The character's name first came to Child in a supermarket when an old lady, noting the span of Child's arms, asked for his help in reaching out to a can of pears. His name is short and commonplace, as opposed to quirky or unusual Reacher's personal ethics and wandering lifestyle are reminiscent of the chivalrous knight errant of medieval lore as opposed to an anti-hero tormented by addiction and haunted by past misbehavior. Similarly, editor Otto Penzler published an essay by Child explaining that Jack Reacher was created deliberately in contrast to the prevailing trends in crime fiction. Bob Cornwell quotes Lee Child's reply in another interview as having created Reacher 'as an antidote, to all the depressed and miserable alcoholics that increasingly peopled the genre'. It had to keep a roof over our heads, so it was totally, totally 110% commercially motivated.' Ĭritics have perceived other influences in Jack Reacher's creation.
According to Child, authorship was a purely pragmatic decision: 'I wasn't one of these people that felt compelled to write. 1.2 Author's commentary and interpretationĭevelopment and author's commentary Development Īt the time Lee Child sat down to write his first novel Killing Floor, he was unemployed, having been made redundant from his position as a presentation director for Granada Television.1.1.1 Similarities between Reacher and Lee Child.
