A new Jack Reacher is in town
My Christmas gift to myself has arrived. British author Lee Child’s new Jack Reacher novel is intriguingly titled ‘No Plan B’s. Preordered online and delivered yesterday by Amazon. I like the name. It suggests somebody with a tough, win-at-all-costs attitude and a never-say-die spirit. Somebody with chutzpah. A positive, aggressive, and determined mind. Whose first shot at anything in Life will always be their best shot. And a surefire hit. Hence, the needlessness of a ‘Plan B.
Lee Child is not among my favorite fiction authors. But the protagonist of his 28 hugely successful and popular books in the Jack Reacher series is. I have all 28. The latest went up on my bookshelf yesterday. As it’s a gift for Christmas, I will read it around then. The book has an attractive red, white, and silver cover. Very Christmassy. Once a year, I read through Lee Child’s entire collection again. The writing is not spectacular. Or of literary value. But to me, it is the purest form of entertainment.
Jack Reacher is an ex-US Army MP (Military Police anywhere in the world) who quit the service at 36 in search of romance and adventure and roams the US taking up odd jobs but more frequently helping and rescuing total strangers by investigating suspicious and dangerous situations. He’s a giant of a man, standing 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighing 120 kilos, all of it sheer muscle, who easily runs through eight men in a street fight and accepts the most impossible odds. Like a Bollywood hero.
Not surprisingly, Hollywood saw potential in Lee Child’s character and adapted three Jack Reacher novels for the screen. The casting director, with a lot of imagination and ingenuity, cast Tom Cruise for the role. The movies were all box-office successes. But fans of the books criticized Tom Cruise’s selection. At 5 feet 7 inches and weighing 77 kilos, he scarcely resembles Jack Reacher. A bit like Bollywood casting Nawazuddin Siddiqui to play the Great Khali. Yet the movies worked. Cinema gets away with anything.
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