Fast-Paced Read

Wow! The Plot is narrated by Jacob Finch Bonner, a once-shining-star writer who now teaches for a second-rate MFA program after his second book didn't even sell a thousand copies. What immediately captured me was Jacob's voice. He carries an old leather satchel with him (so that when he makes it "big" he can talk about how he's carried it around with him since grad school.) He doesn't like poetry and doesn't even wish he liked poetry, but he WISHES he wished he liked poetry. Korelitz paints this fantastic picture of a man who has grandiose thinking but does nothing to back it up, who just wants to make it as a writer, but feels like he's falling further and further behind. And it's into this space that a student--an obnoxious, unlikable student--tells him a plot that Jacob knows is going to be huge. Fast forward a few years later, Jacob (still unhappily plodding away at his 3rd novel that always seems out of reach) remembers this student and realizes that he never heard anything about the book. After some internet searching, he realizes that this student died only a few months after leaving the grad program... which means the amazing, sure-fire, incredible plot is up for grabs. What's a desperate writer to do?

I listened to this book in just a couple of days. Jacob isn't necessarily a likeable character--but he's not exactly unlikable either. I rolled my eyes at him so many times (Finch was a self-given middle name. Every single time he shows false modesty) and yet I couldn't help rooting for him to solve the mystery of who is stalking him. Also, I did not see that ending coming. This is one people are going to want to talk about. I know I was searching for someone who had also read this book so we could discuss it.