- Albert Camus once remarked that there's "nothing more absurd than to
die in a car accident". That was before his car hit a tree at 80mph.
Death Drive - a compendium of stories about famous people killed
stupidly in cars - oozes absurdityCars have a talismanic quality. No
other manufactured object has the same disturbing allure. More emotions
are involved in cars than any other product: vanity, cupidity, greed,
social competitiveness, cultural modelling. But when all this perverse
promise ends in catastrophe, these same talismanic qualities acquire an
extra dimension. The car crash is a defining phenomenon of popular
culture. Death Drive is both an appreciative essay about the historic
place of the automobile in the modern imagination and an exploration of
the circumstances surrounding multiple celebrity denouements, including
Isadora Duncan, Jane Mansfield, James Dean, Jackson Pollack, Princess
Grace, and Helmut Newton, among many others. En route the narrative
traces one very big arc - the role of the car in extending or creating
the personality of a celebrity - and concludes by confronting the
imminent death of the car itself. Stephen Bayley recounts delightfully
grotesque tales about celebrities done in by trees, by lampposts, or by
nonentities in ancient Chevys. A design masterpiece, this book combines
exquisite prose with stylish presentation - the cars are described more
lovingly than the people who perished in them. Like a Bugatti, Death
Drive recalls a time when books and cars were beautiful. "Albert Camus
once remarked that there's nothing more absurd than to die in a car
accident . That was before his car hit a tree at 80mph. Death Drive - a
compendium of stories about famous people killed stupidly in cars -
oozes absurdity. Stephen Bayley recounts delightfully grotesque tales
about celebrities done in by trees, by lampposts, or by nonentities in
ancient Chevys. A design masterpiece, this book combines exquisite prose
with stylish presentation the cars are described more lovingly than the
people who perished in them. Like a Bugatti, Death Drive recalls a time
when books and cars were beautiful." - The Times, Books of the Year, 26
November 2016
