Thank you to the publisher and BookishFirst for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz is a thriller disguised as a metafictional take on writers and the writing process. When I read the first few chapters of The Plot, I thought I understood what the book was trying to do. It makes fun of writers, MFA programs, bestselling authors in a dry, sarcastic way, in a way that can only be done by an author who has gone through the process enough times to be able to make fun of it. I was prepared for a funny send-up of the writing and publishing process, similar to Admission, another of the author's books. What I was not prepared for was that The Plot is actually a thriller!
The plot of the Plot revolves around Jacob Finch Bonner, a one-hit-wonder author who is now teaching at a no-name, low-tier MFA program. He is dreading his days teaching writers who think they know it all already and wishing that he could write a best-selling book.
Here is an excerpt from Chapter One that demonstrates the narrator's dry, humorous tone:
"Worst of all were the ones who reminded Jake most of himself: “literary novelists,” utterly serious, burning with resentment toward anyone who’d gotten there first. The Clive Cusslers and mom bloggers might still be persuadable that Jake was a famous, or at least a “highly regarded” young (now “youngish”) novelist, but the would-be David Foster Wallaces and Donna Tartts who were certainly present in the pile of folders? Not so much. This group would be all too aware that Jacob Finch Bonner had fumbled his early shot, failed to produce a good enough second novel or any trace of a third novel, and been sent to the special purgatory for formerly promising writers, from which so few of them ever emerged."
Here's another excerpt from Chapter Two that definitely made me chuckle:
"Everything about the guy screamed FICTION WRITER, though the species itself broke down more or less evenly into the subcategories:
1. Great American Novelist
2. New York Times Bestselling Author
Or that highly rare hybrid . . .
3. New York Times Bestselling Great American Novelist
The triumphant savior of the abducted bottle opener might want to be Jonathan Franzen, in other words, or he might want to be James Patterson, but from a practical standpoint it made no difference."
One day, a student named Evan Parker tells him the plot of an incredible story that Jacob knows will become a bestseller. Evan eventually dies, and Jacob decides to take the plot that Evan told him and use it to write a new book. This all sounds perfectly normal, right? That is, until Jacob starts getting notes and emails saying that he is a thief and that he plagiarized his book. But how could anyone know that he copied Evan's plot? Evan's dead, right? Who else would know about the plot?
The plot just keeps increasing intensity from there until it turns into a full-blown thriller with plenty of twists and turns. What I thought was literary fiction is actually a thriller! Since I really enjoy reading thrillers, much more than literary fiction, The Plot turned out a pleasant surprise. I really enjoyed reading this book, and I highly recommend it for all fans of thrillers or anyone looking for a humorous look at writers and the writing process. The only reason I'm taking off one star is because I wasn't completely satisfied with the ending. I was definitely surprised, but it requires some suspension of disbelief. Overall, if you're intrigued by anything in the synopsis, you won't regret checking out The Plot when it comes out in May!
The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz is a thriller disguised as a metafictional take on writers and the writing process. When I read the first few chapters of The Plot, I thought I understood what the book was trying to do. It makes fun of writers, MFA programs, bestselling authors in a dry, sarcastic way, in a way that can only be done by an author who has gone through the process enough times to be able to make fun of it. I was prepared for a funny send-up of the writing and publishing process, similar to Admission, another of the author's books. What I was not prepared for was that The Plot is actually a thriller!
The plot of the Plot revolves around Jacob Finch Bonner, a one-hit-wonder author who is now teaching at a no-name, low-tier MFA program. He is dreading his days teaching writers who think they know it all already and wishing that he could write a best-selling book.
Here is an excerpt from Chapter One that demonstrates the narrator's dry, humorous tone:
"Worst of all were the ones who reminded Jake most of himself: “literary novelists,” utterly serious, burning with resentment toward anyone who’d gotten there first. The Clive Cusslers and mom bloggers might still be persuadable that Jake was a famous, or at least a “highly regarded” young (now “youngish”) novelist, but the would-be David Foster Wallaces and Donna Tartts who were certainly present in the pile of folders? Not so much. This group would be all too aware that Jacob Finch Bonner had fumbled his early shot, failed to produce a good enough second novel or any trace of a third novel, and been sent to the special purgatory for formerly promising writers, from which so few of them ever emerged."
Here's another excerpt from Chapter Two that definitely made me chuckle:
"Everything about the guy screamed FICTION WRITER, though the species itself broke down more or less evenly into the subcategories:
1. Great American Novelist
2. New York Times Bestselling Author
Or that highly rare hybrid . . .
3. New York Times Bestselling Great American Novelist
The triumphant savior of the abducted bottle opener might want to be Jonathan Franzen, in other words, or he might want to be James Patterson, but from a practical standpoint it made no difference."
One day, a student named Evan Parker tells him the plot of an incredible story that Jacob knows will become a bestseller. Evan eventually dies, and Jacob decides to take the plot that Evan told him and use it to write a new book. This all sounds perfectly normal, right? That is, until Jacob starts getting notes and emails saying that he is a thief and that he plagiarized his book. But how could anyone know that he copied Evan's plot? Evan's dead, right? Who else would know about the plot?
The plot just keeps increasing intensity from there until it turns into a full-blown thriller with plenty of twists and turns. What I thought was literary fiction is actually a thriller! Since I really enjoy reading thrillers, much more than literary fiction, The Plot turned out a pleasant surprise. I really enjoyed reading this book, and I highly recommend it for all fans of thrillers or anyone looking for a humorous look at writers and the writing process. The only reason I'm taking off one star is because I wasn't completely satisfied with the ending. I was definitely surprised, but it requires some suspension of disbelief. Overall, if you're intrigued by anything in the synopsis, you won't regret checking out The Plot when it comes out in May!