It must take some innate talent to craft stories - esp a good yarn. I have recently encountered a series of such tales set in America with a vigilante hero in the form of Jack Reacher. It is the lead character of a series of books by a British author called Jim Grant - pen name - Lee Child.
Like Agatha Christie and Ian Fleming in the mid 20th century this Briton has crafted his recent (about 2000 on) series on this pseudo monk like one man army called Reacher. It is fascinating and somewhat compelling reading (at least in my case) where I have gone through the books in a matter of hours.
I remember getting that same feeling of being engrossed as a good Poirot plot would. The language is used efficiently to convey a lot of planning and motion that goes with the character's habits of being prudent yet lightning fast in his actions.
It is also somewhat of a factoid fix where the author goes to the trouble of calculating or recording something as macro as the square footage of the USA, to the origin of the word 'Xerox'. I like this approach to blend some daily or almost mundane perspective and yet add richness to the storyline.
In some secret way I also envy the character - watching this self sufficient person define where he wants to spend his next night, what with a passport, a toothbrush and a bank account to his name along with the clothes on his back being his total list of possessions. He defines the TCO (fancy management term modern day consultants like to use) or total cost of ownership of his possessions as being negligible compared to buying a house and then having to spend a lot of your time worrying about it and paying for all sorts of things including those that you collect/buy and put in it. This line of thinking was also expanded on in a hilarious rant by George Carlin.
It is also intriguing to see the cunning and the elementary deductions the protagonist draws without access to computers or mobile phones since the story line is typically set before the advent of modern convenience like the smart phone.
All smarts are in the six foot tall giant's skull that get applied in situations that he finds himself in every time he lands in a new town.
Like Agatha Christie and Ian Fleming in the mid 20th century this Briton has crafted his recent (about 2000 on) series on this pseudo monk like one man army called Reacher. It is fascinating and somewhat compelling reading (at least in my case) where I have gone through the books in a matter of hours.
I remember getting that same feeling of being engrossed as a good Poirot plot would. The language is used efficiently to convey a lot of planning and motion that goes with the character's habits of being prudent yet lightning fast in his actions.
It is also somewhat of a factoid fix where the author goes to the trouble of calculating or recording something as macro as the square footage of the USA, to the origin of the word 'Xerox'. I like this approach to blend some daily or almost mundane perspective and yet add richness to the storyline.
In some secret way I also envy the character - watching this self sufficient person define where he wants to spend his next night, what with a passport, a toothbrush and a bank account to his name along with the clothes on his back being his total list of possessions. He defines the TCO (fancy management term modern day consultants like to use) or total cost of ownership of his possessions as being negligible compared to buying a house and then having to spend a lot of your time worrying about it and paying for all sorts of things including those that you collect/buy and put in it. This line of thinking was also expanded on in a hilarious rant by George Carlin.
It is also intriguing to see the cunning and the elementary deductions the protagonist draws without access to computers or mobile phones since the story line is typically set before the advent of modern convenience like the smart phone.
All smarts are in the six foot tall giant's skull that get applied in situations that he finds himself in every time he lands in a new town.
I like the idea of a nationality-and-home-less man a lot!
ReplyDeleteyes - in fact nation-less also sounds at home with me
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