Mike Lupica's New Book 'Hero' is Easy to Buy, and Buy Into

Even if Imus had never heard of Mike Lupica, he’d still be enamored of Hero, Lupica’s latest young adult novel, because, simply put, “It’s a great book.” But since Imus is very familiar with Lupica, his friend of 25 years, he was even more devoted to ensuring Hero’s success/proving his own power.
 
In Hero, his first non-sports related book, Lupica tells the story of 14-year old Zach, whose father, a “trouble-shooter” for the President of the United States, is killed in a plane crash in the opening chapter. Not convinced his father’s death was an accident, Zach seeks out the truth and instead discovers something pretty incredible about himself: he has special powers he never knew about, powers his father might have had, too. 
 
“I was talking to my editor a couple of years ago, and we got into the conversation of when you were a kid, if you could pick one thing—fly or be invisible—which would you choose?” Lupcia recalled. While writing Hero, he returned to that question. “I thought, what if there was a kid who could get from here to there faster than he could send a text message?”
 
The simplicity of Zach’s abilities is perhaps where Hero excels most. “You made it so accessible and believable that it was stunning,” Imus, who had initially doubted Lupica’s decision to give Zach superpowers, said. 
 
Part of the fun in creating Zach, Lupica said, was discovering just how far his gift would extend. In one particular instance, Zach is presented the opportunity to use his strengths to beat up a bully named Spence, but holds back. “Even without knowing what he can do yet, he realizes that if he’s going to settle a score in this book, the one he wants to settle is with the people who blew his father’s plane out of the sky,” Lupica said.
 
Not only will kids enjoy Hero for its sound prose and compelling storyline, but they’ll want to be able to do all the stuff Zach can do in the book, like run through a field on Long Island and land moments later in Central Park. 
 
“It seems to me like it would be almost possible,” Imus said. “I don’t believe anybody’s going to be able to fly like Superman, or look through Dagen’s blouse.”
 
Having tired of the book discussion, Imus asked his pal, also a columnist for the New York Daily News, what would happen in today’s election. “I think there’s going to be a bloodbath,” Lupica, a liberal weenie, said.
 
The country, in his opinion, is suffering from a case of Attention Deficit Disorder so severe that if problems aren’t fixed instantly, people want “to change the change you can believe in,” just two years after that mantra swept President Obama into office.
 
“We’re just going to put in more people today that we’re going to want to throw out in a couple of years,” Lupica said. “And that’s going to be the endless cycle of American politics.”
 
Since sports are his expertise, Imus asked his guest whether, as Chris Russo indicated last week, God was on the side of the San Francisco Giants, who became World Series champions last night for the first time in 56 years. “I can’t say that God is not up there saying, ‘You know what? Let’s give Edgar Renteria one more big swing!’” Lupica said.
 
Great. “Put that in your next book,” Imus advised him.
 
-Julie Kanfer