Writing probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Gene Hackman, said Belinda Luscombe in Time. Yet the actor, 81, hasn’t made a movie since 2004, and in that time, he’s written or co-written three novels. His latest, Payback at Morning Peak, is a Western that begins violently. His main character, Jubal Young, finds his mother dead, shoots his father, and tries in vain to save his sister’s life—all in the first chapter. “I wanted to dig myself into a hole so that I would have 300 pages to get myself out,” Hackman says. “I kind of maybe overdid it a bit.”
A few elements of Hackman’s true self do show up in his protagonist, said Michael Hainey in GQ. “I had a troubled youth,” he says, referring to the father who walked out on him and his own decision to leave home at 16. Hackman became a very young Marine, and echoes of that challenge are in the novel too. “A lot of what I experienced as a young man I kind of exaggerated into what this young Jubal may have found himself doing.” Any wisdom that the book imparts, he says, owes to his mother, not to him. “They tell you not to write about your mom in books, but I don’t know how you keep from doing that.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Why more and more adults are reaching for soft toysUnder The Radar Does the popularity of the Squishmallow show Gen Z are 'scared to grow up'?
-
Magazine solutions - December 27, 2024 / January 3, 2025Puzzles and Quizzes Issue - December 27, 2024 / January 3, 2025
-
Magazine printables - December 27, 2024 / January 3, 2025Puzzles and Quizzes Issue - December 27, 2024 / January 3, 2025
-
Also of interest...in picture books for grown-upsfeature How About Never—Is Never Good for You?; The Undertaking of Lily Chen; Meanwhile, in San Francisco; The Portlandia Activity Book
-
Author of the week: Karen Russell
feature Karen Russell could use a rest.
-
The Double Life of Paul de Man by Evelyn Barish
feature Evelyn Barish “has an amazing tale to tell” about the Belgian-born intellectual who enthralled a generation of students and academic colleagues.
-
Book of the week: Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
feature Michael Lewis's description of how high-frequency traders use lightning-fast computers to their advantage is “guaranteed to make blood boil.”
-
Also of interest...in creative rebellion
feature A Man Called Destruction; Rebel Music; American Fun; The Scarlet Sisters
-
Author of the week: Susanna Kaysen
feature For a famous memoirist, Susanna Kaysen is highly ambivalent about sharing details about her life.
-
You Must Remember This: Life and Style in Hollywood’s Golden Age by Robert Wagner
feature Robert Wagner “seems to have known anybody who was anybody in Hollywood.”
-
Book of the week: Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire by Peter Stark
feature The tale of Astoria’s rise and fall turns out to be “as exciting as anything in American history.”