Randy Foster's Blog - Posts Tagged "the-plot"

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Too Good for its Own Good

I was hesitant to write this review because I didn't see how I could without having some spoilers, and you know how I feel about spoilers, but then I saw the description of the book and they tell you a lot of what happens … up to a point. So, I don't consider any of the following as spoilers since all this is in the book's description from the publisher.

In The Plot we have the story of a struggling writer who ends up teaching a creative writing class to help with the bills and to get a little of that ego boost that comes from being a "published author." One of his students (an unlikeable character) shares a plot for a story he is working on and our struggling author recognizes it immediately for what it is -- a sure fire blockbuster hit! Years pass and our author discovers that the student has passed away without ever publishing a book. After some internal debate, he decides the plot was just too good to let disappear, so he writes his own novel with the deceased student's plot. As expected, it is a resounding success and at the height of its popularity he begins to get threatening emails accusing him of stealing the story.

So ALL of that is in the book's description; therefore, I will not consider any of this as spoilers.

The story moves along at lightning pace, with engaging characters, and of course an engaging plot. Jean Hanff Korelitz is a gifted writer and I will definitely look forward to her next work. So why not 5-stars if I loved it so much? Well, she built up this mysterious "can't miss" plot as just astounding, yet we don't get to know what the super plot is until late in the book. By that time my brain had just really worked it all up into a huge frenzy of anticipation, imagining all sorts of incredible stuff that this super plot might contain. Once the plot is finally revealed, the reality is pretty amazing but there was really no way for it to live up to the unrealistic expectations I had built up in my imagination. So, in this way, The Plot is a victim of its own success; too good for its own good.

The Plot is undeniably a great book, and I recommend it to anyone. It really would be five stars had it not been for the inescapable let down I felt when the actual plot -- the center of the story -- was revealed. I really don't see how this could have been avoided though, so it is definitely no fault of Jean Hanff Korelitz. You will enjoy this book immensely, but if you have a vivid imagination, your "what if" may outshine the "what is."

4 out of 5 stars



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