Reaching into the past

> Lee Child, best known for his Jack Reacher series of novels, has no plans to stop writing about his favourite character

ONE OF THE most enduring characters in crime fiction novels is Jack Reacher, an ex-US Marine who travels from town to town, helping people and getting into trouble as a result. Reacher is as all-American as you can get. A tall man (with a height of 1.96 metres), he tries diplomacy first before letting his fists do the talking.

The character’s back story includes leaving home at age 18, and graduating from West Point. He served 13 years in the Army, before leaving the US Army as a major in its military police at age 36.

This towering presence is the creation of British author Lee Child, 64, born James D ‘Jim’ Grant, in Coventry, England.

Reacher made his first appearance in 1997 in Child’s debut novel Killing Floor, and has since been featured in his own series of crime thrillers, with the latest being Past Tense (2018).

So how did a guy from England create an all-American hero like Jack Reacher?

“Partly because I was already very familiar with the US – I spent a lot of time there from 1974 onwards – and partly because although the Americans claimed that type of hero as a Wild West archetype, he’s actually an ancient mythic trope that has been around in other cultures for centuries,” says Child ( right) in an email interview.

He adds that he is able to write so many stories around Reacher because the character has no job and no home. “Therefore, I have tremendous flexibility in what type of story I can tell. He can go anywhere and do anything. I’m not trapped in a formula.”

The fact that Reacher also shares the same birthday as Child (Oct 29) makes readers think that Reacher is a manifestation of the author.

Child said: “I think all writers make their main characters a little autobiographical – partly for fun, and partly because that’s what we know best. He’s a kind of a wish fulfilment for me.”

But while Reacher is very much an Army man, Child went to law school and worked in theatre briefly before joining Granada Television where he was a presentation director of 18 years. Among the iconic shows he worked on was Brideshead Revisited, The Jewel in the Crown, Prime Suspect, and Cracker.

He left Granada in 1995 at the age of 40. An avid reader, he decided to try his hand at writing his own novel. That was how The Killing Floor came about in what was to become the first of a series of Jack Reacher novels. In November this year, Child published his 23rd novel in the series, Past Tense, in which readers finally find out more about Reacher’s past, especially his father.

Child explains the reason it took so long was “because his father was a silent, introspective man who didn’t share details of his life”.

Up to this point, all we know of Reacher’s family is that his late mother Josephine Moutier Reacher was part of the French resistance during World War II, that his brother Joe died at age 38, and his father Stan served in Korea and Vietnam.

In Past Tense, Reacher decides to visit his father’s birthplace, which he had heard so much about when young.

However, he finds no record of any Reacher ever living there as far back as 80 years, and begins to wonder about his father’s actual past.

Even as we learn more about his past and his family, Reacher himself is an enigma, and remains an enigma.

When asked why he keeps his character this way, Child says: “By not explaining him too much. I want to leave space for the reader to fill in the blanks.

“That way the reader feels a greater connection, I think – the reader is inventing the character along with the writer.”

Though Reacher’s quest to find out more about his father’s past was riveting enough, Child has added a second story in Past Tense about a young couple trapped in a creepy hotel.

“I’m glad you thought the story of Reacher’s father was riveting enough. I wanted to have a second strand, simply to find out what would happen to the young couple.” Reacher has also been featured in several short stories that Child has written in the past. The author has also collaborated with Jen and Scott Smith of the band Naked Blue to produce an album, Just the Clothes on My Back, with songs which are based on Reacher’s perspective, and has even come out with a special Jack Reacher Custom Roasted Coffee. Two movies were also adapted from the novels, with Tom Cruise taking on the role of Reacher. In 2013, Child was bestowed The Crime Writers’ Association’s Diamond Dagger award. Past winners include Frederick Forsyth, Ian Rankin, and Elmore Leonard. When asked how many more books he plans to keep writing on his favourite character, Child says: “I have no plans about anything – if the readers want more, I’ll write more, and when they’ve had enough, I’ll stop.”

10. – Sophie Kinsella 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. – Aiman Azlan – Noah Yuval Harari – Paul Kalanithi

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