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A simple plan
"Sometimes Good People Do Evil Things Two brothers and a friend find $4 million in the cockpit of a downed plane. The pilot is dead. No one is looking for the money. To keep it, all they have to do is wait. It all sounded so simple..."
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First published August 31, 1993
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About the author
Scott Smith
6 books1,099 followersScott Bechtel Smith is an American author and screenwriter. He has published two suspense novels, A Simple Plan and The Ruins, and adapted them for the screen.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
(from wikipedia)
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
(from wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,093 reviews
June 3, 2019
I finished A Simple Plan a few days ago, and here I am sitting at work, eating a Lara Bar on my lunch break, and I’m still thinking about it. I hope to watch the movie tonight so I can just get all of this Simple Plan stuff out of my system. The book, not the cheesy pop punk band.
The plan is simple, and the story itself is pretty simple, too. Two brothers and a friend find a wrecked plane with a whole bunch of money inside so they decide to take the money, wait six months, and then split it all up evenly and live happily ever after. This is a brilliant plan, right? Obviously, the rest of the book is about how they casually spend the next six months waiting patiently. No one ever discovers the plane an no one else knows about the money. It’s just kind of a slow, boring book about patience and sharing with friends and family. You can find the same basic virtues in any episode of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. Such a heartwarming tale of love and telling the truth.
Only none of that happens. In fact, pretty much the opposite happens. And, friends, let me just say this without spoiling anything for you: When Mr. Scott B. Smith pushes down on the accelerator, he doesn’t just put that proverbial pedal to the metal. Oh no. You may think he’s done. You may think that was a fun ride, and now he’s gonna let off the accelerator a bit. But he does not let off, friends. He pushes the petal down through the floor. He rips out the brakes so there’s no stopping. He cranks everything up to a level you do not expect. Holy mama, this guy is relentless.
Man, this was an intense read. It was hard to put down, and it went places I did not expect it to go. I mean you know things aren’t gonna go according to this simple plan, but... greed man, the love of money and all that. Good lord almighty. If you’re looking for a thrill ride, you cannot go wrong with this book. It’s one of the most intense and memorable thrillers I’ve read in a minute.
The plan is simple, and the story itself is pretty simple, too. Two brothers and a friend find a wrecked plane with a whole bunch of money inside so they decide to take the money, wait six months, and then split it all up evenly and live happily ever after. This is a brilliant plan, right? Obviously, the rest of the book is about how they casually spend the next six months waiting patiently. No one ever discovers the plane an no one else knows about the money. It’s just kind of a slow, boring book about patience and sharing with friends and family. You can find the same basic virtues in any episode of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. Such a heartwarming tale of love and telling the truth.
Only none of that happens. In fact, pretty much the opposite happens. And, friends, let me just say this without spoiling anything for you: When Mr. Scott B. Smith pushes down on the accelerator, he doesn’t just put that proverbial pedal to the metal. Oh no. You may think he’s done. You may think that was a fun ride, and now he’s gonna let off the accelerator a bit. But he does not let off, friends. He pushes the petal down through the floor. He rips out the brakes so there’s no stopping. He cranks everything up to a level you do not expect. Holy mama, this guy is relentless.
Man, this was an intense read. It was hard to put down, and it went places I did not expect it to go. I mean you know things aren’t gonna go according to this simple plan, but... greed man, the love of money and all that. Good lord almighty. If you’re looking for a thrill ride, you cannot go wrong with this book. It’s one of the most intense and memorable thrillers I’ve read in a minute.
September 3, 2020
I'm sorry I thought that I'd written a review for this one. I loved this book and everything Smith writes. This is the story of how values and morals can devolve to the lowest levels of humanity when a great deal of money is involved. The writing craft is excellent. Smith starts off first by endearing the characters to the reader and then slowly step by step takes them down the wrong path. It is so masterfully done that I was cheering for them even when they were doing the most heinous acts. In fact the ending actually shift momentarily (in my opinion) to borderline genre jumping from a crime novel to horror. And I stayed right there cheering for the protagonist who in any other setting would be the antagonist. I wish Smith would write faster. I'll be first in line for his next one if he ever decides to put one out. Highly recommend this one to Crime readers.
David Putnam Author of The Bruno Johnson Series.
David Putnam Author of The Bruno Johnson Series.
December 5, 2016
If a poll were taken, I wonder how many of us could confirm that they had passed tests of honesty. You know those little tests. A twenty dollar bill found laying about somewhere and you know who left it there, A found wallet, fat with cash or a purse left sitting on a display table while you were shopping.
I remember finding a twenty dollar bill laying in the ditch, when I was just a kid. Of course I gave it to my parents, not even fully aware yet of the real value of my find. I’m sure they kept it, but much later in life an interoffice envelope ( remember those) was left in my mail slot, mine being the last name added. When I opened it I knew immediately that someone had inadvertently sent me the cash collected from a hockey pool. Hell I wasn’t even in it. There must have been somewhere over a hundred dollars in there. I wasn’t really sure who was collecting that week, but a couple of questions later and the die hard hockey fans steered me in the right direction and the envelope made its way back into the right hands.
But as I said these are little tests, how I wonder would I respond if the payoff was a lot bigger?
Well Hank Mitchell, his brother Jacob and Jacob’s friend Lou are given just that opportunity when they accidently come across a small aircraft that has crashed in the woods on the outskirts of their Ohio community. On further inspection they find a dead pilot and a duffle bag containing 4.4 million dollars. Snow is expected to fall over the next few hours effectively covering their tracks. They could take the money and no-one would be the wiser. As an added precaution they agree that they won’t spend any of it right away but instead wait and come spring, once the plane is discovered and after all the hullaballoo dies down they can split it equally and take off for parts unknown. If at any point they feel that they are at risk of being discovered they will simply burn the money. No harm no foul.
A simple plan right. What could possibly go wrong?
Scott Smith is here to answer that question and he does so brilliantly. The story is told through the perspective of Hank, the keeper of the cash. Can he trust Jacob and Lou who both drink too much and are out of work, to stick to the plan and keep the secret?
Through Hank’s narration the reader is privy not only to what happens next but also Hank’s mind set as time passes and doubts and anxieties increase among the principal party of three who by this time number five as Hank has told his wife and Lou his girlfriend.
Watching what plays out over the course of the next few weeks from the comfort of my armchair is like watching a train wreck. You simply cannot look away.
I’ll not say anymore. Trust me let Scott Smith tell you this story. He does so very well.
I remember finding a twenty dollar bill laying in the ditch, when I was just a kid. Of course I gave it to my parents, not even fully aware yet of the real value of my find. I’m sure they kept it, but much later in life an interoffice envelope ( remember those) was left in my mail slot, mine being the last name added. When I opened it I knew immediately that someone had inadvertently sent me the cash collected from a hockey pool. Hell I wasn’t even in it. There must have been somewhere over a hundred dollars in there. I wasn’t really sure who was collecting that week, but a couple of questions later and the die hard hockey fans steered me in the right direction and the envelope made its way back into the right hands.
But as I said these are little tests, how I wonder would I respond if the payoff was a lot bigger?
Well Hank Mitchell, his brother Jacob and Jacob’s friend Lou are given just that opportunity when they accidently come across a small aircraft that has crashed in the woods on the outskirts of their Ohio community. On further inspection they find a dead pilot and a duffle bag containing 4.4 million dollars. Snow is expected to fall over the next few hours effectively covering their tracks. They could take the money and no-one would be the wiser. As an added precaution they agree that they won’t spend any of it right away but instead wait and come spring, once the plane is discovered and after all the hullaballoo dies down they can split it equally and take off for parts unknown. If at any point they feel that they are at risk of being discovered they will simply burn the money. No harm no foul.
A simple plan right. What could possibly go wrong?
Scott Smith is here to answer that question and he does so brilliantly. The story is told through the perspective of Hank, the keeper of the cash. Can he trust Jacob and Lou who both drink too much and are out of work, to stick to the plan and keep the secret?
Through Hank’s narration the reader is privy not only to what happens next but also Hank’s mind set as time passes and doubts and anxieties increase among the principal party of three who by this time number five as Hank has told his wife and Lou his girlfriend.
Watching what plays out over the course of the next few weeks from the comfort of my armchair is like watching a train wreck. You simply cannot look away.
I’ll not say anymore. Trust me let Scott Smith tell you this story. He does so very well.
September 1, 2018
When it comes to Scott B. Smith it’s a good thing we got the quality because the quantity is on the low side with only The Ruins released since this one came out in 1993.
Hank Mitchell is a regular guy living in rural Ohio with his pregnant wife Sarah and a steady job as an accountant at a feed store. He isn’t close to his brother Jacob who is a high school dropout that spends most of his time drunk when not scrounging out a living. One of the few times they interact is their regular New Year’s Eve visit to the graves of their parents. While taking care of this annual obligation they’re going to drop off Jacob’s drinking buddy Lou before heading to the cemetery when a freak accident leads the three men to the discovery of a small plane that has crashed in the snowy woods. Along with a dead pilot they find a bag with over four million dollars in it.
Hank’s first instinct is to turn in the money to the cops, but Lou and Jacob want to keep it. Tempted but worried that the two men will do something stupid to draw attention to them, Hank will only agree if he holds the cash until the plane is eventually discovered once the snow melts. If no one is looking for the money after the plane is found, they’ll split it up and go their separate ways.
Anybody think this is going to end well?
This is one of my favorite crime novels and a prime example of what I consider to be noir. What starts as the kind of decision that many (Most?) people would make is the first step towards suspicion and betrayal that finds Hank constantly reevaluating his relationship with his estranged brother. That’s about all I want to reveal to anyone who hasn’t read it, but if you like dark stories about the lengths seemingly ordinary people will go to when they see a chance to change their lives, give this one a try.
It was also turned into a very good movie adaptation with Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton that has significant plot differences that make it a surprising watch even if you’ve read the book.
A few more thoughts for those who have read it.
Hank Mitchell is a regular guy living in rural Ohio with his pregnant wife Sarah and a steady job as an accountant at a feed store. He isn’t close to his brother Jacob who is a high school dropout that spends most of his time drunk when not scrounging out a living. One of the few times they interact is their regular New Year’s Eve visit to the graves of their parents. While taking care of this annual obligation they’re going to drop off Jacob’s drinking buddy Lou before heading to the cemetery when a freak accident leads the three men to the discovery of a small plane that has crashed in the snowy woods. Along with a dead pilot they find a bag with over four million dollars in it.
