A Book A Week

Every once in a while, a book breaks out and captures the world. Titles like The Da Vinci Code or Harry Potter are the kind of novels that become a global phenomenon, books that everyone you know is reading and talking about. The works are published in as many languages as possible and circulated around the globe. Inevitably a bidding war breaks out for the rights to create a film or television version of the story. The author goes from unknown to rich celebrity in an instant. For most authors, this is the kind of success they can only dream of. For Jacob Finch Bonner, the main character in Jean Hanff Korelitz's new novel The Plot, that fantasy is about to become reality. 

When we first meet Jake, he is barely holding on to his dream of being a professional author. He's published two books, but neither of them brought him enough sales or acclaim to comfortably live off of. Heck, his third and fourth books can't even find a publisher. Instead, Jake serves on the faculty of a low-tiered MFA program, coaching potential young authors with whatever experience and wisdom he can muster. His students rarely make an impression on him, so it is unusual that he finds himself thinking of a young man from his latest class. 

Evan Parker is cocky. He's the kind of guy who has all the confidence in the world and isn't afraid to show it. Jake takes an immediate dislike to him. Evan seems to think he's too good for the writing program. He even goes as far as telling Jake that he's only taking the class to pad his resume. Evan claims to have an idea for a novel that is too good to mess up. The last thing he needs is some washed-up author like Jake giving him advice. Jake has seen these kinds of students before, but Evan is different. In their one on one the first week, Evan lays out the plot of his work in progress.  Jake can't believe it. Evan is right. He has an idea that will take the world by storm, a surefire hit. All Jake can do is keep living his bland life and wait for his student to become a literary star. 

Years go by and Jake's life continues to diminish. The college he taught at closes, and he begins freelance editing self-published works. In an age when anybody with enough willpower and money can publish a book, the world of serious writing slips further and further away from him. He still thinks back to that day when the arrogant Evan Parker outlined his novel. Surprisingly, Jake never heard about his student becoming the runaway success that he was destined to be. On a whim, he looks Evan up. Jake is shocked to see that his student passed away shortly after completing his course. Even more alarming, it appears that Evan never got around to writing his novel, the very novel that was destined to lead him to stardom. In that instant, Jake makes a decision that will alter the course of his own life. He decides to steal Evan Parker's plot and write the hit novel himself. 

Who owns an idea? Sure, copyright laws exist to protect the works and their creator, but does an idea in and of itself belong to anyone? These are the questions at the center of The Plot. Jean Hanff Korelitz is no stranger to success. Her novel You Should Have Known was recently adapted into the hit HBO series The Undoing. Here she writes of an author dealing with a similar achievement while harboring the secret that his breakout work didn't begin as his own. As Jake grapples with the moral dilemma of his fame and fortune, he must also face the knowledge that someone knows his secret. Jean Hanff Korelitz does a fine job balancing the internal character conflict with the external strife that propels her thriller. I easily raced through the pages of this one, eager to see things come to a head. My only problem is that I guessed the twist in the plot about a quarter of the way in. While this didn't completely take away my enjoyment of the story, it did lessen the impact of its conclusion. Still, The Plot is a twisty thrill-ride of a novel that has enough nuanced character development to keep even the most skeptical readers engaged to the very end.

For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads. 

(2021, 18)