The Plot | Jean Hanff Korelitz

This episode of Books for Men features The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz. A psychological thriller about a sputtering mid-list novelist who embarks on a wild goose chase to discover the truth behind a plot he stole from one of his deceased MFA students. It doubles as a satire on writing and the publishing world. Listen for more!

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Welcome back to Books for Men, a podcast to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do. So this week is going to be a first. I've never featured a psychological thriller on the podcast before, and that is what the genre of this week's book is, and it's called The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz. And I hope I'm pronouncing her name correctly. Sorry if you ever hear this, and I am not pronouncing your name correctly. But anyway, this book has been super popular since its release in 2021. I only read it earlier this year, and I wanted to share it with you for some very specific reasons, which I will get into momentarily, but just a little bit more on the genre, which I led with psychological thriller. So it's a massively popular genre, and when I say massively popular, I mean dominant inside of the crime space right now, at least from my perspective. Thriller in general, really.

(01:10)

You know, you've probably heard me say this on the podcast before, but it's funny, they'll label crime books now, thrillers that aren't really thrillers because of the appeal of the genre as far as the marketing or the labeling is concerned. I mean, I'm going as far as saying straight-up private-eye fiction or traditional crime fiction that is labeled thriller. And I get it, it's a sexy term that is hot right now. And so, they want to sell books and they want people to buy those books. But I think it's a little bit misleading because how do you decipher between what's actually a thriller and what isn't a thriller? And for me, the reason why I'm bringing this up is because this is a great example of a psychological thriller, at least from my perspective. And it's such a big genre, that there are a lot of sub-genres in the psychological thriller space.

(02:07)

You have dark psychological thrillers, domestic psychological thrillers, workplace, which this would fall under. Most of the books commonly feature a plot twist or an unreliable narrator. Perhaps that unreliable narrator is one of the key elements that makes it a psychological thriller because you're evaluating the unstable mind of this protagonist, perhaps. I mean, that's not the only case, but it's a likely one. And I only say that because of the prevalence that it's used in the genre, not because it's the only thing that defines it. There are many variations of psychological thrillers in many thousands of books to choose from if you want to dive deep into the genre. So the one thing that I will say that you should expect from most of these psychological thrillers is readability. And this book definitely, definitely has a page-turning quality to it at 336 pages. It probably reads more like a 250-page book because of how easy it is to read.

(03:15)

And I don't mean that as a slight to the author at all. In fact, I consider it a great compliment. You know, sometimes people, when they hear easy to read, they assume that the book is dumbed down, but that's not what I mean at all. Readability and easy-to-read are more a function of how words and sentences flow on a page and how well the author is able to keep you in that dream-like state where you're just reading on and on and on and on with no break. To me, that's an achievement, but it's also important to remember that something like readability is really a subjective thing. It could be insanely readable to one person and not so readable to another. With that being said, this book for me is insanely readable, and that's partially why I wanted to share it with you along with a few other reasons that I will get to right after I tell you what the book is actually about.

(04:14)

So The Plot, it's a story about a sputtering mid-list novelist who steals his student's story after he hears that he dies. And then he writes this novel based on the story that the student shared with him and the pages that he read in his MFA program, in which that mid-list novelist was a teacher of this student. So he writes this book after the student dies, and then the book becomes a mega-hit. He receives all his accolades for it, and then sometime after he receives an email from someone saying they know he's not the author, and let the psychological suspense begin. And this is sort of the plot of the book. When I read books, I often try to look at them in acts because that's how I like to write. And so, even though the author may not have constructed the book in that fashion, I still try to look at it in that fashion and read it in that fashion.

(05:25)

For me, the first 90 pages or so is say the first act of this novel. And then when he finally gets that email telling him he's a thief, all of a sudden his world changes and the novel sets out into act two, right? And that's when I feel like this turns more into a PI-ish type vibe, even though it's not a PI story at all. Because the author, who by the way, has such a great name, Jacob Finch Bonner, for a slightly annoying and pretentious writer, I can't think of a better name, honestly, I was captivated the entire time I was reading it. I really feel like a good character name or a great character name, I should say, goes a long way in speaking volumes about a character. And sometimes, at least in my opinion, the authors get it right and sometimes they don't.

