The Midnight Line [A Jack Reacher Novel]

The Midnight Line is a Jack Reacher novel written by Lee Child in 2017. Let me start out by saying this is my first Jack Reacher novel and it is a great one. I would even say superb. Before this, I was familiar with Jack Reacher only through No Middle Name, Child's short story collection about Jack Reacher. That was very good too. But not as good as this novel. 

Okay, so the novel takes place with Reacher somewhere in the midwest. He goes to a pawn shop and finds this ring, the catalyst for our entire story. The ring is engraved with the initials S.R.A and it's from West Point. The very same school Reacher graduated from back in the day. Reacher knows it's a woman's ring because it's tiny. He goes on a quest to find the woman, return the ring, and make sure that she's safe. Because the only reason a West Point student would sell her class ring is that they're in some sort of dire straights and/or trouble. Right? Right. 

As far as suspense thriller versus action this novel is more on the suspense thriller side of things. Which inevitably means its a more serious book. More serious than the next novel in the canon, Blue Moon. But there are still good fights and an incredible climatic takeover and/or heist moment in the end. Jack goes through all kinds of clues, traveling, following, and occasionally beating the crap outta anyone who gets in the way of his mission, to find the woman who owns the ring. One guy even gets his head blown off. Talk about over the top.

The action is simple and straight to the point. It actually reminds me of the action scenes I've read in Cecelia Holland's intense historical fiction novel fights. Except I believe Lee Child knows more about the actual machinations of guns and how and they work. Short, fast, climactic, and brutal in some cases. It's a good writing style. I've learned a lot from it. There's a lot going on stylistically in this novel that Child does.  Also, keep in mind that this novel doesn't feel like he's just making it up as he's going along. [Even if he actually did that.]

The prose is short, simple, and sweet. It's all simple-minded plotting and narration but there's a continuous momentum that keeps the book running from page 1 all the way to page 368. This is a longer novel than your typical suspense thriller. And despite that, it never loses momentum. You want to keep reading until you find out more. You keep reading, find out more, and that propels you into more reading. Well, you get the picture. I read almost half the novel in one day off work. It's that good. It's a great example of popular writing that keeps the readers wanting more. Hence the fact that Lee Child has written twenty-something of these Jack Reacher novels. Not all of them are as good as this one of course. 

So Reacher goes on to find a Private Investigator who is also looking for the woman. An Asian cop is trying to take down a low-level criminal involved in the case. The woman's twin sister gets involved. The Super Intendent from West Point looks back at the woman's records and finds information about her. She's ex-military, been to Iraq five times. Honorably discharged, Purple Heart, face wound. Her twin is so beautiful you don't want to look away. Serena Rose Anderson is the other one.  Hooked on drugs. Has three cowboys look after him in some cabin the woods. A former boyfriend who OD'd himself. No good news.

What we find out throughout the novel isn't quite as much of a big reveal as you'd expect. Nothing truly surprising happens. Rather, it's the way the story is told that is memorable and remarkable. There are touching scenes in this novel. Some that are even very sad. There's a lot of good one-liners from the characters, especially Reacher. 

"I need to pay Arthur Scorpio a visit. He lied to me about Porterfield, and he told two separate people to shoot me from behind a tree. He crossed the line. It's not going to end well for him. He's going in the tumble dryer." 

The actual story, narration, characters, plot, and actions are all very simple. But the delivery and result of all the work put into this are top-notch. Overall, I would say this is one of the better fiction novels I've read this year. Again, it's all simple-minded, and perhaps anyone with decent writing skills could write like this or at least something like this. But it takes Lee Child's drive and will to write an action-packed Jack Reacher story with emotional gravitas. Bravo.    

Much recommended. Better than Blue Moon, the most recent book by Lee Child.

Fun Day During the Plague of 2020

Hello, ladies and gents. I wanted to write another post during what I will now call the Plague of 2020, aka coronavirus outbreak. To think our government knew this was coming for two months yet only 2,000 people have actually been tested for it in the United States. What the heck man! That's truly fucked right there. How is it even humanely possible to be that fucking stupid as the President of the United States? Now it's too late in a sense because 1) there aren't enough tests to test everyone 2) there's no way to tell if you actually have it, and or differentiating it from regular flu 3) it's already too late because the numbers are getting worse by the day. Thanks a lot, Trump. But this post isn't about Trump. But we can all agree that he's human scum for lying about there being enough tests when there aren't any nor nearly enough. The incompetence is through the roof here folks. 

Okay, okay. I'll settle down now. I just had to get the "partisan" outta me. Lol.

Now we have new social buzzwords like social distancing, aka "get the fuck away from me." In a way, I'm totally excited about these new exciting times. It's like living during the Plague. This virus is going to be so bad that it's going to completely change America and the world, turning them and it, into a better place. How? Through suffering and perseverance, things will go through the natural state of nature, a metamorphosis that will result in a better world, where people will care more. That's usually how these things work. Just ask the Chinese. They know all about it. 

Americans haven't really suffered like other cultures have suffered. This little taste of suffering will improve our character as a people. 

