I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
The Hero
by
Lee Child
philosophy in a hardcover edition that was published by TLS Books on November 28, 2019 and has 96 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
Illustrator: Ella Baron
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Killing Floor, Die Trying, "Second Son", Tripwire, Running Blind, Echo Burning, Without Fail, Persuader, The Enemy, One Shot, The Hard Way, Bad Luck and Trouble, Nothing to Lose, Gone Tomorrow, 61 Hours, Worth Dying For, The Affair, A Wanted Man, "Deep Down", Never Go Back, "High Heat", Personal, Make Me, "Small Wars", Night School, MatchUp, The Midnight Line, Past Tense, No Middle Name, Blue Moon, "Cleaning the Gold"
A standalone work of non-fiction discussing the mythology of hero and story and ancestry.
My Take
Scattered. Definitely scattered. Child meanders through his own thoughts about the evolution of heroes through stories as mythology.
Child started with a general question that has always made me wonder, discussing “who tried it first”. How did our ancestors come up with all those ways to cook and use what was around them?
Child begins with opium and briefly follows its evolution as morphine and codeine and heroin. Linking it to hero. I did have to laugh as he depicts neanderthals as painfully rational and Homo sapiens as batshit crazy, lol.
Then Child wanders off to mention his linguist daughter, who sounds delightfully accepting. Even that the hero sandwich evolved from gyro. I wonder if Dagwood knew?
Then Child introduces Lucy, Australopithecus afarensis, which leads into an exploration of ancestry and mutations, such as our increased brain capacity. This then leads to his assessment of the evolution of story and heroes.
It has been awhile since I read the Illiad , and I don’t remember Achilles as a psychopath…
Yes, Child discusses a few “heroes” and the truths behind them. Men like Achilles, Odysseus, and Robin Hood.
It does make you think…and it made me crave a hero sandwich.
The Cover and Title
The cover is stark with its black background and a crisp graphic in the white pop art nose, mouth, and chin in the center. At the very top is the author’s name in a slightly raised gold. At the bottom, is the title in white.
The title is all about The Hero as used in story.