Hank’s first instinct is to turn in the money to the cops, but Lou and Jacob want to keep it. Tempted but worried that the two men will do something stupid to draw attention to them, Hank will only agree if he holds the cash until the plane is eventually discovered once the snow melts. If no one is looking for the money after the plane is found, they’ll split it up and go their separate ways.
Anybody think this is going to end well?
This is one of my favorite crime novels and a prime example of what I consider to be noir. What starts as the kind of decision that many (Most?) people would make is the first step towards suspicion and betrayal that finds Hank constantly reevaluating his relationship with his estranged brother. That’s about all I want to reveal to anyone who hasn’t read it, but if you like dark stories about the lengths seemingly ordinary people will go to when they see a chance to change their lives, give this one a try.
It was also turned into a very good movie adaptation with Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton that has significant plot differences that make it a surprising watch even if you’ve read the book.
A few more thoughts for those who have read it.
August 2, 2015
I find it hilarious whenever I see negative reviews for this book and almost all the time, the reason for the negativity is that the reviewer thought that the main characters were stupid and made dumb decisions. If characters always made the right decisions or the smartest ones, there would be absolutely no drama and why the hell would anyone want to read about people who do all the right things?!
I think this was a wonderful story about how all of us are capable of terrible things if circumstances were there, such as greed, fear, the need to survive, or simply by just making BAD DECISIONS. These elements are all parts of the essence of noir, and that's why I consider this book one of the best examples of modern noir.
Three friends stumble upon millions of dollars and decide to keep it and not tell the authorities. That one decision begins a terrible domino effect that leads to dire consequences. It's like a classic tragedy where the end is inevitable.
Great book! Tightly written with great pacing!
I think this was a wonderful story about how all of us are capable of terrible things if circumstances were there, such as greed, fear, the need to survive, or simply by just making BAD DECISIONS. These elements are all parts of the essence of noir, and that's why I consider this book one of the best examples of modern noir.
Three friends stumble upon millions of dollars and decide to keep it and not tell the authorities. That one decision begins a terrible domino effect that leads to dire consequences. It's like a classic tragedy where the end is inevitable.
Great book! Tightly written with great pacing!
February 14, 2019
I love bookmarks. My favorites are color postcards, or airline boarding passes I hold onto. I have no problem using these to mark my place in a book and pick up with it the next day or the days after. The exception to this are books like A Simple Plan, the debut novel by Scott B. Smith that I stayed up until 3:05 a.m. on a Saturday night/ Sunday morning to finish. I had to. Published in 1993, its premise is not new and one that many have asked ourselves: If you found millions of dollars in cash, would you keep the money, or turn it in? And if you kept it, what complications might arise? Maybe none, if you were smart, right? Wrong.
The novel is the first person account of Hank Mitchell, a thirty-year-old college graduate who married his college girlfriend Sarah. They returned to northwestern Ohio and Hank's hometown of Ashenville to put his degree in business administration to use as an accountant in a feedstore. Hank recalls events that began New Year's Eve 1987, when he waits for his older brother Jacob to pick him up and visit their parents, killed two years ago in a vehicle collision. Though their father specified that his sons visit his gravesite together each year on his birthday, Hank has little contact with Jacob, an unemployed construction worker who lives alone in an apartment over a hardware store.
Jacob arrives with two friends in tow: Lou is an unemployed construction worker with thinly veiled contempt for Hank, and Mary Beth is Jacob's dog. En route to the cemetery, a fox darts in front of the pickup and Mary Beth chases it into a nature preserve. Hardly dressed for a hike through the snow, Hank is sensitive to being teased and joins Jacob and Lou as they follow the tracks. Buried at the bottom of a crevice, the men discover a small plane, which Hank is elected to crawl inside. He finds the pilot, whose eyes have been gouged out by crows, and a duffel bag, which he manages to drag out of the wreckage after a crow flies smack into Hank's forehead. Inside the bag are packets of hundred dollar bills. Hank calculates there might be three million dollars here.
Jacob was still crouched there, the money in his hand. "Put it back, Jacob," I said. He didn't move.
"It's different for you," Lou said. "You've got your job at the feedstore. Jacob and I don't have that. This money'd matter to us."
His voice had edged itself toward a whine, and hearing it, I felt a revelatory flash of power. The dynamic of the relationship had shifted, I realized. I was in control now; I was the spoiler, the one who would decide what happened to the money. I smiled at Lou.
"I'd still get in trouble if you took it. You'd fuck up, and I'd be considered an accomplice."
Jacob started to stand up, then crouched back down again. "Why not take all of it?" he asked, looking from Lou to me.
"All of it?" I said. The idea seemed preposterous, and I started to laugh, but it made my forehead ache. I winced, probing at the bump with my fingers. It was still bleeding a little.
"Just take the bag," he said, "leave the dead guy in there, pretend we were never here."
Lou nodded eagerly, pouncing on the idea. "Split it three ways."
"We'd get caught as soon as you started spending it," I said. "Imagine the three of us suddenly throwing hundred dollar bills around at the stores in town."
Jacob shook his head. "We could wait a while, then leave town, start up new lives."
"A million apiece," Lou said. "Think about it."
"You don't just get away with something like that," I sighed. "You end up doing something stupid, and you get caught."
"Don't you see, Hank?" Jacob asked, his voice rising with impatience. "It's like this money doesn't even exist. No one knows about it but us."
"It's three million dollars, Jacob. It's missing from somewhere. You can't tell me no one's searching for it."
"If people were searching for it, we would've heard by now. There would've been something on the news."
"It's drug money," Lou said. "It's all under the table. The government doesn't know about any of it."
"You don't--" I started, but Lou cut me off.
"Jesus, Hank. All this money staring you right in the face. It's the American dream, and you just want to walk away from it."
"You work for the American dream, Lou. You don't steal it."
"Then this is even better than the American dream."
Hank quickly works out a plan. He insists on holding the stash for six months, until the plane is discovered in the thaw. If no one comes for the money, Hank agrees to split it then, provided they each leave town. Counting it, they find they have $4.4 million. Hank makes Jacob and Lou promise not to speak a word to anyone, and he agrees not to tell Sarah. Returning home, Hank dumps the cash at his wife's feet. Sarah, eight months pregnant with their first child, is skeptical they need the money and believes the risks are too great. Hank promises to burn it at the first sign of trouble and she agrees if he returns $500,000 to the plane to discourage authorities from searching for the money.
On New Years' Day, Hank awakens to find Sarah counting the money. She suggests Hank take Jacob with him when he returns to the plane, in case he or Lou spot Hank's stationwagon out there and gets suspicious, but not to tell them about returning part of the money. Drunk and tired, Jacob is unwilling to walk back to the plane and Hank goes alone. He almost makes it back when he hears a snowmobile. He finds a farmer talking to his brother and watches in horror as Jacob strikes the old timer and kicks him to death. To protect his brother, Hank decides to drive the body into the creek on the snowmobile. When Hank discovers the farmer is still alive, he smothers the man to death.
Hank is relieved when Sarah considers the murder an accident, something that her husband had no control over. The couple begin to worry about Lou, who's told his girlfriend Nancy about the money. In debt, Lou pays Hank a visit late at night and asks for a packet. He reveals that he knows about the murdered farmer. No longer holding leverage over Lou, Hank tells him that he's stashed the money upstate and will divide it up after Sarah's delivery. Meanwhile, Jacob has decided that he wants to use his share to rebuild the family farm. Incredulous, Hank agrees to this if Jacob picks a side and helps him trick Lou into confessing to the farmer's murder on tape, giving Hank some leverage in case Lou tries to turn them in.
"What do you think will happen to him?" Sarah asked.
"To Jacob?"
I sensed her nod in the darkness. We were both on our backs. All the lights were out, and the baby was asleep in her crib. Sarah had forgiven me for lecturing her.
"Maybe he'll buy a farm," I said.
I felt her body go tense beside me. "He can't buy the farm, Hank. If he stays--"
"Not my father's farm. Just any farm. Someplace out west maybe, in Kansas, or Missouri. We could help him set it up."
Even as I spoke, I realized it would never happen. It had been the wine that had allowed me to hope for earlier that evening, but now I was sobering up, seeing things as they actually were rather than as I wished them to be. Jacob knew nothing about agriculture: he'd have just as much of a chance succeeding as a farmer as he would becoming a rock star or an astronaut. It was simply childishness on his part to keep on dreaming of it, a willful sort of naïveté, a denial of who he was.
"Maybe he'll travel," I tried, but I couldn't picture that either--my brother, climbing on and off planes, dragging suitcases through airports, checking into expensive hotels. None of it seemed possible.
"Whatever he does," I said, "things'll be better for him than they are now, don't you think?"
I rolled over onto my side, draping one of my legs across Sarah's body. "Of course," she said. "He'll have one point three million dollars. How could things not be better?"
As compulsively readable as this novel is, what's remarkable about A Simple Plan is how that instead of leaping from one ridiculous plot point to another, it remains grounded. Scott B. Smith, who followed this novel with only one other (The Ruins in 2006) is more interested in the dynamic between two brothers who barely relate to each other but are bound to each other, as well as the bind between husband and wife, and even two drinking buddies, and how the introduction of a cash windfall poisons them. It's a tightly constructed story but one that uses its premise to explore its characters and ask compelling questions about what constitutes happiness for the middle class.
Sarah had received a B.S. in petroleum engineering from the University of Toledo. When I first met her, she was planning on moving down to Texas and landing a high-paying job in the oil industry. She wanted to save up her money and buy a ranch someday, a "spread" she called it, with horses and a head of cattle and her own special brand, an S embedded with a heart. Instead, we got married. I was hired by the feedstore in Ashenville in the spring of my senior year, and suddenly, without really choosing it, she found herself in Delphia. There weren't many openings in northwestern Ohio for someone with an undergraduate degree in petroleum engineering, so she ended up working part-time at the local library. She was a trouper; she always made the best of things, yet there had to be some regret in all this; she had to look back every now and then and mourn the distance that separated her present existence from the one she'd dreamed of as a student. She'd sacrificed something of herself for our relationship, but she'd never attracted attention to it, and so it had seemed natural to me, even inevitable. It wasn't until tonight that I saw it for the tragedy it was.
Now the money had arrived, and she could begin to dream again. She could draw up her wish lists, page through her magazines, plan her new life. It was a nice way to envision her--full of hope and yearning, making promises to herself that she felt certain she could fulfill--but there was also something terribly sad about it. We were trapped, I realized; we'd crossed a boundary, and we couldn't go back. The money, by giving us the chance to dream, had also allowed us to begin despising our present lives. My job at the feedstore, our aluminum-siding house, the town around us--we were already looking upon all that as part of our past. It was what we were before we became millionaires; it was stunted, gray, unlivable. And so if, somehow, we were forced to relinquish the money now, we wouldn't merely be returning to our old lives, starting back up as if nothing of import had happened; we'd be returning having seen them from a distance, having judged them and deemed them unworthy. The damage would be irreparable.
