The Plot

 By Jean Hanff Korelitz

Celadon     2021

336 pages     Psychological Fiction

I was looking for something totally immersive to read following several weeks of reading self-help, thought provoking, introspective stuff. Boy did I get it with The Plot. In a brilliant piece of writing, Korelitz gives us  two stories in one—the story of the author Jacob Finch Bonner and the way in which he came to write Crib, his hugely successful novel, and then we also get bits and pieces of the actual novel.

Several years ago, Jacob Bonner had one critically acclaimed novel, but his next two novels couldn’t even find a publisher. When The Plot begins, he is teaching at a poorly-ranked MFA program in Vermont where he encounters an arrogant student, Evan Parker, who submits a few pages of his novel in process, which he claims is going to be a bestseller. Although he is terribly put-off by Evan and his condescending self-assurance, Jacob begrudgingly agrees that the novel has potential.  

Jacob looks for Evan Parker’s novel a couple of years later and realizes it has never been published. A little online snooping brings him to the shock that Evan is dead—having died a few months after Jacob had him in class. So, using the few pages Evan had submitted for the class, Jacob writes the novel that never was, titled it Crib, and it becomes an overnight sensation. Jacob suddenly is famous, doing book readings and interviews all over the country, signing a movie contract with Stephen Spielberg—even meeting the woman who becomes his wife. But then anonymous, threatening messages begin coming to him accusing him of theft. Jacob decides to try to find the person who is threatening him by journeying to Rutland Vermont, Evan Parker’s home town, to track down the culprit.

The Plot is so skillfully created that I found myself reading chapter after chapter, as quickly as I could. Jacob’s agony over the deception that he feels he has concocted is palpable. As the plot moves toward the climax, I began to suspect who might be sending him the threatening messages, but Jacob never comes to that realization until it is too late.

What makes The Plot so fascinating is not only the “plot,” which in itself is terrific, but the moral dilemma presented. Who owns plot ideas? Can a plot be stolen, or are ideas alright to just float in the creative atmosphere? We have all read books where we question, “Have I read this book in another setting?” or “Wow! This is a lot like __________.” But the question of The Plot is that the originator of the book idea is dead. Now, is the plotline available? Is that really stealing?

The reviewer for NPR questioned whether Korelitz did her complex plot justice or if it just fell flat. I really did enjoy the book, was proud of myself that I figured out who was threatening Jacob, and was shocked by the novel’s resolution. The NY Times reviewer, on the other hand, called the book a “spectacular avalanche” and says that The Plot is Korelitz's “gutsiest, most consequential book yet.”

Korelitz is the author of You Should Have Known, which became “The Undoing” on HBO with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant. While I loved “The Undoing,” The Plot was the first of her novels that I had read. Here is her website. Also, here is a You Tube interview with Korelitz that I found very interesting