The Plot

As an author, the plot of the book resonated with me.

Whether trying to finish an email or a book, I feel Dorothy Parker’s words deeply: “I hate writing,” she is purported to have said, but “I love having written.” 

In this book, protagonist Jacob Finch Bonner does Parker one better. Stuck after his well-received first novel, he takes someone else’s story and passes it off as his own. Korelitz unravels the dire consequences, though with fizzy, suspenseful glee rather than scared-straight preachiness.

Bonner may not be, as he tells himself, “a great writer,” but Korelitz certainly is. It made me want to try to write again: hate, love, and all… show more.

Korelitz’s protagonist, Jake Bonner, is the author of a fairly successful first novel. But that was years ago, and with the promise of that book as yet unfulfilled, he’s been miserably sinking out of view ever since.

By the time we meet him, he is desperate for another success. But you probably know all this, because The Plot itself was a huge bestseller. Korelitz lights the fuse for her story when Jake becomes a thief, stealing a nifty idea for a—well, see her title.

Would I want to meet Jake? Not especially. But as fictional company, he and the small… show more.

This one is tricky. If I explain exactly why The Plot is on this list, I’ll end up spoiling it.

Let me just say, the author of this tale of plagiarism among fiction writers kept me guessing—and I love that. Each fascinating new twist made sense in the context of what had happened before. And when all was said and done, there were no loose ends, nothing unaccounted for. Audacious, funny, wicked, yet entirely believable.

The Plot is the sort of book you wish you'd written yourself.

The plot is so ingenious. Superficially it's about a writer whose career is on a downturn and who is reduced to making a living teaching creative writing courses.  He steals a brilliant idea for a plot from one of his students after hearing that the student has died before he had a chance to use it himself.

The book is a huge success, but then the writer starts receiving online messages from someone who professes to know what he's done. It's a page turner but it also says… show more.

As a writer, a story about an author who has secured the mythical "perfect plot" that will guarantee him fame, fortune, and critical acclaim hooked me from the jacket copy synopsis.

It abruptly turns into a thriller when the true source of the stolen story starts sending him menacing messages. Will Jake be able to disable the threat and maintain his success? Is it even fair that exposure will bring him to ruin when he is, in fact, a talented author who wrote nearly every word of a fine book? Since the origin of the premise has died, why not… show more.

Jacob Finch Bonner is a one-time novelist whose dreams of literary success are long past, when his obnoxious student in a crummy MFA program reveals to Bonner the can’t-miss plot for a novel he plans to write. 

Once the student dies without publishing his book, Bonner steals the idea and soon finds himself an international sensation and a target hunted by someone who knows. For me this book worked on many levels, its suspense, its ironic depiction of the literary world, and my slow identification with Bonner, for whom I felt surprising sympathy all along.

This is a superb suspense novel about a writer who steals the plot for a book with a killer twist at the end in hopes of reviving his flagging career. 

Mirroring that storyline, Jean Hanff Korelitz’s novel has a killer twist of its own.

Delving deep into the brains of insecure and egotistical writers, The Plot starts slowly and builds into a stunning page-turner as the novelist enjoys the stardom he so desperately sought only to be haunted by his larceny. The ending quite literally took my breath away, which seldom happens.

The Plot a novel by the talented Jean Hanff Korelize follows a struggling writer in a middling college writing program who steals a plot idea from a deceased student and turns it into a best-selling novel.

As this novel becomes a sensation, the writer becomes increasingly paranoid about keeping his secret hidden, fearing that his career will be destroyed if the truth is exposed. His efforts to protect his reputation only lead to further lies and deceit.

The author Jean Korelitz plumbs the psychological depths of ambition and guilt, as the writer grapples with the fallout of his deception. P.S.… show more.

I love books that make me question what I would do in a similar situation. As an author, I especially related to the moral dilemmas faced by the main character of this page-turner. The Plot transports the reader into the shoes of Jacob Finch Bonner, a struggling writer and MFA professor who steals the plot of the century from one of his former students, Evan, who has since died. Jacob’s newly published novel quickly becomes a massively successful bestseller. But someone knows what Jacob has done and is threatening to expose him. Living in a state of paranoia, Jacob sets… show more.