I loved this book until the very end.
Meaning I loved everything about it but the ending. Which I foresaw early, then thought I might be wrong about, but ultimately it turned out I was right.
But that does not mean "The Plot" is not a great read.
Genre books. I've given up on them.
You know, books where the genre supersedes the story, as in mystery and romance and... You know what you're going to get, it's only the names that change. Sure, the plots are different, but oftentimes that's all you've got is plot, frequently these books are slightly dressed-up screenplays, with serviceable writing at best, it's all about moving the story forward, but not in "The Plot."
"The Plot" is this season's hot book. Right now it's just the media that is talking about it, but unless something comes along and supersedes it in the next month or two it will be the book of the summer, at least the genre book of the summer.
Two books ago I read Peter Swanson's "Every Vow You Break," a lauded mystery/thriller, in this case released back in March. And I loved the set-up, about a woman getting married, wondering if her choice was correct. They develop the backstory and then...it becomes ridiculous, I almost didn't want to finish it. Truth is stranger than fiction, but you'd never find anything resembling this in real life, no way, like in too many genre novels, I swore I wouldn't read another.
And then I got a notice from Libby that I could skip the line and get "The Plot" for seven days, so of course I clicked yes. At this point I'm not going to buy a genre novel, unless the buzz is so heavy, like with "Gone Girl," which is the best I've encountered in the last decade, but the writing is at best serviceable, whereas that in "The Plot" is nearly literary.
That's what they call highfalutin' books, "literary fiction." Nonfiction? It gets no respect in New York, except for its sales figures, it's all about coming up with a story out of thin air and laying it down with highbrow language and making points about life along the way. And in truth, literary fiction is the best when it rings the bell. But too often those working in this vein are products of MFA programs, and their originality has been excised and they're all about choosing the right words as opposed to refining the plot, and all fiction is about the plot, never forget it. A great plot can supersede bad writing, the opposite is never the case.
And that's just the point of "The Plot."
But I don't want to get ahead of myself, I don't want to reveal too much.
So Jake is a product of the MFA assembly line, and he's had fleeting success but now he is teaching. Usually graduates don't even have fleeting success. The goal is to get a gig teaching to feed your writing habit. So what you've got is unsuccessful writers teaching wannabes and if you're scratching your head right now, you should be. Then again, one has to give author Jean Hanff Korelitz credit, she asks the question whether writing can be taught, I don't think so. Sure, you can teach people the basics, like they do in seventh grade, how to write an essay, but to be a great writer that people want to read? You're born with that. It's an outlook, a desire...not so different from making music. It's a calling, an inner tuning fork, you know instinctively how to put things together, how to do it, not that you don't get better with experience. But the point is everybody can write a book, but not everybody can write a book that people want to read.
And Korelitz covers this too. You see there's an entire community of MFAs, spending all their non-writing hours discussing the publishing industry, angry that someone else is having success when they aren't. It's no different from music. If you're in the industry you're in the trenches, talking about stuff that the average person doesn't care about, even though it's vital to you. And then there's the secondary layer, the so-called wannabes, who are convinced the system is rigged against them. Hell, I constantly read about these acts complaining that they can't make a living on Spotify and I've never heard of them. And then I check their stream counts and they're unbelievably low. They're no different.
But the difference is people care more about music. Books are a smaller world. But in case you don't know, the biggest world is gaming, something baby boomers pooh-pooh, it outgrosses every other entertainment medium. And right now, music does not drive the culture, there's a business, but music is not where you go to find out which way the wind blows. Bjorn of Abba has been complaining you can't make any money as a songwriter if there are eight writers on a composition, doesn't that prove the point right there? Imagine eight people writing one book! But Bjorn is right about a couple of things, first and foremost that songwriters have been screwed by streaming, but the labels are not going to cough up any of their points, even though they own the big publishers, a buck is a buck, they don't care where it comes from as long as it doesn't go to somebody else. But Bjorn also says that today songs are now more memorable than the artists who perform them, he commissioned a study. You can check out what he has to say here: nyti.ms/3vfUdda Bottom line, the reason music blew up fifty-odd years ago was because the audience believed the songs were channeled by the artists, representing their hopes, beliefs and desires, but if they're created by committee...then it's like a network TV show. Which is why when music is done right it's the most powerful artistic medium, directly from the artist's heart to yours. But it's rarely done right today.
And Jake teaches at a third-rate college which is making its bread by teaching wannabe writers who will never be successful. Yes, Korelitz constantly comments on her industry and it's refreshing, you rarely see anybody poking holes in the fabric where they live and make their bones, which is why almost everybody in the music business will say that today's music is as good as that of the past, which everybody knows is untrue, and as a result credibility is sacrificed and the audience moves on. But when politicians say what you see on TV is wrong, that you can't believe your own eyes, the public no longer trusts those selling, they think they'll say and do anything to succeed, and unfortunately that's true, what we can hope for at best is the growth of the power of truth-speakers throughout life, then again no matter what you say there's someone who will come up with a website that says otherwise.
So Jake is a has-been who is barely scraping by, and then he steals the plot...
Sounds like I'm giving this away, but it's right up front in all the hype.
So it makes it sound like it's an inside story, but "The Plot" is not, you don't have to be a writer to appreciate it. Yet there's a lot of writing philosophy contained in it, which I found refreshing, because once again Korelitz doesn't just parrot conventional wisdom.
So it becomes a hunt for information. But the information is secondary to the story, as in Korelitz sets the scene so well that what happens in certain situations is secondary to the enrichment, the satisfaction of actually reading the passages. Almost always when you're reading these genre books the writing serves solely to move the plot forward, you find yourself frustrated, you just want to get the goods, but not in "The Plot."
So I don't get all those people who devour one mystery after another, almost all of them are unsatisfying. But if that's your chosen genre, go for it. But if you're a hesitant reader, maybe you should start with "The Plot," it is rewarding. Then again, it does not stoop to the level of the lowest common denominator reader. What I mean is it's not like reading a comic book, you do need a level of concentration and comprehension.
And there's the device of the book in the book, contrasted with the factual story, you get confused, and that's part of the experience. What really happened? You're not always so sure.
But I was sure how it was gonna turn out.
But that was executed pretty well, yet unfortunately foreseeable.
So I finished "The Plot" in twenty four hours, I was excited to tell you about it until the last ten percent. And in a genre novel the last ten percent means a lot.
But up until then...
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