2.5 stars
Do I need to give up on thrillers?
Jacob Finch Bonner — an author whose first book was a critical success, but who has had less successful with his follow-up publications — has been compelled for financial reasons to take a teaching job at Ripley College. There he meets a student, Evan Parker, who, from the get-go, is so obviously smug about the incredible, so good, fantastic, brand new plot for his yet-to-be-written novel that Bonner finds it hard to imagine the plot to live up to its high expectations. But Parker relays the plot to Bonner after having submitted a measly handful of pages for review for the class. That's when Bonner realizes that Parker is correct. This novel with its unbelievable plot twist is going to make the biggest splash in the book world this side of the century mark.
But a few years later he runs a rudimentary check on a search engine and sees that this arrogant guy (with the hair perpetually flopping over his forehead) has never published this phenomenal new book. In fact, after another search, he sees that Parker has died — just a few months actually after leaving the class at Ripley College. So, Bonner does what he thinks any writer would do — he writes it himself. For how could he deprive the world of this amazing plot?
Jacob continues along a nice path — with this guilt and constant awareness poking at the back of his mind the whole while — enjoying the success of his book, Crib (which is offered up within The Plot through a handful of excerpts). It has been chosen for Oprah's Book Club, optioned for a movie, and made all the best seller lists. He's traveling with book tours, scheduled appearances, and book signings. When suddenly, he receives an email that the sender knows what he's done. The threats to out his supposed theft increase and eventually become public. The legal team with his publishing house gets involved along with his agent and his editor. Meanwhile, Bonner decides to get in front of the anonymous instigator and try to discover who could be behind the increasingly threatening messages.
Another book where I really liked some of the ideas put forth and the potential there, but felt the execution lacked in its delivery. It truly may be that thrillers just don't thrill me. At no point was I holding on in suspense. At almost no point did I wonder what was going to happen. The structure and play with words were especially interesting, but could not carry the weight of the entire book — much less all three interwoven stories. I do admit to liking both the way Korelitz writes and the voice of Bonner as the narrator. But I never felt connected enough to his tale to truly care, especially once I'd figured out the forthcoming details early on.
Also, the actual plot in Crib — the book-within-the book — felt incredibly obvious to me, which I understand would be the danger in hyping it up within the novel's interior to begin with. But it really made it a hard sell as I continued through the whole of the book. Crib was just not that amazing of a story for me to warrant all that effusion of brilliance.
I wanted a little more by way of understanding and exploring the idea of who owns a story. What Bonner has done isn't plagiarism. But where is the line for theft of intellectual property? Who is allowed to tell the story? And when does borrowing or being inspired by something cross the line into outright thievery? But I didn't get that here. Bonner only seemed to briefly and occasionally wonder the same thing, but by reassuring himself in a way that allowed him to power through a moment of despair.
All in all, not enough meat on the bone for my particular tastes. It was a middling sort of story and for once I never looked forward to the book within when those chapters popped up.
Do I need to give up on thrillers?
Jacob Finch Bonner — an author whose first book was a critical success, but who has had less successful with his follow-up publications — has been compelled for financial reasons to take a teaching job at Ripley College. There he meets a student, Evan Parker, who, from the get-go, is so obviously smug about the incredible, so good, fantastic, brand new plot for his yet-to-be-written novel that Bonner finds it hard to imagine the plot to live up to its high expectations. But Parker relays the plot to Bonner after having submitted a measly handful of pages for review for the class. That's when Bonner realizes that Parker is correct. This novel with its unbelievable plot twist is going to make the biggest splash in the book world this side of the century mark.
But a few years later he runs a rudimentary check on a search engine and sees that this arrogant guy (with the hair perpetually flopping over his forehead) has never published this phenomenal new book. In fact, after another search, he sees that Parker has died — just a few months actually after leaving the class at Ripley College. So, Bonner does what he thinks any writer would do — he writes it himself. For how could he deprive the world of this amazing plot?
Jacob continues along a nice path — with this guilt and constant awareness poking at the back of his mind the whole while — enjoying the success of his book, Crib (which is offered up within The Plot through a handful of excerpts). It has been chosen for Oprah's Book Club, optioned for a movie, and made all the best seller lists. He's traveling with book tours, scheduled appearances, and book signings. When suddenly, he receives an email that the sender knows what he's done. The threats to out his supposed theft increase and eventually become public. The legal team with his publishing house gets involved along with his agent and his editor. Meanwhile, Bonner decides to get in front of the anonymous instigator and try to discover who could be behind the increasingly threatening messages.
Another book where I really liked some of the ideas put forth and the potential there, but felt the execution lacked in its delivery. It truly may be that thrillers just don't thrill me. At no point was I holding on in suspense. At almost no point did I wonder what was going to happen. The structure and play with words were especially interesting, but could not carry the weight of the entire book — much less all three interwoven stories. I do admit to liking both the way Korelitz writes and the voice of Bonner as the narrator. But I never felt connected enough to his tale to truly care, especially once I'd figured out the forthcoming details early on.
Also, the actual plot in Crib — the book-within-the book — felt incredibly obvious to me, which I understand would be the danger in hyping it up within the novel's interior to begin with. But it really made it a hard sell as I continued through the whole of the book. Crib was just not that amazing of a story for me to warrant all that effusion of brilliance.
I wanted a little more by way of understanding and exploring the idea of who owns a story. What Bonner has done isn't plagiarism. But where is the line for theft of intellectual property? Who is allowed to tell the story? And when does borrowing or being inspired by something cross the line into outright thievery? But I didn't get that here. Bonner only seemed to briefly and occasionally wonder the same thing, but by reassuring himself in a way that allowed him to power through a moment of despair.
All in all, not enough meat on the bone for my particular tastes. It was a middling sort of story and for once I never looked forward to the book within when those chapters popped up.