What a fascinating and eclectic novel this is! It starts out as a sardonic look at the writing life, the trials and tribulations that all but the biggest best sellers face. Our guide is Jake Bonner, erstwhile golden, now a down on his luck teacher at a third rate MFA program. That is until he meets a student who has an idea that will storm the literary world. An idea that dies with the student shortly after until Jake resurrects it and changes his life forever. From there it morphs into thriller land while exploring such themes as cultural appropriation, the ethics of borrowing, and what is an idea and who does it belong too, as whiffs of Stephen King (Misery), John Boyne (A Ladder to the Sky) trail through the pages while she name drops Marilynne Robinson and others. This is going to be a fun one to talk with others about and I can’t wait.
The Plot by Jean Hanff (List Price: $39.99, Celadon Books, 9781250790767, 5/11/2021)
Reviewed by Pete Mock, McIntyre’s Fine Books in Pittsboro, North Carolina