Lee Child is coming to Lemuria on May 19, 2010 to sign his new Jack Reacher novel, 61 Hours. This will be Mr. Child’s first trip to the bookstore and we are all very excited to meet him. This is an interview I found in January Magazine that came out when Mr. Child’s novel, Persuader, was published in 2003. I thought that you might find it as interesting as I did. (Note that I have chosen excerpts from the interview; please follow the link for the full interview.)
“Creating a fictional character is a real luxury, because you get to choose everything. And you get to react to what has been done before. In that regard, I didn’t want another drunk, alcoholic, miserable, traumatized hero. I didn’t want him to have shot a kid, or his partner, or whatever. I just wanted a decent, normal, uncomplicated guy.”
Lee Child’s best-known character, ex-military policeman Jack Reacher, comes out of the heroic-altruism tradition in British crime fiction exemplified early on by Leslie Charteris’ Simon “The Saint” Templar and Peter Cheyney’s Lemmy Caution: A mysterious benefactor arrives on the scene to help out when the law no longer can. As this tradition evolved, the enigmatic champion took an antiheroic turn in the hands of Dornford Yates, Hammond Innes, Alistair MacLean and Eric Ambler. More recently, the character darkened considerably under John Le Carré, Adam Hall (aka Elleston Trevor), Len Deighton and Ian Fleming. Indeed, it became difficult to distinguish the bad guys from the good at times, especially with Fleming’s works, in which James Bond’s adversaries were made into grotesque parodies to contrast them with the dark side of 007.
What was the source of this character who’s become such a linchpin of the mystery genre? Is there much wish fulfillment for you in Jack Reacher?
Creating a fictional character is a real luxury, because you get to choose everything. And you get to react to what has been done before. In that regard, I didn’t want another drunk, alcoholic, miserable, traumatized hero. I didn’t want him to have shot a kid, or his partner, or whatever. I just wanted a decent, normal, uncomplicated guy. Or, as I realized in retrospect he actually was, I wanted him to have flaws and faults and edges, but to be personally unaware of them. Thus he’s interesting, but he’s not always gazing at his own navel. He thinks he’s completely normal. Only we readers know different. Wish fulfillment? Maybe a little, but really more of a throwback to the way I was as a kid. I was a tough guy in a tough neighborhood, and I grew big very early, so I ruled the yard — never scared, never intimidated. At elementary school I was a paid bodyguard. Kids gave me cookies and lunch money to watch their backs. Some bully stepped out of line, I was waiting for him on his way home. I never started a fight, but I was in plenty. I broke arms, did damage. But I felt I was on the side of the angels. I wanted to recapture that feeling and update it into adulthood.
Is it true that your wife, Jane, came up with the name “Reacher” while she was out shopping?
She was naturally interested in how I was going to replace my monthly paycheck, and I told her I was going to be a novelist. She took it very well, really. Killing Floor, that first book, was a first-person narrative, and as it happened the main character didn’t need to be named until somebody interrogated him, about 20 or so pages in. So I had started the book and I hadn’t come up with a name I liked. We went out shopping to the supermarket and — like you probably, Ali, because you’re tall, too — every time I’m in a supermarket, a little old lady comes up to me and says, “You’re a nice tall chap, could you reach me that can?” So Jane said, “Hey, if this writing thing doesn’t pan out, you could always be a reacher in a supermarket.” I thought, Reacher — good name.
Have you been surprised at the global success of the Jack Reacher books? Where does that appeal come from?
I’ve been very pleasantly surprised, yes. Obviously I hoped people all over the world would like them, but as I said before, you can’t guarantee anything where public taste is concerned. The reason? I think you hit on it before: Reacher is part of the knight-errant, altruistic loner paradigm, and the interesting thing is that every culture has its own version of that same myth. We mentioned Robin Hood, for instance … Most people think that’s a semi-historical, part-real, part-fable legend about medieval England, but in fact it’s a universal myth, based in the human need for justice and fairness. I once read an academic book about it … There are three completely separate Robin Hood narratives in England alone, and every other country in the world with a narrative or literary tradition has its own versions of the exact same story. So Reacher as a character hits the same nerve with readers everywhere … Germans can think he’s a German type of guy, same for Japanese or Australians or anybody. Everybody recognizes the noble loner.
Ali Karim is an industrial chemist and freelance journalist living in England. He contributes to Shots magazine and the Deadly Pleasures Web site, and is currently working on Wreaths, a techno-thriller set in the world of plant viruses and out-of-work espionage agents.
Click here for a full list of the Reacher novels. Note that they can be read in any order.
