I liked the movie. A lot more than I expected; I mean, it wasn't an instant classic or anything. You have to have certain expectations when viewing an action movie, and this one exceeded those expectations.
So I went home, and when I see a movie I like, I do a little research on it. Discovered that it was based on a novel byLee Childs called "One Shot," which was one of many in a series about title character Jack Reacher. Also turns out that the series is successful, and generally well-regarded.
The next time I was at Half Price Bookstore, I picked up the first novel in the series, "Killing Floor." And then I read it.
It was a very cliched action/adventure mystery (maybe I like crime novel better than mystery) that read exactly like a Hollywood action movie. The stoic, tough loner hero who is good at everything, smart, sarcastic, persuasive, always beats up the bad guys, and his plans always work (and if they don't, he's always lucky enough to get away with it). We're talking a real Mike Hammer here. The girls are always pretty and smart and capable (except when they need rescuing) and sleep with the hero. The villains were well-connected and arrogant and tough and sadistic. You've seen the movie a dozen times, and it had a different name and star in each one.
The funny thing was, I loved the book. The writing was crisp, the action well-told, and with just enough depth to keep it out of the kiddie pool.
So I picked up another one of the series (there's like fifteen total), "The Persuader," and tried it out. Same hero, same character archetypes, new situation, equally unrealistic. And I loved it, too. And "Bad Luck and Trouble," and finally "One Shot" (I waited to read "One Shot" because it was made into the movie so I already knew-ish the story). Loved them (side note, having read the novel, I was very impressed with the movie adaptation. They kept the main story with all the important parts, faithfully translated all of the characters [even when they combined a couple of them together], and only made changes to suite the new medium).
I don't understand it, because these are the type of books I should have enjoyed maybe one read and then quickly forgotten. I've read Mikey Spillane, Clive Cussler (unfortunately), I've read Ludlum's Jason Bourne novels, and they had their moments (good and bad). I've read a dozen Tom Clancey novels, and liked them well enough when I was a teenager (and have no interest in revisiting them as an adult with discerning taste).
Jack Reacher, in all of his absurd cliches, trumps all of them. Four out of four is a pretty good track record, randomly chosen through the series. I don't expect any of the rest of them to get better, but I'd imagine they don't get much worse, either. But I'll probably read them, at some point.
You don't have to think too hard when you read them, and it's a good refreshing read after something dense.
Jack Reacher, I am sold. Sign me up.
In other, related, news, this has been a good couple of months for me, literature-wise. It's been a stretch of good reading, including several phenomenal novels by authors I'd never read before, visiting a classic I'm surprised I never read in school, a wonderful new non-fiction by one of my top-two non-fiction authors, and the above-stated Jack Reacher novel.
I discovered Haruki Murakami, a spectacular import from Japan. His "Windup Bird Chronicle" was spectacular, unlike anything I'd ever read before. I also went through "Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World," which wasn't as good but was still quality. Ann Patchett's "Bel Canto" was breath-taking. It seemed so light, like it was floating on air. Despite the completely mundane (and by that, I mean not supernatural) story, it had an ethereal quality that I can't quite explain. It breathed. Not many books can do that. "The Lord of the Flies" is iconic, and there is a reason for that. "Cooked" by Michael Pollan is good stuff; I like every word that man said, because it's exactly what I wanted to hear.
Now I'm going to go re-watch that Jack Reacher movie, and then maybe an episode of "Eureka," the greatest tv show ever.
