Lee Child Reading
Lee Child reads from his novel, One Shot: A Jack Reacher Novel. Child then explains his path to becoming a writer, which began when he was fired from his corporate job at the age of forty. His growing disappointment with the selection of detective novels led him to pursue a career within that genre.
During a question and answer session that follows, Child explains his decision to make his main character into a military man. He claims that Reacher’s military past enables him to capture the feeling of “dislocation,” especially in regard to Reacher’s transition back into civilian life.
Child goes on to explain in detail his role as a reader, claiming that “writers are first and foremost readers; we write a book a year but read hundreds of books a year.” Child claims that his preferred area of reading is nonfiction; he fears that if he read too much fiction, the style of other authors would begin to seep into his work.
Lastly, Child goes on to explain his choice to both create Jack Reacher as an American man as well as to initially publish his novels in America. Child, who is British, points out that America not only has a larger reading market, it is in fact more literate than England. He also claims that the American geography allows for him to literally broaden the setting of his novels.
In: "Live from Prairie Lights" Audio Archive | Fiction
Authors: Lee Child
Date Recorded: June 24, 2005
Works Read: One Shot: A Jack Reacher Novel, by Lee Child
Program: Live From Prairie Lights
Format: reading
Contributors: Introduction by host Julie Englander.
Topics: mystery novels, U.S. military, writing style, reading, American book market