The Plot is an entertaining psychological thriller exploring the world of aspiring authors and the publishing industry.
The first part of the book is set on a Vermont college campus, as published author Jacob Finch Bonner teaches a short course for aspiring writers. It's not a job he's passionate about - having experienced fleeting success and recognition after the publication of his first book several years ago, he's struggled to live up to his promise and has to take on teaching jobs to support himself financially. Among the predictably uninspiring cohort of wannabe writers Jacob is assigned is one standout, a rather obnoxious young man called Evan Parker. Evan confidently asserts that his has a unique plot idea that cannot fail but launch him into the publishing stratosphere - but he won't share it with the group. Over the course of their private meetings, Jacob gains access to the opening pages of Evan's manuscript and gradually draws out of him the great plot twist, and he's stunned: Evan is right - his plot is a virtually guaranteed bestseller.
Returning to his dispirited life, searching but failing to find inspiration for another novel, Jacob waits for Evan's novel to hit the shelves, but it never does. It transpires that the young author died tragically shortly after the conclusion of the writing course, and never got a chance to finish his book. Readers will guess what happens next - Jacob develops the plot idea himself, quickly finds a publisher and the book becomes a runaway bestseller.
All is rosy for Jacob for a while - he has the life he's always aspired to - but then the creepy emails start arriving: "You are a thief.".
Jacob becomes quite paranoid, terrified that he'll be publicly exposed - but for what? It's not as if he plagiarised Evan's work, and there's no property in ideas, is there? As Jacob digs deeper into the story of Evan's life and death, he comes to the shocking realisation that Evan's imaginative plot premise may actually be based on real life events. And someone out there is furious that Jacob has appropriated their personal tragedy for his own gain - can Jacob hunt down the truth and identify his online stalker before his career is blown out of the water, or worse?
The Plot takes a meta-fiction format, with excerpts from both Evan's manuscript and Jacob's published novel woven into the main narrative. Jean Hanff Korelitz cleverly drip-feeds details to readers as the story unfolds. While the plot twist alluded to throughout is surprising and unusual, I didn't find it quite as earth-shatteringly original as it had been portrayed. Perhaps this is the author playing games with her audience - there are so many layers of reality and perspective here, it's hard to be sure.
As a qualified lawyer and aspiring fiction writer myself, what I enjoyed the most about The Plot was the exploration of intellectual property concepts against a narrative background. Where is the line between taking artistic inspiration, which all authors do, and plagiarism / stealing? Who owns a true story, and to what extent can it be legitimately incorporated into a work of fiction? Is it okay for an author to enjoy professional acclaim and huge profits off the back of someone else's trauma? I had sympathy with both "sides" of these conundra, as played out by the story and characters of The Plot. While Jacob wasn't a particularly likeable character in many respects, my own feeling was that he had the letter of the law on his side, if perhaps not the spirit. Jacob's battle of conscience over Evan and constant self-justification reinforced this impression.
The Plot is a thought-provoking and entertaining read, which I'd recommend highly to any reader who enjoys twisty thrillers, especially those with a literary setting.