I love Pandora's boxes and A Simple Plan, while having a terrific box, is about the things that can't be put back once they're taken out. The question of where the money comes from and who might come looking for it pays off marvelously and I identified with these characters, lower middle class Americans in a so-called flyover state. A rural winter proves atmospheric and was proven to be in a great film adaptation directed by Sam Raimi in 1998. The screenplay was adapted by Smith and I was surprised by how significantly he departed from his source material at the halfway mark while delivering a gut punch in both.
Length: 110,529 words
The novel is the first person account of Hank Mitchell, a thirty-year-old college graduate who married his college girlfriend Sarah. They returned to northwestern Ohio and Hank's hometown of Ashenville to put his degree in business administration to use as an accountant in a feedstore. Hank recalls events that began New Year's Eve 1987, when he waits for his older brother Jacob to pick him up and visit their parents, killed two years ago in a vehicle collision. Though their father specified that his sons visit his gravesite together each year on his birthday, Hank has little contact with Jacob, an unemployed construction worker who lives alone in an apartment over a hardware store.
Jacob arrives with two friends in tow: Lou is an unemployed construction worker with thinly veiled contempt for Hank, and Mary Beth is Jacob's dog. En route to the cemetery, a fox darts in front of the pickup and Mary Beth chases it into a nature preserve. Hardly dressed for a hike through the snow, Hank is sensitive to being teased and joins Jacob and Lou as they follow the tracks. Buried at the bottom of a crevice, the men discover a small plane, which Hank is elected to crawl inside. He finds the pilot, whose eyes have been gouged out by crows, and a duffel bag, which he manages to drag out of the wreckage after a crow flies smack into Hank's forehead. Inside the bag are packets of hundred dollar bills. Hank calculates there might be three million dollars here.
Jacob was still crouched there, the money in his hand. "Put it back, Jacob," I said. He didn't move.
"It's different for you," Lou said. "You've got your job at the feedstore. Jacob and I don't have that. This money'd matter to us."
His voice had edged itself toward a whine, and hearing it, I felt a revelatory flash of power. The dynamic of the relationship had shifted, I realized. I was in control now; I was the spoiler, the one who would decide what happened to the money. I smiled at Lou.
"I'd still get in trouble if you took it. You'd fuck up, and I'd be considered an accomplice."
Jacob started to stand up, then crouched back down again. "Why not take all of it?" he asked, looking from Lou to me.
"All of it?" I said. The idea seemed preposterous, and I started to laugh, but it made my forehead ache. I winced, probing at the bump with my fingers. It was still bleeding a little.
"Just take the bag," he said, "leave the dead guy in there, pretend we were never here."
Lou nodded eagerly, pouncing on the idea. "Split it three ways."
"We'd get caught as soon as you started spending it," I said. "Imagine the three of us suddenly throwing hundred dollar bills around at the stores in town."
Jacob shook his head. "We could wait a while, then leave town, start up new lives."
"A million apiece," Lou said. "Think about it."
"You don't just get away with something like that," I sighed. "You end up doing something stupid, and you get caught."
"Don't you see, Hank?" Jacob asked, his voice rising with impatience. "It's like this money doesn't even exist. No one knows about it but us."
"It's three million dollars, Jacob. It's missing from somewhere. You can't tell me no one's searching for it."
"If people were searching for it, we would've heard by now. There would've been something on the news."
"It's drug money," Lou said. "It's all under the table. The government doesn't know about any of it."
"You don't--" I started, but Lou cut me off.
"Jesus, Hank. All this money staring you right in the face. It's the American dream, and you just want to walk away from it."
"You work for the American dream, Lou. You don't steal it."
"Then this is even better than the American dream."
Hank quickly works out a plan. He insists on holding the stash for six months, until the plane is discovered in the thaw. If no one comes for the money, Hank agrees to split it then, provided they each leave town. Counting it, they find they have $4.4 million. Hank makes Jacob and Lou promise not to speak a word to anyone, and he agrees not to tell Sarah. Returning home, Hank dumps the cash at his wife's feet. Sarah, eight months pregnant with their first child, is skeptical they need the money and believes the risks are too great. Hank promises to burn it at the first sign of trouble and she agrees if he returns $500,000 to the plane to discourage authorities from searching for the money.
On New Years' Day, Hank awakens to find Sarah counting the money. She suggests Hank take Jacob with him when he returns to the plane, in case he or Lou spot Hank's stationwagon out there and gets suspicious, but not to tell them about returning part of the money. Drunk and tired, Jacob is unwilling to walk back to the plane and Hank goes alone. He almost makes it back when he hears a snowmobile. He finds a farmer talking to his brother and watches in horror as Jacob strikes the old timer and kicks him to death. To protect his brother, Hank decides to drive the body into the creek on the snowmobile. When Hank discovers the farmer is still alive, he smothers the man to death.
Hank is relieved when Sarah considers the murder an accident, something that her husband had no control over. The couple begin to worry about Lou, who's told his girlfriend Nancy about the money. In debt, Lou pays Hank a visit late at night and asks for a packet. He reveals that he knows about the murdered farmer. No longer holding leverage over Lou, Hank tells him that he's stashed the money upstate and will divide it up after Sarah's delivery. Meanwhile, Jacob has decided that he wants to use his share to rebuild the family farm. Incredulous, Hank agrees to this if Jacob picks a side and helps him trick Lou into confessing to the farmer's murder on tape, giving Hank some leverage in case Lou tries to turn them in.
"What do you think will happen to him?" Sarah asked.
"To Jacob?"
I sensed her nod in the darkness. We were both on our backs. All the lights were out, and the baby was asleep in her crib. Sarah had forgiven me for lecturing her.
"Maybe he'll buy a farm," I said.
I felt her body go tense beside me. "He can't buy the farm, Hank. If he stays--"
"Not my father's farm. Just any farm. Someplace out west maybe, in Kansas, or Missouri. We could help him set it up."
Even as I spoke, I realized it would never happen. It had been the wine that had allowed me to hope for earlier that evening, but now I was sobering up, seeing things as they actually were rather than as I wished them to be. Jacob knew nothing about agriculture: he'd have just as much of a chance succeeding as a farmer as he would becoming a rock star or an astronaut. It was simply childishness on his part to keep on dreaming of it, a willful sort of naïveté, a denial of who he was.
"Maybe he'll travel," I tried, but I couldn't picture that either--my brother, climbing on and off planes, dragging suitcases through airports, checking into expensive hotels. None of it seemed possible.
"Whatever he does," I said, "things'll be better for him than they are now, don't you think?"
I rolled over onto my side, draping one of my legs across Sarah's body. "Of course," she said. "He'll have one point three million dollars. How could things not be better?"
As compulsively readable as this novel is, what's remarkable about A Simple Plan is how that instead of leaping from one ridiculous plot point to another, it remains grounded. Scott B. Smith, who followed this novel with only one other (The Ruins in 2006) is more interested in the dynamic between two brothers who barely relate to each other but are bound to each other, as well as the bind between husband and wife, and even two drinking buddies, and how the introduction of a cash windfall poisons them. It's a tightly constructed story but one that uses its premise to explore its characters and ask compelling questions about what constitutes happiness for the middle class.
Sarah had received a B.S. in petroleum engineering from the University of Toledo. When I first met her, she was planning on moving down to Texas and landing a high-paying job in the oil industry. She wanted to save up her money and buy a ranch someday, a "spread" she called it, with horses and a head of cattle and her own special brand, an S embedded with a heart. Instead, we got married. I was hired by the feedstore in Ashenville in the spring of my senior year, and suddenly, without really choosing it, she found herself in Delphia. There weren't many openings in northwestern Ohio for someone with an undergraduate degree in petroleum engineering, so she ended up working part-time at the local library. She was a trouper; she always made the best of things, yet there had to be some regret in all this; she had to look back every now and then and mourn the distance that separated her present existence from the one she'd dreamed of as a student. She'd sacrificed something of herself for our relationship, but she'd never attracted attention to it, and so it had seemed natural to me, even inevitable. It wasn't until tonight that I saw it for the tragedy it was.
Now the money had arrived, and she could begin to dream again. She could draw up her wish lists, page through her magazines, plan her new life. It was a nice way to envision her--full of hope and yearning, making promises to herself that she felt certain she could fulfill--but there was also something terribly sad about it. We were trapped, I realized; we'd crossed a boundary, and we couldn't go back. The money, by giving us the chance to dream, had also allowed us to begin despising our present lives. My job at the feedstore, our aluminum-siding house, the town around us--we were already looking upon all that as part of our past. It was what we were before we became millionaires; it was stunted, gray, unlivable. And so if, somehow, we were forced to relinquish the money now, we wouldn't merely be returning to our old lives, starting back up as if nothing of import had happened; we'd be returning having seen them from a distance, having judged them and deemed them unworthy. The damage would be irreparable.
I love Pandora's boxes and A Simple Plan, while having a terrific box, is about the things that can't be put back once they're taken out. The question of where the money comes from and who might come looking for it pays off marvelously and I identified with these characters, lower middle class Americans in a so-called flyover state. A rural winter proves atmospheric and was proven to be in a great film adaptation directed by Sam Raimi in 1998. The screenplay was adapted by Smith and I was surprised by how significantly he departed from his source material at the halfway mark while delivering a gut punch in both.
Length: 110,529 words
March 5, 2014
Hank and Jacob Mitchell and Jacob's friend Lloyd find a crashed plane in the woods. The pilot is dead but he has a duffel bag with 4.4 million dollars in it. The three men agree to sit on the money until they're sure no one is looking for it. But can they keep their mouthes shut? And what will happen when someone talks?
A Simple Plan is the story of three men in a difficult situation that quickly escalates into violence. The underlying theme seems to be how one lie inevitably leads to one more.
The main characters are fairly complex. Hank wants to protect his brother but also wants the money. Jacob wants to buy back his parents' farm with the money but he also wants to please his brother. Lloyd needs the money to pay back some gambling debts and can't wait six months. See where this is going?
Once things start going off the rails, they continue going off the rails for the rest of the book. The first murder is just the tip of the bloody iceberg. How much killing does it take to cover up one murder? Quite a few, it turns out.
Scott Smith's writing packs quite a punch. It's a cut above most thrillers and really makes me wish he wrote more than just this and The Ruins. Much like the Ruins, I wasn't sure how any of the characters would live much longer at the 50% mark.
