The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz
“The Plot” by Jean Hanff Korelitz is the story of Jacob Finch Bonner, teacher of fiction writing at a Vermont college, on his way now to the Ripley Symposium with his sack of winter clothes. He also has his ancient computer on which to write his non-existent novel. Students’ samples of their writing are in his old leather satchel. His third and fourth novels had been rejected immediately without even a handwritten note. Alice, who is also at the symposium, greets Jake and praises his work which she has read and liked. He’s flattered. A young student who has grabbed a beer from Jake the night before is in his class and makes himself obnoxious. He’s talking loudly and sneering at the hand-outs. He lets everyone know he doesn’t care what anyone says about his writing. He’s confident he has a super plot, and success will easily be his.
Jake reads Evan Parker’s story three times and summarizes it for the reader. It’s about a mother and daughter who hate one another; the tension is extreme. Jake thinks so what he does about many stories. Evan Parker wants an agent and a personal recommendation. Jake says he can’t tell from an excerpt if it’s good. Parker says it’ll be made into a movie with an influential director. Parker says there’s no way it can fail. Jake realizes he knows it’s going to be a sensational success. It’ll be on everyone’s coffee table.
Two years later, Jake is re-hired to teach at Ripley College, not earning enough to pay New York rents. As an online editor, he listens to complaints about the food and the lack of entertainment. He feels like a desk clerk at the Adlon’s Creative Writing seminar and muses how TS Eliot once said good writers borrow ideas, and great writers steal them. When he looks up Evan Parker on Google, he sees his obituary, and a fantastic idea comes to him.
Jake did not take one word from Parker’s story. He knows a million ideas are waiting to be made into a novel, but he’s terrified someone will ask where he got this idea. With this new novel, he’s had public readings and signed copies by the dozens or hundreds. This was his dream. His book is called “Crib,” and Spielberg directs the movie. Jake is asked to summarize the host’s plot for the radio audience. On his way out for a coffee with Anna, the moderator, he gets a text that reads, “You are a thief.” Author Korelitz lets us read a few pages of the novel “Crib,” We learn the protagonist, Samantha, age fifteen, is pregnant. The person who wrote this, the “talented Tom @ Gmail,” was not on Facebook or Twitter but only on Jake’s private website. Jake knows there are dozens of stories every day in the news waiting to be written about, and no one thinks it’s stealing.
Anna comes to New York and loves the city and loves Jake. She cooks for him and goes out to the play “Hamilton” and his book tours. She spends time with his parents, and he ends up liking them too. But Jake is constantly afraid Anna will find out about Talented Tom. Jake is called to meet with his editor, publicist, and attorney. The editor says not to worry about this; many top authors have been accused of stealing. His staff says they’ll take care of it. They’ll sue the guy and get the posts removed.
Jake finishes his next book and sends it to his editor Wendy who is happy with it, although it’s not a blockbuster like “Crib.” Jake goes to Vermont to meet with a man who was a friend of Parker’s and might know who Talented Tom is. Jake finds Parker has one living relative, a niece, and he finds the massive house where the Parker family lived. When Jake returns home to Anna, now his wife, he tells her everything, and soon they’re both frightened.
Jake goes to Georgia to meet with the daughter (Rose), who had attended the college for a year, then disappeared. Jake finds a fire in the tent where Diana Parker had been camping with her sister Rose Parker. She knows Rose was the daughter but why this error in the news report? In the story “Crib,” the daughter had died after knocking her head on the bedpost. Does life follow fiction or vice versa? He wants to find out why this woman is tormenting him, disguised as Talented Tom. He has a photo of the daughter with him and shows it to the coroner at the campground. The coroner doesn’t recognize it. Jake wonders who is really in the grave, an exchanged woman? He finds the grave of the mother. Does he discover who was accusing him of stealing the plot? Who is the Talented Tom? Do most writers have the problem of finding a unique plot? Is it only the plot that has been stolen? Who is Anna? Find out in this unique story on the new mystery shelf of your local library.