A Simple Plan of Scott Smith

Scott Smith (The author)

The Book

When is the time better than now approaching the new year to read 'A Simple Plan' written by the legendary Master of Thriller himself, Scott Smith?

I still remember when I first bought the book that I had flipped through a few pages and had some glimpses of the story. I vaguely remember that within the first chapter itself, it has mentioned something about an oath to visit the protagonist's parents' grave on the new year's eve. It struck me then, when I started seriously reading again that A Simple Plan was in fact the most appropriate book to read before kicking off a new year.

At some levels, A Simple Plan does resonate with me, besides reading it before the brand new year. I also have lost my beloved younger sister last year and my parents and I visit her grave almost every month. After a couple of visits, I think it has started to turn into a monthly ritual. Not that I really mind about that, but every visit just simply feels like ephemeral to me, however to the protagonist, Hank, and his brother, Jacob, on the contrary, looked untoward to it.

The author deliberately painted such a character on Hank Mitchell. He first appeared to be of a basic young educated typical good guy type against Jacob and Lou, Jacob's friend, who were, on the other hand, of the sloppy type that can be easily succumbs to immoral acts. However, upon stumbling the stacks of cash, the mask was slowly removed to reveal the true side of Hank. It was as if the sudden appearance of such a huge sum of money in his life had prompted the real character to surface from Hank.

In the early part of the novel, it is mentioned that Hank had quietly harbored an intention, just like everybody else, or I would say everybody else would act the same, to leave town to start a more exciting life in a new city. However, such a dream life will quickly dissipate as one is also quickly brought to face the reality from day to day life, once you play a role in the adult world. As such, Hank was more likely to go on an extra mile in his extreme ways than his counterparts (his wife included) to attain his buried-deep-inside goal of getting rich. In other words, Jacob and Lou were more shallow in comparison to Hank, as they did not harbor such an unrealistic greed dream deep within themselves like hank. Instead they harbored the on-the-surface occasional day dream of having a nicer car (or truck) or drink beers to their life's content. It is a really smart potrayal of the characters by the author.

I like that the author is able to tap into an average joe's mind where one is apt to ask the same thing before doing something awful, such as "would it hurt somebody?" and "whould we get caught?. Ingenius.

I have read many reviews in blogs, and I have found out that the book succeeds at keep raising the question, "what would you do if..?" as one read along the plot, and also at making the reader feel emphatic and guilty of Hank commiting into such crimes, as if the reader would do the same if faced such a situation. Not bad.

There are of course a few other credible questions that the book manages to raise, like "is it worthwhile to do it?", "will we go to jail if we don't do this?"

It is also a very good interplay of relationships among the characters on who's controlling who. Hank's wife, Sarah seems to have, in numerous times, used the possibility of going to jail as a leverage to control Hank to keep moving on the right direction for the very wrong reasons. Hank used the Pederson's murder to control Jacob to control Lou. That's why, in one of the pages, the dynamics among the characters and the cause and effect relations of the events are described by Hank. A leads to B, B leads to C, C leads to D, and the rest is history. Very interesting.

After a climax in the book, the book seems to have slowed down a bit. Hank's thoughts look as though to have come more the forefront. It seems that after an awful event, the narrator had come to a point to start to realize his surroundings more, and to reflect more of his past. As if the past came just to haunt him in his memories. Hank appeared as if he needed to explore within himself, and taking into account of his daughter and his wife, whether he should just feel guilty, i.e burn the money or just soldier on. Fortunately for him, his wife, Sarah, was always there for him when things seemed to have gotten stuck or when he needed his wife for guidance to navigate him back on the right tracks.

The final part of climax kind of appeared quite lame to me. You can pretty tell that the book should end where the FBI agents told Hank something about the money. It is as though the final part is just there to furnish the pages, or I should say to immediately tidy up the loose ends. However, one should view that the final part is only additional to the story to build up the climax, rather than as integral to the story. I can imagine, if without the ending, the book would fall flat, as if no climax higher than the early climaxes.  The final ending is therefore commendable. 

The theme of the story is just to tell us that if you have done something wrong, the consequences will get the better of you. It is just a matter of time. If you are smart, then you are just delaying your punishments. The mind will play trick on you if you are not careful.

In my opinion, the story in the book should be treated as a short story. The story can be easily written as a short story instead as a long one. However, I'm not saying that this story is not good or unsuitable as a long story. In fact, the author had successfully spun an amazing yarn of a story. If it is easy to write a short story to express the theme, then it is even harder to write a long book, as the long story will more likely to appear filmsy, as if the thickening of the plot will appear as if just to cover the plot holes.

I have seen quite lately that a few similar type of movies have sprung up from Hong Kong. Noticably, Overhead and the Accident. They played on the same arc of story. The train-wreck type of story, hehe.. Do check them out. : )