The Plot

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz 336 pages

This is one time that I did not pick up a novel based on its cover art; the title was enough to capture my attention. And then I learned that it was a novel-within-a-novel about writers. Just up my alley!

It was fun to journey to a small college and its MFA program, even if said program isn’t that good.  I have an MFA from a great program here in St. Louis.  A quick stroll down memory lane reminded me of the hours and hours I spent with my peers discussing writing and publishing. Or the hours and hours I spent crafting short stories that were just okay. But enough about me,

The protagonist is Jake Bonner; well Jacob Finch Bonner is the name on his first novel that was well accepted with decent reviews. Sales were okay, but not huge. His second novel was a flop. He’s hasn’t published anything in years and cannot seem to find a plot or write anything with any substance. He’s resorted to teaching, consulting with other writers on how to make their work better and editing.

The fall semester is about underway at a small Vermont college. Jake is not looking forward to reading the pages his soon-to-be-students have turned in for his critique. I can see him running his hand through his hair in despair as he begins prepping for the course.

One of the students, Evan Parker, is an obnoxious elitist who believes that his “plot” will take the world by storm. I was never sure why Evan was in the program, as he thought he has “the plot” that would make him rich and successful. Although he is reluctant to divulge his sure-fire hit, he does give Jake a brief synopsis. And Jake is highly impressed.

Jake waits for Evan to finish the novel and dreads the fame that will surely be garnished on him. But as the years go by, Jake never hears anything about Evan Parker, or Parker Evan, as he considers using his inverted names as a pen name. One afternoon, Jake decides to Google Evan. It isn’t too long before he discovers that Evan has died. Jake doesn’t know if the book is finished or if was ever written.

Desperate for a hit, Jake takes Evan’s idea and writes a blockbuster. I feel like author Korelitz tried to pull one over on readers---ideas cannot be copyrighted. In fact there are only four basic plot lines in all of writing. Even is Jake ‘stole’ the idea, he would never be able to write the same story as Evan.

As I read, I kept thinking about Korelitz’s story the same way Jake thought about many of his students’---so what?  This novel is hailed as a thriller, but all I could think was so what?  Oh sure, once Jake hit the big time, he started getting cryptic texts that were supposed to cause fear that someone knew that he had stolen Evan’s “idea.” But Jake’s fear wasn’t worthy of the word.  

I found “The Plot” repetitive and boring. As far as the novel that Jake/Evan wrote, it was also dull. If you like the novel-within-a-novel formats try Margaret Atwood’s “The Blind Assassin.” Unlike “The Plot,” which receives 1 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world, it’s a page turner.

 

Hotel de Dream

 

Hotel de Dream by Edmund White  228 pages

I picked up Hotel de Dream because I’d read that it was a great read and that it was a forerunner to the popular woman-behind-the-man novels that are so popular right now (think The Paris

Wife by Paula McClain or The Aviator’s Wife by Melanie Benjamin). Plus it had an extra bonus of having a novel-within-a-novel (Margaret Atwood’s The Assassins). I just love those types of books. 

Hotel de Dream’s featured couple is Stephen and Cora Crane. Stephen is twenty-eight years-old and is dying of tuberculosis. Cora want to go back to England, but fears Stephen is too weak to make the trip. In part, they are trying to escape the gossip mill that swirls around Cora…after all, she is the former owner of a bordello in Florida.

The book jacket says that the Cranes “live riotously, running up bills they ca never pay.” Maybe it 

was because I read only to page 50, but they didn’t seem to be living the high life by any means.

Crane was often visited by his esteemed contemporaries, Henry James and Joseph Conrad. Author White makes a huge mistake when he brings a people like James and Conrad by only using their last names. I had a hard time following when the characters first showed up, trying to figure out who they were.  By the time I reached page 50, I had the style figured out, but it still annoyed me.

Then there is the problem of the novel-within-the-novel. It seems that the Cranes are desperate for money, Stephen, in a rather delirious state, begins to dictate a novel to Cora.

And this is where White really lost me. I read the first excerpt, then the second, but by the time I finished, I was just grossed out. The “new” novel is about a very young male prostitute and his homosexuality. The graphic descriptions are what turned me off.

As a reader, I give Hotel de Dream, one star. The early pages of the story are confusing. As a writer, I give the novel four stars (out of five). Aside from the previously mentioned confusion, once I got past it, the book is well written; it’s just not kind of story though. White’s book has an audience, I’m sure, it’s just not me.