Andy Martin, huge fan-boy of Lee Child, talks the author into allowing him to play Boswell to Lee Child’s Samuel Johnson. Martin sits in the room and watches Lee Child write Make Me which I reviewed yesterday. What do we learn from Andy Martin’s documentation of Child writing this 20th Jack Reacher novel? First of all, Lee Child makes up his novels as he goes along. No outlines, no clear picture of where the novel is going. This is the opposite of the Mickey Spillane method where Spillane would write the Last Chapter of his novels first. “That way, you always know where you’re going,” The Mick said. We also find out Lee Child drinks 20 cups of coffee a day. And he smokes like a chimney, both tobacco and marijuana. Andy Martin gives the reader a good sense of Lee Child’s worK methods and charm. I enjoyed this breezy, funny narration of the making of a novel. I’m always curious about the creative process. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
E-Face
1. The End
2. Chapter 1
3. That John Lennon Moment
4. Chapter 1 Continued
5. Finally Chapter 1
6. Exit Keever
7. Enter Reacher
8. Fuck You Lee Child
9. The Song of Reacher
10. The Launch Barnes Noble Union Square September
11. Then Reacher Stepped Off the Train
12. Mothers Rest
13. The Good the Bad and the Ugly
14. On the Money
15. The Quixotic Matador
16. An Objective Report Concerning the Relative Standing of Dr Lee Child and Dr Andy Martin
17. A Child Is Born
18. The Story of the Blind Woman
19. Long Beach
20. Underworld
21. The Stony Limit
22. No X No
23. At Last the Whole Point of Reacher
24. The Great Coffee Contest
25. One Thousand Words
26. Christmas Goodwill
27. Lee Childs New Years Resolution
28. Half a Bottle of Bourbon
29. The StitchUp
30. Never Go Back
31. My Life of Crime
32. Shane A Footnote
33. The Thaw
34. Only a Matter of Time
35. Reacher in Translation
36. A Theory of Everything
37. Morpheus
38. Biographeme
39. Metamorphosis
40. The Big Reveal
41. The Naming of Names
42. The Quiller Memorandum
43. On the Couch
44. On the Couch II
45. Why the Works of Lee Child Are Really Quite Useful
46. A Deals a Deal
47. End of the Third Movement
48. Quoth He
49. The Old Cemetery
50. Home Invasion
51. Knowledge by Description
52. They Think Its All Over
53. Also Sprach Lee Child
54. Two for the Price of One
55. Allegory
56. Reacher Visits a Bookstore
57. Thursday, March 26, 2015
58. Has Lee Child Done His Research?
59. Maigret et Moi
60. Napoleonic
61. Gardening Tips
62. Wittgenstein on Sixth Avenue
63. The Proposal of a Romantic Novelist
64. Where is the Pipe?
65. Stairway to Heaven
66. Risen Again
67. The Baldacci Program
68. On the Sofa
69. The End is Nigh
70. What’s It all About, Then?
71. No Exit
72. The Opposite of the Cern Large Hadron Collider Approach
73. Time-Lapse Photography of the Penultimate Chapter
74. Bombshell
75. Cliffhanger
E-log
I read an excerpt from this (in the NY Times, perhaps?) a while ago. I agree with you. I am interested in the creative process (I have always been interested in collaborations, how people who write books or songs together work, but that is a different story) so will probably check this one out.
He drinks even more coffee than you do!
Jeff, you’re right. I only drink 10 cups a day. Lee Child drinks twice that!
No wonder he is so thin!
My theory is that people who have no outline or plan have a brain that is actually doing that work for them.
Patti, I couldn’t imagine NOT working from an outline. Making a novel up from page to page seems like a high-wire act without a net!
Maybe I should be drinking more coffee and smoking more ciggies.
Bill, Andy Martin documents the vast number of cups of coffee and cigarettes and weed Lee Child consumes. It’s off the charts!
maybe when this comes out in PB. I knew about the coffee, weed, and cigs, just not the amount. I’ve cut wayyy down on caffeine, partially due to blood pressure. I used to have 2-3 cups of caffeinated tea a day. Now I’m down to one or less, but make it up with herbal tea, mint being my favorite.
I remember hearing about the method Lee used to get his nicotine fix on airplanes, but can’t remember what it was. Maybe he charters planes now? Was that addressed?
Maggie, from REACHER SAID NOTHING I got the sense that Lee Child has money to burn. He donates $100,000 to an animal shelter at one point in the book.
My folks ALWAYS had a pot of coffee going. They drank it all day and right up to bedtime.
Diet Coke is my addiction.
I suggested this book to Joe (he’s the Lee Child fan) but he was skeptical. I think he’ll be more interested since it’s not solely about how he writes.
Beth, Joe would enjoy all of Lee Child’s antics. He’s a pretty funny guy!
The book sounds boring, I’ll skip. Seems a page or two on how he works, perhaps in a preface, would be sufficient.
I drink 2 cups of coffee in the morning, then that’s it.
I am really, really tired of having to type my info in every time! It’s going to start limiting my comments here (not that anyone would notice…)
Rick, the new version of WORDPRESS is due soon. Patrick thinks it will fix the data entry problem.
Though I don’t read those “adventure&mystery” books any more (don’t have time enough, too much to do …) I’ll answer re having to input your data:
For me after typing the first letter a list appears.
Maybe this is because I joined wordpress some time ago – don’t ahve a blog but am a member of another group (in Hungary, but English).
Maybe that helps wordpress to remember you?
George, no SF for you to write on?
Wolf, I’ll have some SF reviews next week. I’m posting about mysteries the next few days.