(06:26)

It's like you're forcing the character around the name or the name helps define the character. And to me, Jacob Finch Bonner is perfect for this character. Anyway, he sets out on this journey to find this individual that's emailing him. And on his journey of doing that, it kind of gives it that PI-type vibe I was alluding to. So, I'm not going to tell you too much about the story. What I will say is it's straight linear, so there are not a lot of flashbacks. What it does do is it's got a really clever outward-facing structure where it uses accent chapters or that's how I like to think of them. Even though they have their own arc, they still feel like they are accenting the actual narrative. And they are really because what those accent chapters are, are excerpts from the novel that is in question or the plot that is in question. Naturally, you could expect these two things to intersect at some point.

(07:25)

Honestly, and this is me being totally honest, I never read books looking to figure out what is going to happen next. I try to just read the book straight through, and then I typically will evaluate it on my own criteria as wacky or as normal as it might be, and look back at the book and say, oh, okay, they got to that point really well. Or for me, in my taste, they didn't get to that point really well with this book particularly. I did figure out what the twist was going to be about halfway through, and I had never read any spoilers on this book or anything. The only reason why that happened was because I read another novel years ago that did something sort of similar, and it cued me and I kind of pieced it together, not to exactly what was going to happen, but just one of the key elements to the twist.

(08:28)

But the good part about it was based on how I like to read, and typically going back and seeing how it unfolded to get to where we were. Since I had this inclination of where it might be going, I watched it unfold as I read it, and I really just loved the way that it did. It's a really, really well-done book and one that I wanted to share with you because of that. But also, I alluded to some other reasons why I wanted to share it with you earlier, and one of those reasons is this book simultaneously is a satire on writers and the publishing world in general. So it plays on these satirical elements and shows the ridiculousness and sometimes pathetic nature of writers, as well as, the publishing world as a whole. I mean, just the idea of stealing somebody's work.

(09:31)

The fun question that this book asks and makes you really consider as you're reading it, is, considering all art is an evolution of what came before it, where does stealing actually begin, right? So when is it stealing or when is it evolution on something that has already existed? Or as Jacob Finch Bonner would say, what about when you're stealing from somebody who can't possibly do justice to this amazing plot because they're not talented enough? Or perhaps in this case they're dead? Right? Or even taking it a step further in saying, is it stealing when you borrow stories from the world, right? So you go out as a writer and you hear a friend tell you a story about another friend. Is it stealing to then include that into your novel or short story or whatever you're writing to potentially profit from it? Is it your story to steal? Is it your story to write?

(10:33)

Now, of course, there is nuance to these questions. But these are the things that you will think about. For me, this was a really fun part of reading this novel, and I think I've been going on long enough. But before I wrap this up, I will leave you with two quick thoughts. One is a quote that was popularized by T.S. Elliot. “Good writers borrow, great writers steal.” The interesting thing about this quote is that it is an iteration or a take on an Oscar Wilde line: “Talent borrows, genius steals.” So, who said it first? Was it T.S. Elliot or was it Oscar Wilde? Is it the exact words or is it the sediment? What's more important you decide? And the last thing that I did just want to make mention because I am talking a lot about theft and stealing, it's worth saying as far as my standards of morality are concerned, it is never cool or okay to steal or outright steal another writer's work.

(11:43)

So if two writers are in communication with each other and somebody shares their work, it is not okay to then go take that story and write it as your own. That in my world, is theft. Now, there are, as I mentioned, different nuanced examples of this that this book will make you consider and think about it But out and out, straight up, stealing is stealing right? And I think we all know that. In case we didn't I did want to make it clear on what my stance is and would be. All right, stick a fork in me. This episode is officially a wrap. As always, I wanted to thank you for listening, but I also wanted to remind you that if you enjoyed it, so please share it with friends and family and other people who you think might enjoy it. Word of mouth is everything when spreading awareness. And with this podcast specifically, it's inspiring more men to read and bringing together men who do.

(12:43)

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