The series of revelations near the end spell out the book's message: Crime doesn't pay. If I ever find a bag of money in the woods and I have people with me, we're turning it in to the cops. Alone, I could probably handle it...
Four out of five stars. Where's the next book, Smith?
A Simple Plan is the story of three men in a difficult situation that quickly escalates into violence. The underlying theme seems to be how one lie inevitably leads to one more.
The main characters are fairly complex. Hank wants to protect his brother but also wants the money. Jacob wants to buy back his parents' farm with the money but he also wants to please his brother. Lloyd needs the money to pay back some gambling debts and can't wait six months. See where this is going?
Once things start going off the rails, they continue going off the rails for the rest of the book. The first murder is just the tip of the bloody iceberg. How much killing does it take to cover up one murder? Quite a few, it turns out.
Scott Smith's writing packs quite a punch. It's a cut above most thrillers and really makes me wish he wrote more than just this and The Ruins. Much like the Ruins, I wasn't sure how any of the characters would live much longer at the 50% mark.
The series of revelations near the end spell out the book's message: Crime doesn't pay. If I ever find a bag of money in the woods and I have people with me, we're turning it in to the cops. Alone, I could probably handle it...
Four out of five stars. Where's the next book, Smith?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 2, 2021
Scott B. Smith has written only two novels, published 13 years apart. I’ve given them both 5 stars.
He works within specific genres. His novel The Ruins is horror; this book is a crime thriller. And yet both books are so well-written, so smart and feature so much psychological depth that it does them a disservice to call them anything but great literature. He’s that rare literary writer who keeps you turning pages.
A Simple Plan has a simple premise. Three men – accountant Hank, his unemployed brother, Jacob and Jacob’s friend Lou – find $4.4 million in a duffel bag in a small crashed plane in a clearing in a forest. What to do? Tell the sheriff? Divide up the money? It’s probably drug money, so who would it hurt to keep it?
It’s winter in Northern Ohio, and they’ve made tracks getting to the plane. Should they cover up those tracks? Eventually they decide to wait until spring and the plane’s found. If someone comes searching for the money, they can always burn it, right? In the meantime, they shouldn’t say anything to anyone - Lou’s girlfriend, Hank’s wife. They shouldn’t plan on their lives as millionaires.
Easier said than done, isn’t it?
Then things go wrong. They go very. Very. VERY. VEERRRRYYY. WRONG.
As a thriller, Smith knows how to crank up the tension. Even though I had seen the 1998 movie, I was still gripped by the plot. I’d forgotten how things played out. (Note: the book is much, much bloodier, and Jacob is obese in the novel, not the film.)
What really kept me glued to the book, however, was how deep Smith went into his characterizations of Hank and Jacob. There are biblical echoes in their relationship. Think Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau. Think “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
The book is told in the first-person from Hank’s perspective, and one of the most fascinating things is seeing how much Hank changes. It’s no spoiler to say that everything that Hank fears Lou and Jacob will do, he does himself. Your feelings about him will alter throughout the book. And then there’s Hank’s wife, Sarah, who’s pregnant with their first child. Think Lady Macbeth. The finding of the money makes them see things about themselves they were never forced to confront before.
Who knew that a book about crime and punishment could tell you so much about the human condition? Dostoyevsky and Poe, that’s who. And other great writers.
Good luck finding a copy. The Toronto Public Library system has one digital copy and one reference copy. I wouldn’t be surprised if, in another decade or so, A Simple Plan showed up in the out-of-print NYRB Classics line.
Meanwhile, Smith has apparently written a TV series with a political theme. Let’s hope he hasn’t given up on novels.
He works within specific genres. His novel The Ruins is horror; this book is a crime thriller. And yet both books are so well-written, so smart and feature so much psychological depth that it does them a disservice to call them anything but great literature. He’s that rare literary writer who keeps you turning pages.
A Simple Plan has a simple premise. Three men – accountant Hank, his unemployed brother, Jacob and Jacob’s friend Lou – find $4.4 million in a duffel bag in a small crashed plane in a clearing in a forest. What to do? Tell the sheriff? Divide up the money? It’s probably drug money, so who would it hurt to keep it?
It’s winter in Northern Ohio, and they’ve made tracks getting to the plane. Should they cover up those tracks? Eventually they decide to wait until spring and the plane’s found. If someone comes searching for the money, they can always burn it, right? In the meantime, they shouldn’t say anything to anyone - Lou’s girlfriend, Hank’s wife. They shouldn’t plan on their lives as millionaires.
Easier said than done, isn’t it?
Then things go wrong. They go very. Very. VERY. VEERRRRYYY. WRONG.
As a thriller, Smith knows how to crank up the tension. Even though I had seen the 1998 movie, I was still gripped by the plot. I’d forgotten how things played out. (Note: the book is much, much bloodier, and Jacob is obese in the novel, not the film.)
What really kept me glued to the book, however, was how deep Smith went into his characterizations of Hank and Jacob. There are biblical echoes in their relationship. Think Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau. Think “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
The book is told in the first-person from Hank’s perspective, and one of the most fascinating things is seeing how much Hank changes. It’s no spoiler to say that everything that Hank fears Lou and Jacob will do, he does himself. Your feelings about him will alter throughout the book. And then there’s Hank’s wife, Sarah, who’s pregnant with their first child. Think Lady Macbeth. The finding of the money makes them see things about themselves they were never forced to confront before.
Who knew that a book about crime and punishment could tell you so much about the human condition? Dostoyevsky and Poe, that’s who. And other great writers.
Good luck finding a copy. The Toronto Public Library system has one digital copy and one reference copy. I wouldn’t be surprised if, in another decade or so, A Simple Plan showed up in the out-of-print NYRB Classics line.
Meanwhile, Smith has apparently written a TV series with a political theme. Let’s hope he hasn’t given up on novels.
January 4, 2020
Yeah, baby. A step by step descent into a very private hell. Four stars from me. This was a hundred per cent better than most thrillers & crime fiction I ever read because it didn’t ask you to suspend any one tiny part of your disbelief, there were no outrageous circumstances, no floridly crazed villains, no coincidences, no corpse that did not follow on logically from the corpse before it. Scott Smith comes up with a felicitous phrase to describe what I mean on page 237:
It had the disorderly verisimilitude of reality
It’s true we have seen this kind of thing before. The plot is like the almighty screw-ups in Fargo (the movie and the tv series) – and the setting, too, winter in the midwest. The device that kicks all this mayhem off is the same as the one in Charley Varrick and Shallow Grave, two great little movies, and probably many others too – ordinary guys discover a huge bag of money. Will they keep it? Of course! Will they begin to think their pals will betray them & try to steal it all? Sure thing! Will the bad guys whose money this is come looking for it? You betcha. Will things just keep getting more entangled and violent? Need you ask.
As well as a strong plot that drags the reader on to the bitter end, this is also a study in how ordinary people given the right circumstance can find their inner Macbeth quite easily, it’s there inside their minds all the time, waiting to be roused, like a sleeping cobra. When I say ordinary people I mean me and you – yes, you. Everyone is included in this indictment. (Another great demonstration of how an ordinary guy becomes a terrible criminal is Breaking Bad.)
In my second hand copy of A Simple Plan there were a couple of pages with round brown stains on them, drops of something or other. I have not sent them off for laboratory testing yet but if it’s dried blood it would be most appropriate.
It had the disorderly verisimilitude of reality
It’s true we have seen this kind of thing before. The plot is like the almighty screw-ups in Fargo (the movie and the tv series) – and the setting, too, winter in the midwest. The device that kicks all this mayhem off is the same as the one in Charley Varrick and Shallow Grave, two great little movies, and probably many others too – ordinary guys discover a huge bag of money. Will they keep it? Of course! Will they begin to think their pals will betray them & try to steal it all? Sure thing! Will the bad guys whose money this is come looking for it? You betcha. Will things just keep getting more entangled and violent? Need you ask.
As well as a strong plot that drags the reader on to the bitter end, this is also a study in how ordinary people given the right circumstance can find their inner Macbeth quite easily, it’s there inside their minds all the time, waiting to be roused, like a sleeping cobra. When I say ordinary people I mean me and you – yes, you. Everyone is included in this indictment. (Another great demonstration of how an ordinary guy becomes a terrible criminal is Breaking Bad.)
In my second hand copy of A Simple Plan there were a couple of pages with round brown stains on them, drops of something or other. I have not sent them off for laboratory testing yet but if it’s dried blood it would be most appropriate.
September 4, 2014
I am selling this piece back to the used bookstore I got it from--pronto.
*SPOILERS*
I will cut right to it. This is a book with an interesting idea, fascinating plot, but is ruined by characters who are loathesome, less sympathetic than any I have read in my life, and who do absolutely nothing believable. And not only that but I don't believe that any of these crimes could be played out and go over without a hitch the way we are supposed to believe they did, so even from a technical standpoint I don't know how anyone could possibly buy into this garbage.
I keep seeing reviewers stating things about a "slipperly slope" and this is a look at our dark side. No, this does not depict anyone on a slippery slope, or someone who is shocked by their own actions when put in a bad situation. It's not even about a nice, regular guy who gets forced into doing heinous things and is tortured with guilt or emotion. It depicts someone who is supposedly normal and average who leaps head first into being completely inhuman with zero remorse, zero emotion, zero conscience, zero regret. There is no subtle build up, no progression into evil, it's just simply a normal guy who finds money and immediately turns into a serial murderer at the drop of the hat and then is like "huh, I am a killer now. Oh well."
I realize money does weird things to people but this guy and his wife's reactions and actions are not believable on any level--while sure, maybe there are some people who might--MIGHT--do some of the things these two do, I do not believe for one moment that there would ever be two "normal" people on earth who would do what these two did over this money. I get that there have been many deadly duos in real life, don't get me wrong, but not like this. It's as though two sociopaths were simply waiting to be unleashed when the right circumstances came along. And the way the guy talks about his pregnant wife and even the baby before and after it's born...it was enough to make my stomach turn. But not too much because the wife is even crazier than he is.
Then there is the whole segment where he describes in great detail how he could kill his infant and then his wife (oookay, as if the book weren't already atrocious enough we get to read that). And then there is the other segment in which he brutally and slowly kills a dog and buries in like one inch deep--oh, after having kept it tied to a tree for weeks with rotting sores all over its body out in the snow. YAY for even more beyond inhumane actions. And then the wife cooing "Bye bye, doggie! Bye bye..." to the baby when the husband takes it out to kill it. WTF, really?
I have never read a book and felt SO unattached to the characters nor have I read a book and felt the characters were so utterly absurdly written that I couldn't believe a thing they did and could not have cared less about their fate--well, that's not true...I wanted them to die. There is no one to root for in the book. Only after Jacob and Lou are killed do we even realize that THEY were the most likable people in the story...which ain't sayin' much.
