Reacher Said Nothing is a damned weird thing to read

Andy Martin’s Reacher Said Nothing is an incredibly weird book to read.

The premise is pure genius: Lee Child is writing the 20th Jack Reacher book, and he’s agreed to let Martin sit in on the process. Martin gets to observe the developing draft, ask questions about process and career, a literature professor studying the act of producing rather than the product at the end.

And the book is at its best when it’s doing exactly that, the moments when Martin is reporting conversations and and offering glimpses of the process; or noticing a technique that’s started to appear in the rough drafts and expounding on it.

The unevenness comes when it looses that focus: talks about other writers Martin has meet while in Child’s orbit, or contemplating the effect that his being there is having on the process. Thinking through what he is doing, talking about the lack of models and how it may continue in other forms.

And I will grant that there are very few books like this. The only one I can think of that’s anything similar is The Writers Tale – a document of emails exchanged between Russell Davies and journalist Benjamin Book as Davies wrote his final season of Doctor Who. Except my memories of The Writers Tale is that it is wall-to-wall fascinating, even when it’s getting self-indulgent, because the words you’re getting are almost always Davies responding to specific prompts or conversations.

Everything in The Writers Tale is contextualised. Occasionally, Reacher Said Nothing feels like its no longer moored to the concept. Or that you’ve misunderstood the concept, somehow.

But it is fascinating, just for the glimpses of Child’s process, listening to him talk about the value of certain rhythms, certain word choices, certain changes to the language. And if you’re a fan of the Reacher books (here I wave to Cat Sparks), it’s definitely worth checking out.