Damn, dude. Big Driver is awesome. Not the character, obviously. The story. How has this not been adapted into a movie yet? I see that it's on the list of dollar babies, so Hollywood's asleep at the wheel on this one. Get someone like Bridgett Fonda, Winona Ryder, or Lauren Graham and you have a hell of a revenge thriller. Maybe Helena Bonham Carter. She likes the darker stuff. I kind of hope no one dollar-baby's it. Oh, okay. Thanks, Google. I see that several people have gone and kickstarter'ed Big Driver shorts. Well, good for them. I hope they turn out well. But I feel like this is a feature length film. It needs to play slow and quiet. Kind of like that new Redford movie, All is Lost, this is the chance for some great actress to do a mostly silent film. Internalize all of the
I digress. Maybe someday someone will tackle this as the awesome revenge flick it could be.
Unlike 1922, we have a great character to root for. I love that Tess is a woman of simple pleasures and we have to sit in the passenger seat and follow her through the worst couple of days ever. I rooted for her every step of the way.
The best revenge stories are about the internal struggle. The balancing act. This one is too. Although, the mechanics are what pulled me through and kept me so rapt. It's what King's so good at. The logical step by step process of a normal person adapting to crazy situations and giving us the cathartic blow by blow that reality never provides.
Another shocking thing as I was cruising through online reviews is how many really in depth summaries of the story leave Betsy, the woman from the Stagger Inn, out completely.
I love a good revenge tale. And this is a great one.
My only complaint with the audio book is that the narrator gives Tess a really weird voice. Fragile, almost childlike. I think the voice she used for Betsy would have been a more appropriate Tess.
projected conversations she has with Tom, Fritzy, and Doreen and make the camera and the edit do all the exposition work.
Unlike 1922, we have a great character to root for. I love that Tess is a woman of simple pleasures and we have to sit in the passenger seat and follow her through the worst couple of days ever. I rooted for her every step of the way.
The assault is so so so so awful horrible terrible. It was rough. And her descriptions of tending to herself afterward. Good grief. It's all straight-up curl-into-fetal-position stuff. But then following her through the aftermath is riveting. Everything she thought and did felt so real and immediate. I've read elsewhere that some people thought she had too easy of a time dispatching the Driver family, but I think it makes perfect sense. She goes into each situation looking to kill somebody and every one of those people was pretty much in TV-watching mode, not expecting what's coming. I think they'd be pretty easy pickings. Plus, the struggle isn't supposed to be a physical one.
Another shocking thing as I was cruising through online reviews is how many really in depth summaries of the story leave Betsy, the woman from the Stagger Inn, out completely.
For me, the most horrifying thing in the entire story was her glass eye revelation. It just made me feel sick. It was so ultimately brutal that I wanted Tess to go kill that son of a bitch too. I didn't realize until a few minutes ago how it was a literal representation of the revenge story credo--an eye for an eye. Although, in that case I would have only been satisfied with a life for an eye. But after hearing Betsy's tale, Tess became more than just a woman who sought bloody justice to appease her own sense of shame and humiliation. She was the woman taking revenge against every rapist, every person who condoned it, and everyone who looked the other way. And I loved her for it.
I love a good revenge tale. And this is a great one.
My only complaint with the audio book is that the narrator gives Tess a really weird voice. Fragile, almost childlike. I think the voice she used for Betsy would have been a more appropriate Tess.