Speaking of sociopaths, I think the author might be one! As to the hundreds of glowing reviews...I don't know what to say except how sad it is that there are so many people in the world who feel this is quality reading on any level. And how incredibly lucky the author is that so many people found this to be "amazing." Birdcage liner...right here.
*SPOILERS*
I will cut right to it. This is a book with an interesting idea, fascinating plot, but is ruined by characters who are loathesome, less sympathetic than any I have read in my life, and who do absolutely nothing believable. And not only that but I don't believe that any of these crimes could be played out and go over without a hitch the way we are supposed to believe they did, so even from a technical standpoint I don't know how anyone could possibly buy into this garbage.
I keep seeing reviewers stating things about a "slipperly slope" and this is a look at our dark side. No, this does not depict anyone on a slippery slope, or someone who is shocked by their own actions when put in a bad situation. It's not even about a nice, regular guy who gets forced into doing heinous things and is tortured with guilt or emotion. It depicts someone who is supposedly normal and average who leaps head first into being completely inhuman with zero remorse, zero emotion, zero conscience, zero regret. There is no subtle build up, no progression into evil, it's just simply a normal guy who finds money and immediately turns into a serial murderer at the drop of the hat and then is like "huh, I am a killer now. Oh well."
I realize money does weird things to people but this guy and his wife's reactions and actions are not believable on any level--while sure, maybe there are some people who might--MIGHT--do some of the things these two do, I do not believe for one moment that there would ever be two "normal" people on earth who would do what these two did over this money. I get that there have been many deadly duos in real life, don't get me wrong, but not like this. It's as though two sociopaths were simply waiting to be unleashed when the right circumstances came along. And the way the guy talks about his pregnant wife and even the baby before and after it's born...it was enough to make my stomach turn. But not too much because the wife is even crazier than he is.
Then there is the whole segment where he describes in great detail how he could kill his infant and then his wife (oookay, as if the book weren't already atrocious enough we get to read that). And then there is the other segment in which he brutally and slowly kills a dog and buries in like one inch deep--oh, after having kept it tied to a tree for weeks with rotting sores all over its body out in the snow. YAY for even more beyond inhumane actions. And then the wife cooing "Bye bye, doggie! Bye bye..." to the baby when the husband takes it out to kill it. WTF, really?
I have never read a book and felt SO unattached to the characters nor have I read a book and felt the characters were so utterly absurdly written that I couldn't believe a thing they did and could not have cared less about their fate--well, that's not true...I wanted them to die. There is no one to root for in the book. Only after Jacob and Lou are killed do we even realize that THEY were the most likable people in the story...which ain't sayin' much.
Speaking of sociopaths, I think the author might be one! As to the hundreds of glowing reviews...I don't know what to say except how sad it is that there are so many people in the world who feel this is quality reading on any level. And how incredibly lucky the author is that so many people found this to be "amazing." Birdcage liner...right here.
November 7, 2014
If you found four million dollars, what choices would you make? Keep it?, Return it?
What if there were two others with you when you found it and you were always the odd man out in your little group, yet were suddenly handed over the controls? How would it change you? Are you up to the responsibility?
One of the other two people is your brother, but he’s weak and unreliable and the other is a gambler and a drunk. Can you trust them?
If you keep the money, how far would you go not to give it up? Would you lie, cheat, possibly kill?
What makes this an effective thriller is that all of these questions are addressed at one time or another by the narrator and choices are made based on the given circumstances. The narrator tries to deal with the fallout from his decisions - rationalize his actions and bury the guilt. Coping and trying to move on, making excuses, but always with the memory of heinous acts just below the surface. What pulls you in is that this is an average Joe taking a route that you might take if confronted with the same challenges.
What if there were two others with you when you found it and you were always the odd man out in your little group, yet were suddenly handed over the controls? How would it change you? Are you up to the responsibility?
One of the other two people is your brother, but he’s weak and unreliable and the other is a gambler and a drunk. Can you trust them?
If you keep the money, how far would you go not to give it up? Would you lie, cheat, possibly kill?
What makes this an effective thriller is that all of these questions are addressed at one time or another by the narrator and choices are made based on the given circumstances. The narrator tries to deal with the fallout from his decisions - rationalize his actions and bury the guilt. Coping and trying to move on, making excuses, but always with the memory of heinous acts just below the surface. What pulls you in is that this is an average Joe taking a route that you might take if confronted with the same challenges.
July 6, 2023
El libro está bien escrito y tengo que reconocer que la trama nace de un supuesto interesante. Dos hermanos que se llevan mal y el amigo de uno de ellos se encuentran una gran cantidad de dinero. Uno de los hermanos es alcohólico, igual que su amigo. El otro hermano tiene una vida acomodada.
Pero lo que nace de una buena premisa desemboca en unas decisiones estúpidas y irracionales y eso ha hecho que mi lectura fuera poco placentera.
Para poner un ejemplo que no es de la novela: si uno roba un banco, lo que no puede hacer nunca jamás es, al día siguiente, volver a robar el mismo banco. Es una tontería.
Bueno, aún así, la novela es interesante.
------------------------------------
The book is well written and I have to admit that the plot stems from an interesting assumption. Two brothers who dislike each other and the friend of one of them come across a large amount of money. One of the brothers is an alcoholic, just like his friend. The other brother has an affluent life.
But what is born out of a good premise leads to stupid and irrational decisions and that made my reading unpleasant.
To give an example not from the novel: if you rob a bank, what you can never ever do is, the next day, rob the same bank again. It's nonsense.
Well, even so, the novel is interesting.
Pero lo que nace de una buena premisa desemboca en unas decisiones estúpidas y irracionales y eso ha hecho que mi lectura fuera poco placentera.
Para poner un ejemplo que no es de la novela: si uno roba un banco, lo que no puede hacer nunca jamás es, al día siguiente, volver a robar el mismo banco. Es una tontería.
Bueno, aún así, la novela es interesante.
------------------------------------
The book is well written and I have to admit that the plot stems from an interesting assumption. Two brothers who dislike each other and the friend of one of them come across a large amount of money. One of the brothers is an alcoholic, just like his friend. The other brother has an affluent life.
But what is born out of a good premise leads to stupid and irrational decisions and that made my reading unpleasant.
To give an example not from the novel: if you rob a bank, what you can never ever do is, the next day, rob the same bank again. It's nonsense.
Well, even so, the novel is interesting.
September 17, 2023
The story in this book started out like a snowball at the top of a mountain that gained momentum on its way down the slope gathering more and more snow as it went along until it was a full-blown avalanche.
Like Murphy's Law - "what can go wrong, will go wrong" - this story kept taking a turn for the worse when two brothers and a friend find $4 million in a downed plane.
A very well-written suspense novel that began with a simple plan.
Now I have to watch the movie.
Highly recommended.
Like Murphy's Law - "what can go wrong, will go wrong" - this story kept taking a turn for the worse when two brothers and a friend find $4 million in a downed plane.
A very well-written suspense novel that began with a simple plan.
Now I have to watch the movie.
Highly recommended.
September 26, 2024
4.5 ⭐'s
“And it was like magic, too, like a gift from the gods, the ease with which a solution came to me, a simple plan, a way to keep the money without fear of getting caught.”
Initial Thoughts
I've not been as full on with my reading in 2024. Not saying I've fell out of love with the written word, but I've had other things filling my time. But that's OK. Variety is the spice of life and all that.
But I needed a book to take on holiday to Orlando and give me something to do on that long flight and while waiting in those theme park queues. Step forward Mr Scott Smith and his first novel...A Simple Plan.
I had already heard of him due to being a big horror fan and the buzz around his other book...he's only written two...The Ruins. Not read that one yet, but if I enjoy this one I'll definitely give it a whirl. So let's see if I do...
The Story
This one kicks off on New Year's Eve with brothers, Hank and Jacob Mitchell, and the latter's best friend Lou. They're out for a drive when Jacob's dog, Mary Beth, who jumps out the truck and bolts into the nearby woods to chase a fox.
What the men discover in that forrest is a crashed aircraft containing dead men and a bag full of cash. 4.4 million to be exact. They then do what any upstanding citizen would in the circumstances...everything in their power to keep the money.
Hank does have reservations about keeping the millions, but it doesn't take him long to get on board with Lou and Jacob, who are desperate to keep it. Greed will do that to you. However, he has a few conditions for them that they are compelled to agree to.
Will it be enough to see them through without being caught...well who am I to spoil the surprise. It's a simple premise but the outcome is anything but. You've got one hell of a ride in store for you.
The Writing
What you have with A Simple Plan is a pretty basic story told very, very effectively. If I could pick one thing to focus on with the plot, out of many positives, it's the pacing. The way Smith slowly cranks up the pressure throughout is nothing short of exceptional. Expertly done.
The narrative is fast paced and has you on the edge of your seat (or toilet if you do your reading on there). It's one hell of a page turner. Once it gets rolling it's absolutely relentless and takes you to some very dark places. I've already said that I've not been reading as heavily in 2024 and this was just what I needed. I couldn't put it down.
Smith also paints a brilliant picture of small town life and the people who inhabit it with his words. For an author with only two novels to his name, I was shocked at his ability to create atmosphere, which is constantly tense. I recently finished a David Baladacci book and Smith is in a different league from him based on this performance.
The Characters
With so many fatal errors, it's not hard to put yourself in the characters shoes and relate to all the stress that hits them. Would you kill an acquaintance for a million dollars? How about to protect a loved one? Now you begin to understand, it's not as clear cuts as you first thought. And this is certainly the moral conundrum the author wants his reader to consider.
The depiction and level of depth of the three main characters (four counting Sarah) made them so compelling and real that they worked their way inside my head and actually had me feeling sorry for them. Despite the evil things that they do.
The story is told from Hank's perspective, i.e. in first person, and he's portrayed as your average, family orientated, likeable, generic type of guy. And this is a great choice by Smith, as it allows you to put yourself in his place. The way he remains a pretty sympathetic character throughout the story is a real achievement. Because his descent into savagery and madness, with the drive and direction of his good lady wife, is almost on a MacBeth level. I bet you didn't know I've read Shakespeare!
You start off rooting for him to get away with it and it's hard to shake that feeling, even when things get progressively worse. And then you start to feel slightly disappointed when bad things happen to him. Every time Smith's characters thought they were doing something to solve their problems they only made things worse.
