Explore our new BookBrowse Community Forum!

BookBrowse Reviews The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reviews |  Beyond the book |  Read-Alikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

The Plot

by Jean Hanff Korelitz
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Readers' Rating:
  • First Published:
  • May 11, 2021, 336 pages
  • Paperback:
  • May 2022, 336 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Reviews

BookBrowse:


A jaded writer finds a second shot at success in this whirlwind thriller that probes the nature of creative provenance and asks the question: Whose stories are we allowed to tell?

Everyone has a unique voice and a story nobody else can tell. And anybody can be a writer.

It is a saying Jacob Finch Bonner has repeated countless times with his students to nudge their hidden muses along the path of literary exploration. If it did nothing for his own inspiration as a writer, he hopes he can at least help others find and tell their stories. Once the promising author of a novel the New York Times Book Review covered in its coveted "New & Noteworthy" section, Bonner's future as a great writer is on the wane. Arriving on campus at Ripley College in northern Vermont, his past literary promise is reflected by the old maxim that those who cannot do, teach. But when he meets student Evan Parker, he discovers that some plots do not fit into the neat constellation of story arcs known among the literati. Indeed, some shine so brightly they can blind a person to the dangers in telling them.

So begins The Plot, Jean Hanff Korelitz's inimitable and imaginative story-within-a-story that sinks its claws in early and doesn't let go until its unforgettable finish. Korelitz, author of several novels including You Should Have Known (adapted by HBO into a miniseries called The Undoing) explores the insular world of her own craft — writers and their ideas — via a chilling twist perhaps as clever as the one Evan Parker shares with Jacob Finch Bonner at an MFA program one fateful day.

The Plot begins to unspool as Parker slumps his way into Bonner's office and arrogantly asserts his novel will be the next big thing, with a plot no one has ever seen before. When he finally discloses his "can't miss" idea, Bonner realizes the young man is correct: his story will be on every bestseller list and probably optioned for movie rights. How this indifferent young man, so unlike the other earnest and erstwhile students at the Ripley Symposia, created such an amazing plot is beyond Jake Bonner (who is struggling to finish his third novel). He bitterly expects to see the name "Evan Parker" in lights someday...but that someday never comes. Two-and-a-half years later and still working on the same unfinished novel, Bonner does an internet search for Parker to see what became of his "sure thing" plot. Instead, he finds his obituary. Parker died shortly after leaving the Ripley Symposia, and apparently, so did his story idea.

Korelitz's tight pacing leaves no room to breathe as Bonner grabs at the still-untold story and achieves in a few short years the fame, wealth and literary renown he always desired. As the dizzying effects of his success continue to carry him to new heights, he receives an anonymous email one day that leaves him horrified and hollowed out: "You are a thief." The cat-and-mouse game begins as Bonner tries to come to grips with his unknown antagonist and unravel the mystery of Evan Parker and the ultimate origins of his singular story — before it all comes crashing down around him.

A truly unique plot in its own right, the book is getting a lot of attention from the publishing industry, and indeed, it's a joy in part for its insider look at the writer's solitary craft juxtaposed against the hype and marketing of the publishing world. As story plunges into story (and plunges again the further Bonner investigates the genesis of Parker's idea), The Plot feels like a surreal exercise in life-imitating-art-imitating-life. It's a cerebral thriller sure to excite fans of Korelitz's other novels but also new readers curious about how writers get their ideas — and what price some might pay for them. After all, everyone has a unique voice and a story nobody else can tell. The Plot explores this quaint notion on a visceral and hyper-literal level to devastating effect.

Reviewed by Peggy Kurkowski

This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in May 2021, and has been updated for the May 2022 edition. Click here to go to this issue.

This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access become a member today.
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Beyond the Book:
  Creative Writing MFA Programs

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked The Plot, try these:

  • The Sequel jacket

    The Sequel

    by Jean Hanff Korelitz

    Published 2024

    About This book

    More by this author

    After the "insanely readable" (Stephen King) and "perfectly told" (Malcolm Gladwell) New York Times bestseller The Plot comes Jean Hanff Korelitz's equally captivating new novel: The Sequel.

  • How Can I Help You jacket

    How Can I Help You

    by Laura Sims

    Published 2024

    About This book

    More by this author

    From the author of Looker comes this "compulsive and unforgettable novel" (Mona Awad) of razor-sharp suspense about two local librarians whose lives become dangerously intertwined.

We have 7 read-alikes for The Plot, but non-members are limited to two results. To see the complete list of this book's read-alikes, you need to be a member.
More books by Jean Korelitz
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Our Evenings
    Our Evenings
    by Alan Hollinghurst
    Alan Hollinghurst's novel Our Evenings is the fictional autobiography of Dave Win, a British ...
  • Book Jacket: Graveyard Shift
    Graveyard Shift
    by M. L. Rio
    Following the success of her debut novel, If We Were Villains, M. L. Rio's latest book is the quasi-...
  • Book Jacket: The Sisters K
    The Sisters K
    by Maureen Sun
    The Kim sisters—Minah, Sarah, and Esther—have just learned their father is dying of ...
  • Book Jacket: Linguaphile
    Linguaphile
    by Julie Sedivy
    From an infant's first attempts to connect with the world around them to the final words shared with...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pony Confidential
    by Christina Lynch

    In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.

Who Said...

It was one of the worst speeches I ever heard ... when a simple apology was all that was required.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

F the M

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.