THE PLOT, by Jean Hanff Korelitz

    

Mystery/Thriller -- 3 1/2 stars

A few years ago, Jacob Finch Bonner, wrote a semi-successful novel.  He was famous for a few months.  His failure of a second book seemed to mark him as a one-shot wonder.  To make ends meet, Jake capitalizes on his fleeting fame by mentoring writers at seminars where he meets Evan Parker, an arrogant wannabe author who claims to have THE plot, with a twist that will make him famous.  Unfortunately for Mr. Parker, he dies before he can finish his opus.  Jake decides to re-work Mr. Parker's idea in his own style.  After all, writers steal ideas from each other all the time, and Mr. Parker was vehemently tight about details of his work in progress, only letting Jake in on the twist after much prodding and poking, so who is going to know?  ----- This is really a three character book within a book.  Jake's fame and his fight to keep it are the main story, but there are frequent interruptions that expose excerpts from THE (stolen) plot that made Jake famous for real this time.  Of the two, the stolen work is the better story--concise and well edited; and, yes, that twist hits like a nuclear bomb.  Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the main body of Ms. Korelitz' novel.  I figured out the twist in Jake's part of the story early in the book which was disappointing; but worse for me was the fact that I found Jacob Finch Bonner to be a totally and completely unlikable character from the earliest pages.  His long-winded, whining  and self-pity began to seem over-indulgent on Ms. Korelitz' part, and eventually became a roadblock to really enjoying her really good--and in many important ways--original story idea.  Enjoy it for "The Plot," if not the characters.