Shane Life

Son of Fletch
by Gregory McDonald
RATING: 7 out of 10

When I received all 11 Fletch books from Tom and Carol (my in-laws) for my birthday a while back, I imagined myself reading all 11 books in succession in the order that they were published. (McDonald actually jumped around in Fletch’s life timeline in the order of stories he told. Fletch Won and Fletch, Too - the books that chronicle Fletch’s first and second adventures - actually were written much later in the series, coming out over a decade after the original book - the one made famous by Chevy Chase’s film portrayal - was written.

Now, it’s true, I rocked through the first 9 books in the series in rapid succession, devouring McDonald’s quick wit and dialogue like I would a Chipotle burrito. However, as I reached the end and I learned more about the final two novels in the series, Son of Fletch and Fletch Reflected, I found two things:

1. There was about a 7-year gap between Fletch, Too (Book 9) and Son of Fletch (Book 10)
2. You could say that the books “jumped the shark” by making Fletch a father through a previous engagement in one of the earlier stories.

That’s not to say that McDonald shouldn’t have done these things; I imagine that there was much clamoring for another Fletch novel, but after writing 9 books about the same character, you have to imagine that things might get a little stale.

As for the book, it was only OK by the rest of the series’ standards. It contained the same witty dialogue, but I found it hard to follow at some stages and I certainly entered it a bit departed from the series. Since there is a lot of reference to events that occur in other books, I had to rack my brain at times to remember things. But still, it’s a good, fast-paced novel and I enjoyed it.

I’m planning on finishing the series by reading Fletch Reflected next. It, too, is about Fletch’s son, Jack. Toward the end, McDonald received an immense amount of pressure from his publisher to use the Fletch name in the book titles, even though he wanted to make reference to Jack in the last two. (Read more about it here.)

Finishing the book made me think more about the upcoming film version of Fletch Won that is being developed. Originally it was meant to be a Kevin Smith project under the new Weinstein company, but the Weinsteins wouldn’t let Smith make the movie he wanted to, so he backed out to do other things. Now, Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence is attached to write and direct with Scrubs star Zach Braff attached to play the role of Fletch. I’m not sure this is a good or bad choice yet. I think Ryan Reynolds might have been more true to the character McDonald created so many years ago…Braff just isn’t suave enough.

That’s not to say I won’t go see it, because I will…just with some reservation.