Is Hank a victim of circumstance or a truly evil person? Does he have a choice? He may do some horrific things, but he’s still a normal guy caught up in extraordinary circumstances. He constant tries to justify the monstrous acts by convincing himself he has a choice. But I'm not buying it. The questions is...will you?
Hanks relationship with his brother Jacob is also intriguing. They share a dysfunctional relationship, not having a hell of a lot in common. That's despite living in the same town. I hope my brother doesn't read this but it reminded me a lot of our relationship. Jacob is one of life's under achievers, while Hank is doing OK in his life. However, the only real bright spark in his life is his pregnant wife Sarah.
Final Thoughts
A Simple Plan is more than you’re average crime novel. Much more. It's a tale of greed, fear, betrayal and murder. It really is like one of those Shakespearean tragedies for the modern audience. I know there's a movie starring Billy Bob Thornton and Jim Paxton and after enjoying this so much, I'm severely tempted to watch it.
A simple Plan definitely added a little bit extra to an amazing holiday. And for that I am thankful. A big shout out to Scott Smith. I'm definitely going to read his other novel, The Ruins, at some point. But after that where do I go? I really wish he would write more crime novels. You can't have too much of a good thing, despite what they tell you.
And on that note. Thanks for reading and...cheers!
March 22, 2012
Reading this novel is like watching a trainwreck taking place: you know it's terrible, you know you shouldn't do it, but somehow you can't look away from it taking place; its as if your eyes have been glued to the train and carriages, losing touch with the track, falling out, being squashed and destroyed, all with the incredibly loud and draining sound of screeching and bending metal. You look at the solid, rectangular shapes being transformed into crushed masses of steel, thrown around like they were miniature toys, as if some invisible God took to them in a moment of incredible and hopeless fury.
The title of the book accurately describes its premise: In winter, three men stumble upon a wreckage of a small plane in the woods outside their city. Curious, they decide to investigate: one of the men peers inside, and sees that the pilot is dead. He notices a small duffle bag near the body, and takes it out. Of course, they open it and peer inside: what they find is 4,4 million dollars in packets of hundred dollar bills. They make a decision to keep the money; all agree on a simple plan to do nothing and just wait for six months and see if anyone would be looking for the money when the plane is discovered in spring. If not, then they will split it adequately and quietly leave town; if yes, the money will be burned to keep them out of trouble. Nothing to lose, but a lot to gain.
A Simple Plan is narrated in the first person by Hank Mitchell, an accountant, husband, and soon to be father. His partners in crime are Jacob, his brother, and Lou, their mutual acquaintance. The setting is a small town of Ashenville, Northern Ohio. As one involved with money on a daily basis, Hank takes charge and takes the bag, intending to keep it. He'll either split it after six months, if there's no mention of missing money anywhere, or burn it immediately if there is. Only it's never this easy, is it? Another allegory with which the novel can be described is a domino sequence, one which goes through a spiral, lower and lower. The decision to keep the money is knocking over the first piece of the domino; the rest will soon follow.
There is an incredible feeling of bleak hopelesness in this novel, right from the first sentence, where Hank describes the dreadful death of his parents in a car accident. Although he is married and lives comfortably well with an attractive wife, with whom he is expecting their first child, there is a general aura of unhappiness about him and the whole town of Ashfield. The greyness and mundanity of the region, where seemingly nothing happens, at least nothing of importance. Everything irrevocable changes for the three men when they decide to take the bag; they are now on something together, are a part of a scheme, even if it involves doing nothing at all. However, they have set something in motion; The butterfly has flapped its wings, the wind has been stirred.
The first person narration allows the reader almost unlimited access to Hank's mind. We're both able and limited to seeing things the way he sees them. We see how he makes decision after decision, how he tries to find a best way out of the situations he find himself in, and how he tries to rationalize and justify his actions. It becomes obvious that A Simple Plan is not a simple thriller, as it might suggest, but a quite complex moral tale; where each decision has multiple consequences, each complicating the events further.
An Amazon reviewer called the novel "macbeth in Midwest", and the comparison is very apt. It also reminded me of one of my favorite old movies, "The Treasure of Sierra Madre", which is notable for having Humphrey Bogart in his only role as an unlikable character. The plot of the novel is simple enough, but what makes it unique is that it gives us a chance to see inside the mind of a person whose life has been completely turned upside down in one moment, and see how far he is going to go as the situation develops. These characters are people who could be you or me; they just happened to be in one place at a certain time. It could happen to any of us; Scott Smith doesn't build a complex mystery, or center his book around action scenes. Its plot is simple - three guys find a bag full of money. Its tension almost entirely inside the mind. It's the mind that is most fascinating in this novel, the mind of Hank, his wife, his brother and Lou. What will they do with the bag? What would you do?
A Simple Plan is a stylish debut in the vein of Dennis Lehane, unique, complex and memorable. I could barely put it down as I was reading it, and it will stay with me for a long time. It is simply so relatable; it is impossible not to relate to the characters and their discovery, not to put yourself in their place, wondering what would you do in their situation. This is what makes it terrifying. As Hank says: "'It all makes sense. It all happened one thing after the other."
The title of the book accurately describes its premise: In winter, three men stumble upon a wreckage of a small plane in the woods outside their city. Curious, they decide to investigate: one of the men peers inside, and sees that the pilot is dead. He notices a small duffle bag near the body, and takes it out. Of course, they open it and peer inside: what they find is 4,4 million dollars in packets of hundred dollar bills. They make a decision to keep the money; all agree on a simple plan to do nothing and just wait for six months and see if anyone would be looking for the money when the plane is discovered in spring. If not, then they will split it adequately and quietly leave town; if yes, the money will be burned to keep them out of trouble. Nothing to lose, but a lot to gain.
A Simple Plan is narrated in the first person by Hank Mitchell, an accountant, husband, and soon to be father. His partners in crime are Jacob, his brother, and Lou, their mutual acquaintance. The setting is a small town of Ashenville, Northern Ohio. As one involved with money on a daily basis, Hank takes charge and takes the bag, intending to keep it. He'll either split it after six months, if there's no mention of missing money anywhere, or burn it immediately if there is. Only it's never this easy, is it? Another allegory with which the novel can be described is a domino sequence, one which goes through a spiral, lower and lower. The decision to keep the money is knocking over the first piece of the domino; the rest will soon follow.
There is an incredible feeling of bleak hopelesness in this novel, right from the first sentence, where Hank describes the dreadful death of his parents in a car accident. Although he is married and lives comfortably well with an attractive wife, with whom he is expecting their first child, there is a general aura of unhappiness about him and the whole town of Ashfield. The greyness and mundanity of the region, where seemingly nothing happens, at least nothing of importance. Everything irrevocable changes for the three men when they decide to take the bag; they are now on something together, are a part of a scheme, even if it involves doing nothing at all. However, they have set something in motion; The butterfly has flapped its wings, the wind has been stirred.
The first person narration allows the reader almost unlimited access to Hank's mind. We're both able and limited to seeing things the way he sees them. We see how he makes decision after decision, how he tries to find a best way out of the situations he find himself in, and how he tries to rationalize and justify his actions. It becomes obvious that A Simple Plan is not a simple thriller, as it might suggest, but a quite complex moral tale; where each decision has multiple consequences, each complicating the events further.
An Amazon reviewer called the novel "macbeth in Midwest", and the comparison is very apt. It also reminded me of one of my favorite old movies, "The Treasure of Sierra Madre", which is notable for having Humphrey Bogart in his only role as an unlikable character. The plot of the novel is simple enough, but what makes it unique is that it gives us a chance to see inside the mind of a person whose life has been completely turned upside down in one moment, and see how far he is going to go as the situation develops. These characters are people who could be you or me; they just happened to be in one place at a certain time. It could happen to any of us; Scott Smith doesn't build a complex mystery, or center his book around action scenes. Its plot is simple - three guys find a bag full of money. Its tension almost entirely inside the mind. It's the mind that is most fascinating in this novel, the mind of Hank, his wife, his brother and Lou. What will they do with the bag? What would you do?
A Simple Plan is a stylish debut in the vein of Dennis Lehane, unique, complex and memorable. I could barely put it down as I was reading it, and it will stay with me for a long time. It is simply so relatable; it is impossible not to relate to the characters and their discovery, not to put yourself in their place, wondering what would you do in their situation. This is what makes it terrifying. As Hank says: "'It all makes sense. It all happened one thing after the other."
February 6, 2025
How far ordinary people would go for money? Will it pay off?
This book is a very interesting study of bad decisions and worse judgement. Pretty bleak but worth it.
This book is a very interesting study of bad decisions and worse judgement. Pretty bleak but worth it.
June 10, 2014
I liked this book a lot!
It was very easy to identify with Hank, the protagonist of this story. Imagine that you and your two siblings find a bag full of money in a plane that crashed that no one has yet discovered. Would you keep it or not? That is the gist of this story.
Just think about how one simple lie in your life could spiral out of control...into more lies and things MUCH worse than that, even. That's exactly what happened here, It was very easy to take the next step with Hank, and then the next, and so on. At first, the reader feels sorry for him, but not for long as he tangles himself up further and further by the minute. The last quarter of this book turned into a nightmare from which I could not pull myself away. I did feel that the last scenes slightly stepped over the line of believability and for that I deducted one star.
Overall, I enjoyed this story quite a bit and would recommend it to anyone that enjoys a fast paced thriller with some blood and gore. Good times, good times.
It was very easy to identify with Hank, the protagonist of this story. Imagine that you and your two siblings find a bag full of money in a plane that crashed that no one has yet discovered. Would you keep it or not? That is the gist of this story.
Just think about how one simple lie in your life could spiral out of control...into more lies and things MUCH worse than that, even. That's exactly what happened here, It was very easy to take the next step with Hank, and then the next, and so on. At first, the reader feels sorry for him, but not for long as he tangles himself up further and further by the minute. The last quarter of this book turned into a nightmare from which I could not pull myself away. I did feel that the last scenes slightly stepped over the line of believability and for that I deducted one star.
Overall, I enjoyed this story quite a bit and would recommend it to anyone that enjoys a fast paced thriller with some blood and gore. Good times, good times.
March 12, 2025
See, I’m still reading novels. It’s not all Ninja Turtles parodies and challenge-padding novelty books. I just haven’t been able to sit down and polish a decent in-depth analysis lately.
Review to come. I mean it this time.
Review to come. I mean it this time.
February 8, 2022
Probably one of my favorite human-failings novels read this century. I wish you'd all read it, every last one of you on English-speaking Goodreads (I don't think it's been translated), and go watch the 1998 film which I myownself would give 4/5 stars to as well. You can tell it's older, because $4MM is a LOT of money to these guys. Now, it's "maybe we can retire if we get greeter jobs, Eula" money.
