It feels a little disingenuous to be writing a review about the biography of a writer who has had such a profound influence on the writing lives of literally hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. As if someone at the height of success such as James Patterson needs any sort of indication of the strength of his semi autobiography. The man is a living legend of the highest degree. His books have sold in the hundreds of millions, and he still pumps out bestsellers like no one else - he is already on his fourth, this year.
The Stories of My Life are just that, short vignettes and hints into a life that has transformed the landscape of books and the genre of thriller forever. Never before has someone been so prolific, and so successful in the art of storytelling. These short stories, when combined, make the reading of his life so fascinating and scintillating. He truly is the master.
As one may expect, aspects of his personal life are covered, but not to the degree that one may expect - or hope for. Of course, he writes about love and loss, and the profound impact the death of his first love had on his writing, but there isn’t much about his day to day existence. Some slivers of hints are given along the way as to his general process for writing - long car rides, a notebook full of ideas, the fact that he still writes everything in pencil first - but never really digs into the vault of his craft and draws out the magic stuff. Perhaps that is because he is a master storyteller, but also a master marketer and realises that there is more money to be made through a separate avenue for such titbits.
The man has friends in high places, from celebrities to presidents (one of whom, Bill Clinton, he both plays golf regularly with, and co-authored The President is Missing and The President’s Daughter) making for interesting anecdotes along the way. However, what comes through in spades is his ability to keep the reader going, inconspicuously bringing together those same page-turning skills that he uses with his best-selling thrillers, to his own stories from his life. Somehow one finds themselves needing to know just what happened at that restaurant that one time, or how the book deal for the Alex Cross series happened. Quite a remarkable achievement.
He talks about book tours (he doesn’t like them) and meeting fans (he does like them) and what some of the inspiring moments were behind the scenes of a few of his books. But, like any good writer, he encourages his reading students to be writers of the highest level. To experience literature in its many and varied forms. To write like we speak, and to read to write better. He is so enthused about the prospect of improving reading around the world that he has put his name to a programme currently being rolled out across America in the aim of lifting the skill level of young people in the US. A noble endeavour.
Overall, this really was an autobiography like no other, he captures the hearts of his readers through his casual neighbourly air, and that comes through in the writing throughout. A masterpiece of a memoir, but then, would one expect anything else?
Reviewer: Chris Reed
Century