David Remnick Talks with Lee Child, the Creator of Jack Reacher

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Arts, News, Wnyc, Books, David, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Yorker, New, Remnick

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 8 February 2022

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Lee Child didn’t start writing novels until he lost a prestigious job producing TV in England during a shakeup that he attributes to Rupert Murdoch. He tried his hand at writing a thriller, and found that the new career suited him: with a hundred million copies of his books in print in forty languages, Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels make up one of the most successful series in print. Every September 1st, he sits down to write a new one. He tells his longtime fan David Remnick that his all-American tough guy is a modern-day knight-errant wandering the land doing good deeds. But, at sixty-seven, Child has thought about giving Reacher up. What would he do instead? Catch up on his own reading, finally getting around to Jane Austen and other classics. “Remember, I’m from Europe,” he points out. “I have no work ethic.” Plus, the contributor Graciela Mochkofsky on three classics of Argentinean music that she hated growing up, but came to embrace while living in America under COVID.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:09.1	This is the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. Now, you might say with more than 25 Jack
0:15.7	Reacher novels out there, plus a couple of Tom Cruise movies that maybe we don't need a Jack Reacher TV series.
0:24.2	But who can ever get enough of Jack Reacher, that former military cop who roams from town to
0:30.9	town like some crew-cut samurai, setting things right with his unerring an incredibly violent code of morality.
0:39.9	The eight-episode series, Reacher, just premiered on Amazon.
0:45.0	Well, a smart move would be to shoot me right here,
0:47.0	but you haven't done that yet.
0:48.9	Maybe you don't want to draw attention firing outside a crowded bar.
0:52.9	Or maybe you have orders to take me to your boss so we can find out how much I know.
0:59.6	Whatever it is, it means that when I make my move, you're going to hesitate.
1:03.8	And you guys know what Cato said about hesitation, right?
1:08.1	He who hesitates?
1:10.8	This all-American tough guy is the creation of Englishman Lee Child, who was born James Grant.
1:17.7	He graduated law school before beginning a career in television, all before his immensely successful run, writing action thrillers.
1:25.7	I had a chance to talk with Lee Child back in the summer of 2018.
1:29.5	It was just before the Jack Reacher novel, Past Tense, had come out.
1:35.0	Lee Child is an absolute delight to have you here. You've made so many summers come alive for me,
1:42.5	reading you. I never read on the beach. I don't know why people
1:44.8	do that, but at least I go outside and I read a Lee child novel. I'm a happy, happy boy.
1:50.2	Well, I'm very glad to hear that. Thank you. Well, so I'm full of questions and naturally I want to
1:55.6	ask you about the way this all began. You were working as an executive in 1995 and you got fired and decided
	...

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