The Plot: a Faith-Based Book Review
My search continues to find faith in fiction with our next book club pick. While I had hoped to find satisfaction in The Plot, I found that, though The Plot’s plot thickened, the soup ended up lukewarm and lumpy.
I’m giving this book an overall 2 out of 5 stars. It was easy to read and well-written, but I just couldn’t buy into the story or the characters. Still, I had to keep turning the pages to see how it ended.
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The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz
The plot of The Plot was about a plot. Of a book. However, since there was a reference to the plot of a buried body, I wondered if there was a double meaning. I do not think the author quite grasped that she had a great opportunity to add a bit more depth that a double meaning could give. A swing and a miss…
The protagonist, Jake, is a struggling author who becomes a teacher when he couldn’t find success writing. His student tells him about this “plot” he has. He is trying to keep it secret because it was supposed to be so amazing, so shocking, so different from anything ever written, that any author who wrote this story was sure to have a best seller!
Jake finally gets this student to reveal the story, he is jealous and dejected because plot IS so amazing, so shocking, so different from anything ever written, that any author who wrote this story was sure to have a best seller!
A few years later, he is still unsuccessful and wonders what became of the book. He looks up the author to see if the book was published and discovers his student has died under mysterious circumstances with the book never being written. So, of course, that means the universe means for Jake to write the book.
But wait! I have some thoughts!
Three things I have learned since learning about writing:
- Writing and publishing a book is not an easy thing. The premise that this plot is so unique that anyone who wrote it would have a best seller does not take into account any of the angst that most writers have or the bajillion other things one must do in order to publish a book.
- Writing requires research. Does Jack do any digging to see if there is a manuscript anywhere?
- Good fiction is many times based in fact. Does Jake stop to consider if this story, a story supposedly conjured up by someone who has never written a thing in his life, is based on truth?
Aside from these problems, the key problem: it’s predictability. As other characters got introduced, I guessed fairly quickly most of what was going to happen.
The only reason I did not have it completely worked out was the secondary problem: I just did not like or care about the characters.
A third problem: the amazing, shocking, different plot was not really all that amazing, shocking or different.
Did I Find Faith?
The short answer is no. The entire book was devoid of God- except in Chapter 7, where Jake is trying to decide if he should steal the story.
He claims he doesn’t believe in any god creating the world or an afterlife. He says he doesn’t believe anything remotely associated with any belief system and then goes on to describe his belief system. (I am confused. Either you don’t believe in a belief system or you do.) He “believes” that stories were magically out there and they needed to be written. He called this “inspiration”. He also says most writers don’t like to use the word inspiration.
Here is the problem. The word inspiration literally means “divine guidance.” The Greek root translates to “God-breathed”. If you do not believe in God, you cannot believe in inspiration, because that is believing in God’s influence. And after several pages of discussing this idea, Jake later contradicts himself, saying there is no such thing as inspiration. So, which is it? Pick a lane, Jake!
Lack of Redemption
Beyond the absence of God, the story also lacked redemption. There was no universal truth or moral arc. Nothing made the characters better or changed them in any meaningful way.
It had hints of a “deal with the devil” theme, but even that fell flat. Another missed opportunity. In most stories like this, the character eventually faces the weight of his choices and has a moment of reckoning: What have I done? Not here.
While Jake FINALLY goes to extremes to uncover the truth, he keeps it to himself. Goes home and eats his lukewarm and lumpy soup.
If you want to find out the details, you will have to read it. Click here to grab a copy. Despite all the problems, for everything the book not deliver on, it was an engaging book, and it did leave you wondering. There is a sequel. It is called The Sequel. I may read it. In the meantime, read my book review of The Wedding People.
