh, but it’s Public Relations for Dummies. I’m primarily reading it because I’ve previously interviewed the author, Eric Yaverbaum, and would like to publish that interview and his thoughts on writing, publishing, and public relations with my review of this book in my blog.