Child, Lee. One Shot . Bantam Dell.New York. 2006.

Child has a racy, stylish writing. You want to emulate him. His sentences are short, rarely complex or compound. They describe vividly but in a terse, compact manner. Colours, sights and sounds come alive. You feel like a camera following the action. Easy to read and visualise. These are his strengths. 
His biggest strength is,  ofcourse,  Reacher. In this book, Reacher takes on a slam-dunk murder case, to find the truth. James Barr, an ex-sniper, discharged from service because he shoots at four American soldiers, is once again accused of murdering five civilians in a pre-meditated murder. The twist in the tale begins when the accused refuses to speak and asks for Reacher. 
Reacher comes to Indiana with the intention of indicting Barr and finds himself drawn into a web of intrigue and doubt. The D.A., his lawyer daughter and Yanni, the ABC reporter join hands with Reacher to save a man, wrongly accused. The villains remain incognito and Reacher goes all out to hunt and kill them mercilessly for their gruesome acts of vengenance. As is the  pattern in most of the books, Reacher himself becomes a suspect during the course of action.
The cool logic, reasoning and calculations of Reacher are intriguing and gripping...they are one reason why the reader keeps going. 
Reacher becomes the stuff of legend - heard about, rarely seen and finally merging with the wind, trees and outback roads of the U.S.
 

Child, Lee. The Hard Way. Bantam Dell.New York. 2006.

A modern sleuth, combining the investigative and analytical skills of  Poirot, the deductive capability of Miss Marple and the brawn of Steven Segall, this man Reacher does indeed have the power to emerge as a character worth keeping in touch to give you hard thrills and puissant enjoyment in seeing murderers, rapists, child molesters, mafia and junta groups  brought to justice.

This story of a kidnap of the wife and daughter of an ex-military, paid to fight intergroup wars in far off African lands, with millions in hard cash and Reacher’s involvement in finding them becomes a battle, the hard way. This is because, Reacher,  for the first time, is stumped at every turn, till he reaches a sleepy English countryside, where everything becomes clearer, but not before he almost gives up, for the first time in his life.

This Reacher, reminds one of the  knightly valour of Launcelot – fighting battles to kill dishonourable knights and rescuing maidens in distress, but he is also someone one can identify from the modern scenario- a no-nonsense, hard-hitting,  invincible, charismatic Superhero in print in recent times.

The story itself is interesting, because just as Reacher thinks he has solved the mystery, he finds a new answer that only leads to another question.

Good read, though not a classic of the Agatha Christie type, because there one can return again and again to savour the various bits and pieces coming together to present a collage of unsurpassable intricacy, whereas in Child, Reacher is the one who remains in mind, not the mystery.

Braithwaite.E.R. To Sir With Love. First published in Great Britain.1959. Coronet Paperback.1988.

Over this week, I made my annual pilgrimage through the pages of this book. It is a classic for any educator, because it is a teacher education manual in print and one can consider it as a tool of reference, if one is beset by difficult classes.

What an amazing story, entirely credible, because haven’t we all had some teacher like this Braithwaite who influenced us at school and helped us grow with dignity and self esteem?

The struggle of this black teacher in a school set in the  tough East End neighbourhood is every teacher’s struggle. These students are systemic of learners who fight against odds at deprived homes and loveless existences to find their own paths in a society that mostly does not care.

The story is well knit – the teachers, each an entity with personal prejudices and ideas, Mr.Fabian, the headmaster, the man who dreams and envisions a great educating system for his wards, Ricardo Braithwaite, a black war veteran and now a teacher by sad turn of events, Gillian, who stands for a miniscule white community beginning to respect the balcks, the students who tackle their poverty and the ugliness of their lives with the dignity that Braithwaite has given them, the Thomases who doubt the efficacy of a system that educates without the cane... ah, each of these combines with the other to form a beautiful collage.

There is enough drama,  passion,  romance, trust, anger, mistrust, to make its pages interesting. What caught my interest was that it was on one side, the story of a teacher finding acceptance and solidarity with a tough batch of East End students and on the other, it was the story of a man who wanted to be accepted as a human being, on his own merit, undeterred by the colour of his skin. Gillian’s love for him and the children’s unreserved acceptance of him redeem this man and help him win his battle of colour.