Anyways, considering the fact that perhaps soon there will come a time when there will be regional shutdowns, I went to my favorite Chinese restaurant. I had a wonderful meal and a good time with my dad. 

I got one of my favorite meals of all time. Barbequed pork with fried tofu and vegetables over rice. The only problem with this terrific dish is that they actually give you too much rice in proportion to the other stuff. The barbeque pork is real barbeque pork. None of that fake Panda Express stuff. Good texture and flavor. The fried tofu was hot and delicious. The rice soaked in the sauce was tasty.

My father ordered one of our favorite dishes. Barbequed pork wonton noodle soup. It's one of the best meals I've ever had in my life. A working man's meal. He enjoyed it. 

The restaurant didn't have too many people because of the virus scare. At one point everyone left except the workers and my dad and I had the entire restaurant to ourselves. At some point, more customers came in. All Chinese. No Americans. That's just the way it goes. 

I spent most of the day before and after reading Lee Child's The Midnight Line.

Fun day during the plague of 2020. 

What's a brotha to do?

What's up ladies and gentlemen of the interwebz. It's been a minute since I last wrote a post. I've been on a blog/writing hiatus for a while now. The reason? A lot of work at the main retail gig mostly. Lately, I've been getting these long six-day work weeks. Eight hours, six days a week. They're exhausting but hey, I think they call that a job. 

I've been reading a lot. I recently finished The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Nearly 800 pages! At one point I was averaging about 100 pages a day. I'm currently reading the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. Bring on more classics of the western canon! Brothers Karamazov is such a great work with so much gravitas that I think it deserves to be reread in a couple years if not sooner. 

The Canterbury Tales took me a long time to get into. For a while, I contemplated reading it but instead got hooked on video games for a few days. I've been playing a lot of Overwatch within my last two days off, leaving me in a kind of zoned-out, zombified, sort of state. The game is fun but it gets to be a little mind-numbing after a while. I've been in gaming limbo. Most of the time I don't play games at all but every now and then on days off, I play a lot. Missing out on precious reading time on days off.  

Actually, if I don't read pretty often [every day] my mind starts to wander and drift off into this kind of zoned-out mode. What can I say? I have to stay engaged in the literature to feel active in life. I've become such a reader that when I don't read for one-two days, I start to feel not quite like myself. Fiction especially. And philosophy. Literary essays. 

In terms of music, I've been playing weekly jazz duo jams with my friend Jason Thomas. I'll probably post some music from our sessions here at some point soon. The jam sessions have become more improvisational but I would say that we need to increase our repertoire. Especially Coltrane songs. Songs like Afro Blue, My Favorite Things, Naima, etc. 

I had a freaky moment at work during the past week where I met a music student who actually studied with my music mentor, the new music composer Frank Abbinanti. Apparently, Sid studied with Frank for five years [or more] in Chicago before he came out to California to study at Cal Art. This is pretty astounding. I was dumbstruck. This is where I get to say that I believe in God and metaphysics. What are the chances of meeting this guy? Considering that we are both from Chicago and both are mentored by Frank. Apparently, my step-father knows Sid and his father as well from when they used to run a new music orchestra. Wow! How about that? 

Having free time to write a rambling post like this has been great. In fact, I've been so tired from work lately that I haven't had the energy to turn on my laptop and write posts, let alone my usual book reviews. Instead, the last month or so I've been ranting a lot about retail, and my Marxist tendencies, as well as my arrival to class consciousness via retail work. It's a wonderful world. 

Plans for the future? Well, for one thing, I'm going to get back to my usual book review stuff. For another, I plan on going back and working on my first novel, which was written and finished a while ago, but definitely not perfect. I'm actually not satisfied with it and intend on going back to the original version, which didn't have much editing, without messing it up. My problem with my memoir initially was that I finished a rough draft and then wrote a longer, edited version. However, after going over the edited version I realized that it was edited in a wrongheaded way, forcing me to go back to the drawing board. 

Thankfully, I have the original version. Just to explain to you how different the original is from the edited version, the original version is only 50 pages, whereas the edited version is 100 pages. A lot of people have told me that I should submit it to publishers and try to get something done with it. We will see after I rework it again. 

Likewise, I want to write more short stories of a fictional nature. Science fiction and just plain, old, regular fiction. A reader must write if he or she is so inclined. I've been reading a lot of Jack Reacher [the short story collection]  so I'm inspired to write things in that vein. We will see. 

Lastly, it's not that I haven't quite had as much time to write that I haven't written anything. Rather, it's just that I've been damn tired. So tired that I haven't really been playing guitar much. I've stopped attending the bar open mics because I realized their limitations [two songs, ten minutes, buy drinks, too much $] and in fact, when I play and buy drinks there, I'm losing money and free time. In terms of music, I'm more motivated by Frank Abbinanti's musical advice and direction. In terms of writing, I'm very inspired. But sometimes you gotta force yourself to write. Even when you're dead tired. 

The holidays can be a real downer for people. This time of year is hard on workers because most people have to work during the holidays rather than spend time with their families. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. The important thing is to keep doing the things that motivate you and push yourself to get the things you want to be done. If you don't push yourself, nobody else will. 

I've got to keep pushing myself.