November 23, 2023
This is my second time with creating a review Of this book. I had deleted my 1st posted review. I just did not wish to remember any part of this book, but then I realized that I don't remember most of the books that I have read. I don't even remember Cormac McCarthy's books. I do know that this book is nothing like Cormac McCarthy's book, no country for old men. The only similarity is that money was found and taken. Cormac McCarthy never ever went into the details of killing a man. This author does. It made me feel sick and gave me a headache. I gave up on it for several hours, then I was too curious. I will never read another book by him. I am sticking with lighter reads.
Hank and his brother Jacob and friend took a walk in the woods. They were looking for Jacob's dog. What they found was a down airplane In the airplane they found a dead man whose eyes had been picked out by a crow. The same crow Picked hank in the forehead, right in the middle of the forehead wear his 3rd eye is located. He did not see god instead he saw the devil. Then they found a bag full of money. $4,000,000. Hank wanted nothing to Do with the money, but then they showed the money to him. That is when the devil entered into his 3rd eye and into his heart. They took the money. And then hank descended into hell.
Hank and his brother Jacob and friend took a walk in the woods. They were looking for Jacob's dog. What they found was a down airplane In the airplane they found a dead man whose eyes had been picked out by a crow. The same crow Picked hank in the forehead, right in the middle of the forehead wear his 3rd eye is located. He did not see god instead he saw the devil. Then they found a bag full of money. $4,000,000. Hank wanted nothing to Do with the money, but then they showed the money to him. That is when the devil entered into his 3rd eye and into his heart. They took the money. And then hank descended into hell.
February 27, 2024
“By doing one wrong thing, I thought I could make everything right.”
― Scott B. Smith, A Simple Plan
SPOILERS:
Well there is always that one person who just wonders what he or she missed..and with this book that person is me.
I am going against the grain here. I did not love it. Liked it..yes. Held my attention..yes. Was it well written and atmospheric? Yes. Was there a great moral message? Yes.But I did not find this book to be amazing or anything. I skimmed some reviews and there are others who feel as I do..but I still feel I am missing something.
So I have now read this twice. I get the message and I think it is a good one. What I do not get..and several reviewers touched on it..is what we the reader are supposed to believe.
I had a tough time believing two things. Point one..this guy, with no priors, no history, suddenly becomes a crazy serial killer..I mean yes, I know people can, and will, do anything for money But a massive killing spree, including strangers and family members does not strike me as in keeping with this guy's character.
Number two..he gets away with it? That I do not buy. Is is impossible for me to believe that he Machetes a woman in a convenience store and the police cannot figure anything out. So now we must also believe this guy has committed the perfect crime..over and over again .
And suddenly the wife too, is in on it. The whole thing became really far fetched for me. I think the writing is wonderful which is why I am giving it a 3. I just do not buy into the story. It got more and more insane and skepticism soon got me. There was no tinge of reality all through.
And one star automatically taken off for what happens to the dog.
So..sorry. It was a good book that you cannot put down once you start but I really did not like it all that much for all the reasons listed.
― Scott B. Smith, A Simple Plan
SPOILERS:
Well there is always that one person who just wonders what he or she missed..and with this book that person is me.
I am going against the grain here. I did not love it. Liked it..yes. Held my attention..yes. Was it well written and atmospheric? Yes. Was there a great moral message? Yes.But I did not find this book to be amazing or anything. I skimmed some reviews and there are others who feel as I do..but I still feel I am missing something.
So I have now read this twice. I get the message and I think it is a good one. What I do not get..and several reviewers touched on it..is what we the reader are supposed to believe.
I had a tough time believing two things. Point one..this guy, with no priors, no history, suddenly becomes a crazy serial killer..I mean yes, I know people can, and will, do anything for money But a massive killing spree, including strangers and family members does not strike me as in keeping with this guy's character.
Number two..he gets away with it? That I do not buy. Is is impossible for me to believe that he Machetes a woman in a convenience store and the police cannot figure anything out. So now we must also believe this guy has committed the perfect crime..over and over again .
And suddenly the wife too, is in on it. The whole thing became really far fetched for me. I think the writing is wonderful which is why I am giving it a 3. I just do not buy into the story. It got more and more insane and skepticism soon got me. There was no tinge of reality all through.
And one star automatically taken off for what happens to the dog.
So..sorry. It was a good book that you cannot put down once you start but I really did not like it all that much for all the reasons listed.
October 22, 2025
"A Simple Plan" is a simple plot: man finds a bag of money in a prop-plane that crashes in the woods. The pilot is dead. What would you do?
For a simple plot, Scott Smith's debut 1993 novel is riveting and intense. The man takes the bag of money and hides it at home. He and his young wife decide to sit on it for a while. Then, the man's brother finds out.
Nothing about what happens next is simple. In fact, it gets complicated quickly. And, tragically, bloody. It's almost biblical.
This book spawned rave reviews from Stephen King and, a few years later, a film adaptation directed by Sam Raimi starring Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton, and Bridget Fonda. Strangely enough, Smith has, to date, written only one other novel.
For a simple plot, Scott Smith's debut 1993 novel is riveting and intense. The man takes the bag of money and hides it at home. He and his young wife decide to sit on it for a while. Then, the man's brother finds out.
Nothing about what happens next is simple. In fact, it gets complicated quickly. And, tragically, bloody. It's almost biblical.
This book spawned rave reviews from Stephen King and, a few years later, a film adaptation directed by Sam Raimi starring Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton, and Bridget Fonda. Strangely enough, Smith has, to date, written only one other novel.
August 8, 2018
2.5-3/5*
how to get away with murder ...or commit even more unnecessary murders ;p
ένα απλό σχέδιο που έμπαζε από παντού νερά ή αλλιώς το άκρων άωτον της χαζομάρας
how to get away with murder ...or commit even more unnecessary murders ;p
ένα απλό σχέδιο που έμπαζε από παντού νερά ή αλλιώς το άκρων άωτον της χαζομάρας
January 29, 2020
When 3 men stumble upon a downed plane in the middle of a field, their lives are changed forever. Their fates decided and forever intertwined. For inside that plane lies a dead pilot and a duffle bag full of money. How much money? Approximately $4.5 million total.
What would you do? Turn it in? Call the police? Keep it?
Hank, his brother Jacob and his brother’s best friend Lou are faced with this dilemna. After counting the money on the side of the road and discussing it they formulate a plan- a simple one. Hank, the “reasonable accountant” will hold on to the money for 6 months. If nothing comes of the downed plane, or missing $4.5 million, they’ll split the money amongst themselves and go their separate ways.
But things are never that simple, are they?
After agreeing to not tell their significant others, Hank immediately tells his wife Sarah. Lou tells his as well. Jacob, the loner, has no one to share the secret with. Lou is a heavy drinker, has a bit of a gambling problem and a big mouth to boot. He mentions to another buddy that he’s coming into some money. The fear of being caught and the paranoia that follows lead to a whole new chain of events that none of them foresaw.
The saying is typically said incorrectly that money is the root of all evil. It’s the greed of money that is the root of evil. The desire to keep this money, the future it held for them all leads this group down a very dangerous and evil path. They make decisions before thinking through their options. They are ruthless and stop at nothing to protect their stake in the money.
It’s easy for me to sit in my relatively comfortable life to think that I could do the right thing. That I would see that bag full of money and call in to report it. But seeing all that money would probably trigger some deeply rooted longing in me. A longing stemmed from a childhood of growing up without all the new and flashy things my friends had. But the reality is we really don’t know what we would do if faced with this kind of money or what decisions we would make thereafter. This was a pantless buddy read with some great friends that had us all in heated(friendly heated, of course!) discussion. Exactly the type of book that makes reading with a group so much fun!
What would you do? Turn it in? Call the police? Keep it?
Hank, his brother Jacob and his brother’s best friend Lou are faced with this dilemna. After counting the money on the side of the road and discussing it they formulate a plan- a simple one. Hank, the “reasonable accountant” will hold on to the money for 6 months. If nothing comes of the downed plane, or missing $4.5 million, they’ll split the money amongst themselves and go their separate ways.
But things are never that simple, are they?
After agreeing to not tell their significant others, Hank immediately tells his wife Sarah. Lou tells his as well. Jacob, the loner, has no one to share the secret with. Lou is a heavy drinker, has a bit of a gambling problem and a big mouth to boot. He mentions to another buddy that he’s coming into some money. The fear of being caught and the paranoia that follows lead to a whole new chain of events that none of them foresaw.
The saying is typically said incorrectly that money is the root of all evil. It’s the greed of money that is the root of evil. The desire to keep this money, the future it held for them all leads this group down a very dangerous and evil path. They make decisions before thinking through their options. They are ruthless and stop at nothing to protect their stake in the money.
It’s easy for me to sit in my relatively comfortable life to think that I could do the right thing. That I would see that bag full of money and call in to report it. But seeing all that money would probably trigger some deeply rooted longing in me. A longing stemmed from a childhood of growing up without all the new and flashy things my friends had. But the reality is we really don’t know what we would do if faced with this kind of money or what decisions we would make thereafter. This was a pantless buddy read with some great friends that had us all in heated(friendly heated, of course!) discussion. Exactly the type of book that makes reading with a group so much fun!
July 5, 2016
9/10
Shit balls! Was this a good read or what?! This is one of those books where you genuinely can't stop reading and need to find out what is going on and how things are going to end. The best part about this book and the questions it poses are that its happening to regular folk who aren't all that dissimilar to yourself/people you know. How would you/they react in that situation.
If someone said to me, "you can find $4m with some friends but all you have to do is wait to spend it" I'd sign up straightaway. If they then added a bit of pressure to that saying that some of you started acting strange or whisper together and make you feel paranoid how would you react? It's $4m! I can handle a bit of backstabbing and bitching for that amount. Could you go a step further, live with lies and try to keep up with them. Get everyone else on board with the lies and keep covering things up with more lies. Is that a policeman staring at me a little too long, does he know I've got some ill gotten gains? Damn, I'm starting to sweat. Maybe folks like me aren't meant for this life of deceit!
This is both a well written story with complex characters. Hank, the main character, seems like an ordinary Joe but you soon see there are more layers to him than first thought . Sarah, Hank's wife, is also a flawed character who ends up in a very different light to what you first see. In fact, everyone who is in this story has more than one side to them and this is one of the key reasons why I liked this so much. I revise my original statement, this is a seriously well written novel. One of the best I've read this year and in a long while.
Shit balls! Was this a good read or what?! This is one of those books where you genuinely can't stop reading and need to find out what is going on and how things are going to end. The best part about this book and the questions it poses are that its happening to regular folk who aren't all that dissimilar to yourself/people you know. How would you/they react in that situation.
