Books › The driver's seat
The driver's seat
First published 1970 · 180 pages
A razor-sharp, deeply unsettling descent into the mind of a woman seizing terrifying control of her own destruction.
What it feels like
Reading this novella feels like watching a car crash in slow motion, only to realize the driver is smiling and has cut the brakes herself. It is a masterclass in narrative control, written in a relentless, clinical present tense that strips away all psychological comfort and leaves you stranded in a state of mounting dread. The atmosphere is frenetic and surreal, colored by garish outfits and bizarre encounters under the hot European sun, yet underneath lies a chilling, ice-cold subversion of the traditional thriller. It is a book that completely upends the dynamics of victimhood and agency. Fans of dark, sardonic, and unapologetically strange character studies will devour this brief, unforgettable nightmare of a novel.
- Mood
- dread-soaked
- surreal
- frenetic
- claustrophobic
- chilling
- Tone
- detached
- clinical
- sardonic
- unnerving
- darkly comic
- Pace
- propulsive
- Themes
- control and agency · performance of femininity · fatalism · subversion of victimhood · existential alienation
- The writing
- Razor-sharp, clinical, and written in a relentless present tense that offers no psychological comfort.
- The arc
- Begins with erratic, bizarre rebellion and accelerates into a chilling, inevitable nightmare of the protagonist's own design.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave dark, subversive psychological fiction and mid-century existentialism with a biting, feminist edge.
Content notes
- murder
- violence
- mental illness
- suicidal ideation
About the book
Lise is thin, neither good-looking nor bad-looking. One day she walks out of her office, acquires a gaudy new outfit, adopts a girlier tone of voice, and heads to the airport to fly south. On the plane she takes a seat between two men. One is delighted with her company, the other is deeply perturbed. So begins an unnerving journey into the darker recesses of human nature.
Description from Open Library.
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