A Novel Concept

I almost finished re-reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe when Faye picked up a copy of the latest Jack Reacher novel by Lee Child. It's called Gone Tomorrow, if you are interested. She gave it to me to read first, I have no idea why.

Jack Reacher is an anti-hero. He is the modern equivalent of the Clint Eastwood character, the man with no name, in those Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns. He drifts around the country. While drifting, he happens to come across interesting events in which he gets entangled and then resolves. He seems to want to avoid these things but is always drawn into them by the participants.

He is also an interesting character in himself. Unlike Eastwood's character, you know his past (or some of it anyway). He is ex-military, a former major in the military police. But not just any MP, an elite force which handled sensitive, risky, missions.

After 13 years, Reacher was furloughed out by the downsizing that took place in the early 1990's. He decided, at that point, that he would travel around and see the country he had been defending. He also, for reasons that are not quite clear, decided he would be as anonymous as possible while doing so.

I found that last to be odd because I was in the military and it has always seemed to me that there is nothing more anonymous than a member of the military. I certainly felt anonymous. Almost invisible most of the time. Of course, I wasn't a major (or the Navy equivalent... Lieutenant Commander) or even an officer. There are none more anonymous than the enlisted man.

Maybe the character appeals to me because I have always had that urge to drift. I think it is an American thing. The lone cowboy, the frontiersman, has always been a favorite of the American public. He rides into town and tries to avoid trouble but is inevitably drawn into it. And, in the end, justice prevails because of him.

And that is just what Jack Reacher does.

I highly recommend this book. And all of the Jack Reacher novels.

For what that is worth.