I may go back to this story, may be next year, but I’d like it to be on the bookshelf of my grandchildren, for whom the Civil Wars and Apartheid Policies may be things of a distant past and I’d like them to remember that people went through such struggles before the  people could enjoy the liberty that they are enjoying now.

Child,Lee. Killing Floor. Bantam Publishers.New York. 1998

This is the first in the Reacher series. 

Having read the books in anywhich order, I find that this is Reacher Primordial...he is raw, brutal, merciless, cold and ruthless. There are hints of the gentleness and romantic streak, so obvious in the later books, and but a tiny peek here. 

The story takes place strangely in two distinct realms...each unconnected till the very end. 

And again, his women are not only alluring, they are gutsy, strong individuals ready to battle it out with criminals in their own court. 

I feel like I am going back in time...there was a time when I read Alistair Macleans with the same intensity and passion. I read through those series and loved each one of them. 

I don't probably love Reacher, but, yes, he and his adventures are interesting enough. I have no complaints.

 

Child,Lee. Tripwire. Bantam Publishers.New York. 2000

Leading a  slow, measured and settled life as a swimming pool digger, but at peace with himself, Reacher is brought into a world that shakes his faith in his intuition and leaves him with a burning desire to clear the name of a Jet fighter of  the Nam war. His love for Jodie is a special part of the story. In fact, the villainous activities Hook Hobie are narrated almost parallel to Reacher's love story. Till the last fifty pages or so, it is as if the 'twain shall never meet' and yet, they do and how! The tight feeling in the gut and the restlessness in the head, caused by Reacher's almost fatal effort to bring Hobie on his knees, are the fuel for the reader. 

There are many instances when Reacher is philosophical in his musings on life. Again, the mystery for me is how  this man becomes a drifter who cares for nothing , not even the shirt on his back.

 I've still not tired of this hero. So, let me keep going. 

Bombeck, Erma. At Wit's End. Fawcett Crest. New York. 1967.

Irrepressibly funny in  every line of her pages on domesticity, motherhood, wifely responsibilities and Committee chairpersonship for County Fairs. Bombeck laughs at herself, as much as she laughs at men, women, children and the society. She sees the sunshine behind every dark cloud and the smiles behind every jibe she takes at herself. This is satire, simple, clean, vibrant and humorous. Readers can also discern the love that shines with a light of its own from a benevolent source, large hearted in its acceptance of human errors and foibles. Her repartees for all her characters, from her littlest one to her husband, double you up with laughter.

Some of her lines:

'What do you mean you're a participle in the school play and you need a costume?'

'Could you please do something diplomatic with Mrs. Reading? She's threatened the refreshment committee with her traditional whiskey balls and rum cookies. You know what a fire hazard they caused last year'.

The key word with growing children is communication. If you are a lip reader of any repute whatsoever, you have no problem. However, if you have to compete with local disc jockeys which feed hourly through their ear plugs, it could get tricky. We have solved this problem by buying time on the local station and reporting personal messages;" We moved last week'. 'Daddy's birthday is in September'. ' Do you still lisp?'

The list goes on. I hope I have the opportunity to read her other books:Family-the Ties that Bind ...and Gag, Aunt Erma's Cope Book, The Grass is always greener over the Septic Tank, If Life is a Bowl of Cherries-What am I doing in the Pits? After a long time, I just smiled and smiled and gurgled in a few places, reminding me of my Wodehouse days. 

I loved this one.

Child,Lee. Echo Burning. Bantam Publishers.New York. 2001

Another Reacher. Two things I noticed about this Reacher.

This Reacher uses a watch unlike the Reacher of 2007 who can intuitively and accurately give the time on the clock.

This Reacher does not pick up an obvious clue given to identify the perpetrator. This makes him a human at the end of it all.

There is still a subtle mellowness about this Reacher...his investigative skills are however sharp and thorough.

He is a thorough gentleman, inspite of his rough ways and tough meanness with criminals, and implicitly  believes his employer, in this case, a Hispanic who hires him to be her bodyguard, to protect her from her wife-basher of a husband.

The story takes one on a rough ride...it seems one is there having solved the mystery and then finds that one is not there, nowhere close to it at all ...

Just recommended Lee Child to my son for the long flights home. That is because, the stories are like a nourishing meal that is a solid mouthful and does not disappear or melt before you can say 'Bread'.

Read with interest the blurb which said that Bill Clinton likes these Reacher books.Well, I like the two I've read so far...