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The Plot
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Group Read - The Plot chapters 1-7 Spoilers Welcome
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I just got past the first 7 chapters (and I'm hooked although I don't like the MC very much. I'll try to post summaries although they are going to be very sketchy as it's harder for me to summarize while listening, can't go back and fact-check.
Part 1 -- Chapters 1-5Sorry, I didn’t realize I would be summarizing until I was well into listening. There wasn’t a lot going on in the beginning anyway, a lot of exposition about our main character, Mr. Jacob Finch Bonner, author of one best selling book and 4 others that get no acclaim. He is now teaching writing at Ripley, a small liberal arts college. On the first day of the semester at an “opening day” picnic he meets a new colleague, “Alice,” who admires his work and chats him up about it. He also meets an obnoxious student Evan Parker, who he discovers the next day is in his class. Evan isn’t sure writing can be taught. He already has a solid idea for a book but he won’t share anything about it in class; he’s keeping it to himself. Jake makes the point that writers are a community that helps each other by sharing and providing feedback. Evan is happy to share his feedback about others’ work, but he doubts he’ll take any advice on his own work. Jake can’t wait to smack the smugness out of this kid, but he keeps his cool.
Evan has submitted his 8 page summary, and Jake sits down to read it. Ruby is a young girl, an industrious student who is relentless in her pursuit of high grades. Her mother Deandra is a phone worker -- sex phone and clairvoyant work. Ruby is trying to re-take a test she has talked a teacher into letting her do, and Deandra is wandering around talking on the phone. She is getting more and more aggravated at Deandra and can't wait until she can leave home.
[there is more of Evan's story here, but I didn’t write it down so I’ll move on. If I’ve missed anything critical someone will add it I’m sure.]
Jake is reading Evan’s story idea with skepticism, but he discovers that Evan can actually write, and then....... he sees where Evan’s story is headed and is floored. It is the most clever plot he has ever seen, and he can’t get over that that arrogant student came up with it.
Chapter 6
Jake’s school has fallen on hard times and he is laid off, then rehired somewhere else at a lower salary. He starts to take on private clients to coach but they are all substandard to even his Ripley students. He can barely cover his expenses, so he looks for another job and lands a post at a writers’ residency program.
An encounter with a dissatisfied resident reminds him of Evan Parker, the one with the great story idea. He’d never seen evidence of it having been published. His mind then goes off on a tangent and he winds up wondering “how did I get here?”
Chapter 7
Jake googles Evan Parker and various combinations of search terms. He finally finds an obituary; Evan Parker died unexpectedly a few months after the last time Jake saw him. He is survived only by a niece. He apparently died before writing his book. Jake doesn’t believe in much but he does believe in the duty of a writer to tell a good story. Jake builds a powerful self justification for using Parker's idea and writing the story.
As I've said above I don't much like Jake. I don't think we're meant too. He seems pretty self-involved, self-serving and self-interested. Like he has disdain for those around him. He doesn't understand why he doesn't have a more brilliant career after the modified success of his first book.
I skimmed some reviews of the book in Audible before I downloaded it, and I don't know if Audible sorts from worst to best reviews but the first were pretty scathing, even though overall the ratings seem to be pretty good. I like the story better than I thought I would from the reviews. The narrator also took some hits in the reviews, and his voice is sort of uninteresting but I'm used to it by now.
Stephen King gave this a rave, which means something. But I can't get the thought of his book Thinner out of my mind. The characters in both books are victims of a curse and I don't expect Jake to fare much better than the MC of Thinner.
Carol: Thanks for the summaries! If we are supposed to like Jake, it isn't looking good. LOL. He does give us his background on why he always wanted to be a writer, but even that knowledge doesn't elicit much sympathy for his being unpublished after a one hit novel, The Invention of Wonder. It does add nuance to some of the MFA programs and creative writing workshops.
Carol/Bonadie wrote: "As I've said above I don't much like Jake. I don't think we're meant too. He seems pretty self-involved, self-serving and self-interested. Like he has disdain for those around him. ."
Carol: I hadn’t thought about Thinner in quite a while. It is intriguing to contemplate what is going to happen to Jake, who is seriously depressed by his own accounts prior to doing whatever he does with the unbelievably good plot / story he learns of from his arrogant student. Is that a good excuse? I guess we’ll find out. Carol/Bonadie wrote: "Stephen King gave this a rave, which means something. But I can't get the thought of his book Thinner out of my mind. The characters in both books are victims of a curse and I don't ex..."
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