Having just come back from a few days in Toronto, I was primed to appreciate this, from Lee Child’s Without Fail:
Every city has a cusp, where the good part of town turns bad. Washingon D.C. was no different. The border between desirable and undesirable ran in a ragged irregular loop, bulging outward here and there to accommodate reclaimed blocks,swooping inward in other areas to claim inroads of its own. It was pierced in some places by gentrified corridors. Elsewhere it worked
gradually, shading imperceptibly over hundreds of yards down streets where you could buy thirty different blends of tea at one end and cash checks at the other for thirty percent of the proceeds.
I don’t know Washington D.C. at all, but this description seems applicable to any city I’ve been in, and I especially love the accuracy of that last sentence. If you don’t know Lee Child’s Jack Reacher books and if you like taut, credible, well-written mysteries, you really should pick one up. Pater and I both enjoy them and this summer took The Hard Way and Bad Luck and Trouble along on our travels. I was recently surprised to find that there are several sites where readers debate, exactly as Pater and I have, which male actor has the physical presence to play Reacher, who’s 6’5″ and something like 250. The fellow who plays Jayne on Firefly is a consistent contender, altho’ you won’t be convinced unless you’ve seen that series all the way through, and even then . . . What about you? Have you read these books yet, and do you have any suggestions for someone who could play the role?
Ok, back again, I think it will work this time. Well, I really just thanked you for the recommendation, as I had never heard of this author or series before. I will definitely keep an eye out for it, next time I am in a bookstore with more than one shelf of books in English (ok, I exaggerate, it’s not that bad). ;0) As for casting – it’s such an art, isn’t it? I read a foreward by Len Deighton in which he said that he made the (unnamed) hero of Funeral in Berlin a northerner from Burnley (Yorkshire?). However, once producer Harry Salzman cast Michael Caine in the role, this added an extra dimension to the character and really, who else can you imagine playing him? I also love to think of the cast of’Corner Gas’, one of our favourite shows, in this way. Just cannot imagine anyone else playing any of them. Anyway, can’t really offer any suggestions for Jack Reacher – I’ll have to read one of the books first! Patricia