I was in a shop the other day and overheard two young women breathlessly talking about the new Jack Reacher novel. The Old Girl reads the Lee Child books and, as she drives to Auckland a lot (2/12 hours) she has taken to listening to talking books in the car and has borrowed several of the Reacher ones.
Is it because he is seen as a protector of women against predators? He is big, courteous but with the ability to maim, kill, destroy without conscience when necessary. Is this a primeval thing? Probably. The Reacher character borrows from the dark brooding anti heroes like Heathcliffe in Wuthering Heights and from the mysterious strangers in Mills and Boon romantic novels.
This is mixed in with the action and intrigue from novels like the Bourne series in an easy to read format. A winning formula.
I have read a few I must admit and, when stuck in the car with The Old Girl, have listened to a couple. They are OK in a 'switch-the-brain-off" kind of way.
What worries me though is his underpants or lack of them. For those who don't know this character, Jack Reacher is a loner. He is an ex military policemen (a Major) who is travelling USA by bus or hitchhiking.
He stays in cheap motels. He only uses cash to buy things and doesn't have any luggage. This means that every two to three days he buys a new set of clothes from cheap clothes stores "cheaper than having them laundered". He buys shirts, jeans and coats and disposable toothbrushes. He never buys underpants! Either he doesn't wear any at all (no wonder he throws his jeans away) or he re-uses the same pair over and over.Perhaps he wears big black flappy ones like Richard (of RBB)?
9 comments:
I'm chewin' the carrot because this Reacher fella sounds a bit like me. I don't wear underpants either.
Somehow Snowy that doesn't surprise me.
Sounds like the sort of book I'd choose.
Tough guy, SAS , goes to South America to train the natives in a revolution. Things go wrong , gets captured, beaten up, seeks revenge.
No sex, women's a baddy.
Let you know how it ends.
He's not very environmentally friendly, this chap- nor eithical. Those clothes were probably made by little children for not very much money.
The teenage equivalent is some twat called Edward from the Twilight series.
I quite like Reacher cos it is "switch your brain off" reading and also I can relate to the fact that he is touring the world searching (for what?) and never seems to settle!
I quite enjoy these books as well. They're fairly tightly plotted, and for the most part, believable.
I never noticed that he doesn't buy underpants.
Well done The Curmudgeon, I knew that your knicker obsession would come in handy one day.
I used to do a lot of driving in the UK when I was a sales rep. I found the selection of which talking book to listen to was critical. I can still remember the horrendous journey from Dundee to Birmingham(about 4-5 hours)with a tape about the German Merchant Raider Alantis in WWII. The "book" seemed to consist of nothing but a chronological list taken from the ship's log. Really boring, but I had nothing else.
My all-time favourite talking book has to be "My family and other animals" by Gerald Durell, read by Nigel Davenport. Amusing and captivatng.
The Atlantis was not a sister ship of the Orion but they operated at the same time with the same objectives. The Orion laid mines off the east coast of New Zealand and sunk the Niagara a passenger ship carrying gold to Canada. The sinking was not far from where I live and I am researching to write a children's novel using this as a bit of background.
The Atlantis was not a sister ship of the Orion but they operated at the same time with the same objectives. The Orion laid mines off the east coast of New Zealand and sunk the Niagara a passenger ship carrying gold to Canada. The sinking was not far from where I live and I am researching to write a children's novel using this as a bit of background.
Far be it for me to obstruct an Author in the performance of his sel-appointed duties, but I would have thought that the destruction and sinking by Marine Mines of a passenger ship in the inhospitable antarctic waters does not fit into the accepted plot-type of a children's book.
Perhaps a title such as
"Mummy froze and sank"
or
"Daddy got eaten by sharks"
or
"The f*cking Krauts killed my Gran by blowing her into little pieces"
would fit your projected scenario.
This is what children like. Remember the kids books you read? Henry Treace. Geoffrey Treece. Crusaders, knights, cowboys, war stories etc. Mine will be about Japanese (not German) spies checking out the harbour for ship movements. The Niagara sinking will be a device for bringing the war closer to home. What would the Harry Potter series be like without a bit of violence and bloodshed?
Post a Comment