The art of repetition
Sep. 26th, 2016 04:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearThis week, I finished listening to Make Me, number twenty in the Jack Reacher series, by Lee Child.
I love Reacher - I'm not ashamed to admit it. I'm also very impressed that Mr Child has managed to produce twenty books about this character without me wanting to stop reading them. Some are better than others, but all of them have entertained me. I'm not sure I would have stuck it out this far if I'd been reading the text versions, but they are absolutely perfect as audiobooks, particularly when read by Jeff Harding, who inhabits the character of Reacher so completely in my head that I don't think I'd be able to listen to him reading anything else, and certainly wouldn't want to listen to a Reacher book read by another narrator.
I think the key to the success of the Reacher series, for me, is repetition. I was talking to my mum on the phone the other day and mentioned I was listening to a Reacher book. She asked which one, and I said:
"It's the one where he completely co-incidentally turns up in a small American town where something nerfarious is going on, and teams up with an attractive female law enforcement officer to deal with the bad guys. Oh, wait - that's not really going to help you, is it?"
The format is very much variation-on-a-theme, and always utterly ridiculous, but it's just so damn entertaining, that I can listen to as many variations on that theme as Mr Child can churn out, and not get bored.
On an individual level, Child also uses repetition to his advantage, in the way he threads the narrative with repeated words, phrases, dialogue and descriptions. I noticed it particularly in this book, and it somehow gives the narrative an almost poetic flow in places. It's very well done, not only emphasising important details, but also providing a rhythm to the book that makes it all the more immersive.
Reacher always makes me laugh, and I'm always rooting for him enthusiastically, even though I know he's never really in danger. What can I say? In some ways, I'm very shallow, and these books just hit all the right buttons for me, when I'm in the mood for pure, predictable entertainment.
Can't wait for the next one to come out in November!
I love Reacher - I'm not ashamed to admit it. I'm also very impressed that Mr Child has managed to produce twenty books about this character without me wanting to stop reading them. Some are better than others, but all of them have entertained me. I'm not sure I would have stuck it out this far if I'd been reading the text versions, but they are absolutely perfect as audiobooks, particularly when read by Jeff Harding, who inhabits the character of Reacher so completely in my head that I don't think I'd be able to listen to him reading anything else, and certainly wouldn't want to listen to a Reacher book read by another narrator.
I think the key to the success of the Reacher series, for me, is repetition. I was talking to my mum on the phone the other day and mentioned I was listening to a Reacher book. She asked which one, and I said:
"It's the one where he completely co-incidentally turns up in a small American town where something nerfarious is going on, and teams up with an attractive female law enforcement officer to deal with the bad guys. Oh, wait - that's not really going to help you, is it?"
The format is very much variation-on-a-theme, and always utterly ridiculous, but it's just so damn entertaining, that I can listen to as many variations on that theme as Mr Child can churn out, and not get bored.
On an individual level, Child also uses repetition to his advantage, in the way he threads the narrative with repeated words, phrases, dialogue and descriptions. I noticed it particularly in this book, and it somehow gives the narrative an almost poetic flow in places. It's very well done, not only emphasising important details, but also providing a rhythm to the book that makes it all the more immersive.
Reacher always makes me laugh, and I'm always rooting for him enthusiastically, even though I know he's never really in danger. What can I say? In some ways, I'm very shallow, and these books just hit all the right buttons for me, when I'm in the mood for pure, predictable entertainment.
Can't wait for the next one to come out in November!
