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Reacher Creator Lee Child Reveals Jack's True "Secret Origin Story"
Jack Reacher creator Lee Child revealed the iconic hero's true secret origin, and it's much more autobiographical than you might think.
Article Summary
- Lee Child reveals Jack Reacher's true origin story in his new book, Reacher: The Stories Behind the Stories.
- Reacher’s fighting style was inspired by Child’s own childhood experiences growing up in Birmingham, UK.
- Many of Reacher’s traits and instincts are autobiographical, reflecting Child’s personal mindset and history.
- The new nonfiction release explores how Child's life and thoughts shaped the iconic Reacher character over time.
The creator of Jack Reacher, Lee Child, has a new book out, Reacher: the Stories Behind the Stories. This is his nonfiction account of what informed the Reacher novels as he wrote them every year since the first book, The Killing Floor, up to his recent retirement from writing the books and handing them over to his brother, Andrew Child. Child recently revealed in an interview with The Observer newspaper in the UK, the true secret origin of his hero.
"I try to keep it reasonably small," said Child. "And reasonably realistic. The reader returns to Reacher because they want comfort and familiarity, so I go against the undergraduate theory that the hero must go on a journey. But, of course, I change year on year. The book shows what's on my mind. It's not possible to write fiction without a large element of autobiography. The main character has got to have tastes and reactions, both social and political. I think it inevitably comes from yourself."
It turns out Reacher's tactics in his fights against jerks were based on what Child did when he got into real fights as a schoolboy and into his teens. "I grew up in Birmingham," he explained. "My aspirational parents wanting me to do well at school put a target on my back. I was a class traitor or above myself. That attracted violence. But I was a big kid, and I was really good at it, so I fought a lot before I was 10 or 11 – just constant brawling. Reacher really is me, age nine."
"I calmed down and became a civilised person, but those reactions remained. On my first book tour, in 1998, I was in San Francisco in a cheap hotel in a bad area. Somebody tried to mug me, and I was that nine-year-old again. I smacked the man in the throat and pushed him against the wall. It surprised and appalled me how that instinct never leaves you. Step into trouble, don't step back."
Reacher: The Stories Behind the Stories is now out.
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