Jacob Finch Bonner is a novelist in New York State, but he can’t sustain his first writing streak and fades to almost obscurity. Never mind, his published book gains him the respectability of a job as a creative writing professor. THE PLOT that follows is one that has been written many times in the past; someone acquires a prose sample (Steinbeck, in The Winter of Our Discontent), a music score, an artwork or another created item, and passes it off as their original work. The weary professor is used to ensuring students don’t plagiarise coursework, but in this case, he’s the one who can’t resist temptation.
A budding novelist called Evan Parker, from rural Vermont, is Jacob’s student and he’s got a secret plot idea which he’s sure will sell millions of copies. Mainly he’s sarcastic in class, but one day when it’s just the two of them, Evan can’t resist showing off and recounts his marvellous idea.
A couple of years later, Evan has vanished, and Jacob learns that in fact, he died. The opportunity seems too good to be true. Like they warn about scams, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. In all the other stories of people who plagiarised, the truth comes to light and it does not end well. The literature professor doesn’t seem to have read any of these works. Next thing, Jacob has penned the new version of Gone Girl, and he’s doing book tours and signings. He even gets a lady friend, Anna Williams from Idaho and Seattle, who is already a fan. Then it goes wrong.
This now becomes a sneaky crime story, and from that point on, I was more interested. I don’t like the writing style, which is littered with parentheses (several times a page) which writers are not supposed to use often (because they catch the reader’s eye and draw them out of the story). The start is slow, a whole chapter is spent on opening a door and looking at muddy shoes while dragging up mental images of past years. Several chapters from the plagiarised novel, called Crib, are included. They reflect what Jacob discovers as he investigates the background of the novel and its original author. They also contain many parentheses.
THE PLOT, with a creative writing course, is saddening, as students seem to think reading is enough to make them potentially great writers. There’s no mention of independent publishing. Perhaps the fact that only one student’s work went anywhere, is Jean Hanff Korelitz’s comment on colleges. As the tension builds, even if the reader has guessed the twists, you’ll want to see how the murderous drama concludes.
a secret plan or scheme, usually hostile, unlawful, or evil
a small piece of land in a cemetery, a burial plot
Jacob Finch Bonner was once a promising young novelist with a respectably published first book. Today, he's teaching in a third rate MFA program and struggling to maintain what's left of his self-respect; he hasn't written—let alone published—anything decent in years. When Evan Parker, his most arrogant student, announces he doesn't need Jake's help because the plot of his book-in-progress is a "sure thing," Jake is prepared to dismiss the boast as typical amateur narcissism. But then he hears the plot.
Jake returns to the downward trajectory of his own career and braces himself for the supernova publication of Evan Parker's first novel, but it never comes. When he discovers that his former student has died, presumably without ever completing his book, Jake does what any self-respecting writer would do with a story like that—a story that absolutely needs to be told.
In a few short years, all of Evan Parker's predictions have come true, but Jake is the author enjoying the wave. He is wealthy, famous, praised and read all over the world. But at the height of his glorious new life, an email arrives: You are a thief.
As Jake struggles to understand his antagonist and hide the truth from his readers and publishers, he begins to learn more about his late student, and what he discovers both amazes and terrifies him. Who was Evan Parker, and how did he get the idea for his "sure thing" of a novel? What is the real story behind the plot? Who stole it from whom?
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