Book : The Plot - Korelitz, Jean Hanff
Rating: 3/5
Jacob Finch Bonner is a has-been. His first novel was well-received, but that was years ago and he knows he hasn't come up with anything good since then. He now teaches a writing course. When one of his students boasts to having a plot that will blow the literary world away, Jacob is naturally skeptical. But when he hears the plot, even he cannot deny its power. So what happens next? Best not spoil it by revealing any more. The writing is what drew me in immediately. It's sharp and clever. It's a book about writing a book, managing along the way to poke gentle fun at writers and the publishing industry, and it's all a bit droll. Those little details all help to blur the line between what's real and what's fiction, which is great fun.
This has the format of a story within a story, which gets me every time. I've only read a handful of books done this way, and I've loved every single one. So please, authors, write more of them, because I honestly can't get enough. I found this to be unputdownable from the very first page. There's this urgency there, a tension that stretches so taut, it's hard to look away. I definitely inhaled this book. My only issue is that I saw the big twist pretty early on. It's my fault... sometimes I can't turn off my brain, and it'll just cheerfully supply me with a list of unsolicited guesses about what it thinks is going on. In this case, it was right. (Shut up, stupid brain!) Also I didn't find the secret plot to
be as amazing as advertised and it certainly didn't blow me away. But I read so much of this genre it's hard to surprise me with plots and twists anymore, so feel free to just ignore me on that. In every other way, this story is amazing, and I will be recommending it to pretty much everyone I know. If that isn't a strong endorsement, I don't know
what is.