If someone said to me, "you can find $4m with some friends but all you have to do is wait to spend it" I'd sign up straightaway. If they then added a bit of pressure to that saying that some of you started acting strange or whisper together and make you feel paranoid how would you react? It's $4m! I can handle a bit of backstabbing and bitching for that amount. Could you go a step further, live with lies and try to keep up with them. Get everyone else on board with the lies and keep covering things up with more lies. Is that a policeman staring at me a little too long, does he know I've got some ill gotten gains? Damn, I'm starting to sweat. Maybe folks like me aren't meant for this life of deceit!
This is both a well written story with complex characters. Hank, the main character, seems like an ordinary Joe but you soon see there are more layers to him than first thought . Sarah, Hank's wife, is also a flawed character who ends up in a very different light to what you first see. In fact, everyone who is in this story has more than one side to them and this is one of the key reasons why I liked this so much. I revise my original statement, this is a seriously well written novel. One of the best I've read this year and in a long while.
July 24, 2019
this is a good one!
February 2, 2020
Another sans pantalon buddy read with the squad. Last summer we read The Ruins which I quite enjoyed, and so now, we're coming back to the beginning and reading Smith's first book. And OOF. It's a doozy.
If you have lived under a rock for the last 25 years or so, the premise here is that 3 guys find a plane with a whole lotta money in it, and instead of turning it in, decide to hold onto it for 6 months until they know whether anyone's looking for it or not. If not, they split it up and go their separate ways. If so, they burn it and go back to their lives.
The book's title is not misleading - it is a simple plan, but it takes a hard right immediately out of the gate and just keeps going sideways from there. There's an old saying: Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead. And I feel like this book is why that saying exists. They each swear secrecy oaths, and then immediately break them, and predictably, things don't go well.
I honestly wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I thought that it was going to be a "No Country For Old Men" style tale of stealing from the wrong people, but this was far more mundane than that. This was just a couple of regular guys who stumble on a windfall and make all the wrong decisions about how to deal with it. But I think that it was actually a better book for not being more McCarthyesque. It's a book about regular people. Could be anyone, people. What would you do to avoid losing everything?
I'm unsure how to review this, actually, because I'm seriously torn on how I felt about it. I came to almost hate reading it. I wanted nothing more than for it to be over, but it just kept... on... going... and getting more and more fucked with every single page. But at the same time, I couldn't look away. I kinda had to know how it would all play out. And even though the characters were absolutely beyond maddeningly stupid and horrible... I believed them.
So how do I rate this?
Do I rate on enjoyability? Because this was most definitely NOT enjoyable for me. Each page was a new dread, a new frustration, a new low. Every page I thought "These people CAN'T be this stupid and terrible... can they?" (They can.) Over and over and over again they proved it. Every new situation, every new problem, every new plan dug their hole deeper and deeper. It was difficult to read, because I just did not like any of the characters. I actively disliked 90% of them, and the remainders I just felt sad for. One of the characters in particular broke my heart a couple times, and the way that things played out was just brutal and horrific.
- Do I rate on believability? But... it was believable. There's a section toward the end of the book where one of the characters lays things out in a linear path: Z was caused by Y which was caused by X which was caused by W... and so on. And it was believable that he would see it in that way, though, as an outsider looking in on the situation, we could see all of the branches in the path that weren't taken. But from HIS point of view, there were two options: Risk it all AND lose everything or risk it all and potentially be rich, which equates to free. And the desire for that freedom was greater than anything he ever realized.
- Do I rate on discussability? Because this is infinitely discussable. These characters only seem superficial, but there are layers to them. We only get this book from a single perspective (unlike The Ruins which was from multiple POVs), so we have a bit of an unreliable narrator situation going on here. How much do we trust Hank's perspective? He doesn't even really seem to understand himself sometimes. Obviously, he thinks of himself as a good man, but he did things in this book that were horrific and abhorrent, and easily justified them as being necessary. He had a difficult, obligatory relationship with his brother, and very much resented him for it. But it's more than just two men who don't really have anything in common and therefore don't get along well. It went back to their childhood, and Hank would often think back on how his brother was bullied for his weight as though he's remembering what the event that started WWII was. It has no resonance with him, no meaning. It's just a thing that happened in the past.
Was Hank's relationship to his brother a product of a father who had so little regard or care for his own wife that he would hold a lifelong grudge against her for calling an ambulance when she thought he had a serious accident but only ended up with a broken nose... and his friends on the volunteer fire/rescue squad ribbed him a bit for it? Could be. Or maybe he just has trouble relating to people and other lives in general. He had to be coerced into a promise to be with his brother once a year to visit their father's grave. He certainly seems to have trouble bonding with his daughter, and repeatedly thinks of her during his wife's pregnancy and after as a sort of parasite feeding off of the mother. But then there are times when he seems to have glimmers of humanity and empathy... and I wonder what his deal is.
- Do I rate on the writing? Because even as much as I hated the characters and literally every single thing they did and everything that happened and hated feeling such dread and anger and frustration... in a way I was still rooting for success. And I think that is the most disturbing thing of all to me. That the writing was good enough for me to still hope for... something. Honestly I don't even know what it was... but every situation had me dreading and on the edge of my seat waiting to see how it would play out... and I kind of hate myself for it. Even after everything, I was anxious ON THEIR BEHALF.
And on top of that, one could, if one chose, interpret Mary Beth (the dog) and Amanda (the baby) symbolically as facets of the dynamic showing how the money ruined these people's lives. And on an even deeper level, one could potentially interpret the events as a bit of a superstitious curse because Hank and Jacob failed to honor the promise they made to their father. Everything they touch after that goes bad and wrong. Everything.
The more I think about this book, the more impressed I am with it. I literally hated plodding through it, but not in the "This book is garbage, why am I reading it?!" way - but in a "I can't NOT look at the trainwreck that's happening in slow motion in front of me... is that a severed head flying through the air?" kind of way.
Scott Smith writes really grim, brutal books. They are not fun or easy to read. They are not uplifting. They are not likable. They will absolutely not restore any faith in humanity that you've lost in your journey through this life. They are flawed and imperfect. But they are damn good, despite all of that. Maybe it's a good thing that he only gave us two of them.
Random.org says 4 stars. I concur.
If you have lived under a rock for the last 25 years or so, the premise here is that 3 guys find a plane with a whole lotta money in it, and instead of turning it in, decide to hold onto it for 6 months until they know whether anyone's looking for it or not. If not, they split it up and go their separate ways. If so, they burn it and go back to their lives.
The book's title is not misleading - it is a simple plan, but it takes a hard right immediately out of the gate and just keeps going sideways from there. There's an old saying: Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead. And I feel like this book is why that saying exists. They each swear secrecy oaths, and then immediately break them, and predictably, things don't go well.
I honestly wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I thought that it was going to be a "No Country For Old Men" style tale of stealing from the wrong people, but this was far more mundane than that. This was just a couple of regular guys who stumble on a windfall and make all the wrong decisions about how to deal with it. But I think that it was actually a better book for not being more McCarthyesque. It's a book about regular people. Could be anyone, people. What would you do to avoid losing everything?
I'm unsure how to review this, actually, because I'm seriously torn on how I felt about it. I came to almost hate reading it. I wanted nothing more than for it to be over, but it just kept... on... going... and getting more and more fucked with every single page. But at the same time, I couldn't look away. I kinda had to know how it would all play out. And even though the characters were absolutely beyond maddeningly stupid and horrible... I believed them.
So how do I rate this?
Do I rate on enjoyability? Because this was most definitely NOT enjoyable for me. Each page was a new dread, a new frustration, a new low. Every page I thought "These people CAN'T be this stupid and terrible... can they?" (They can.) Over and over and over again they proved it. Every new situation, every new problem, every new plan dug their hole deeper and deeper. It was difficult to read, because I just did not like any of the characters. I actively disliked 90% of them, and the remainders I just felt sad for. One of the characters in particular broke my heart a couple times, and the way that things played out was just brutal and horrific.
- Do I rate on believability? But... it was believable. There's a section toward the end of the book where one of the characters lays things out in a linear path: Z was caused by Y which was caused by X which was caused by W... and so on. And it was believable that he would see it in that way, though, as an outsider looking in on the situation, we could see all of the branches in the path that weren't taken. But from HIS point of view, there were two options: Risk it all AND lose everything or risk it all and potentially be rich, which equates to free. And the desire for that freedom was greater than anything he ever realized.
- Do I rate on discussability? Because this is infinitely discussable. These characters only seem superficial, but there are layers to them. We only get this book from a single perspective (unlike The Ruins which was from multiple POVs), so we have a bit of an unreliable narrator situation going on here. How much do we trust Hank's perspective? He doesn't even really seem to understand himself sometimes. Obviously, he thinks of himself as a good man, but he did things in this book that were horrific and abhorrent, and easily justified them as being necessary. He had a difficult, obligatory relationship with his brother, and very much resented him for it. But it's more than just two men who don't really have anything in common and therefore don't get along well. It went back to their childhood, and Hank would often think back on how his brother was bullied for his weight as though he's remembering what the event that started WWII was. It has no resonance with him, no meaning. It's just a thing that happened in the past.
Was Hank's relationship to his brother a product of a father who had so little regard or care for his own wife that he would hold a lifelong grudge against her for calling an ambulance when she thought he had a serious accident but only ended up with a broken nose... and his friends on the volunteer fire/rescue squad ribbed him a bit for it? Could be. Or maybe he just has trouble relating to people and other lives in general. He had to be coerced into a promise to be with his brother once a year to visit their father's grave. He certainly seems to have trouble bonding with his daughter, and repeatedly thinks of her during his wife's pregnancy and after as a sort of parasite feeding off of the mother. But then there are times when he seems to have glimmers of humanity and empathy... and I wonder what his deal is.
- Do I rate on the writing? Because even as much as I hated the characters and literally every single thing they did and everything that happened and hated feeling such dread and anger and frustration... in a way I was still rooting for success. And I think that is the most disturbing thing of all to me. That the writing was good enough for me to still hope for... something. Honestly I don't even know what it was... but every situation had me dreading and on the edge of my seat waiting to see how it would play out... and I kind of hate myself for it. Even after everything, I was anxious ON THEIR BEHALF.
And on top of that, one could, if one chose, interpret Mary Beth (the dog) and Amanda (the baby) symbolically as facets of the dynamic showing how the money ruined these people's lives. And on an even deeper level, one could potentially interpret the events as a bit of a superstitious curse because Hank and Jacob failed to honor the promise they made to their father. Everything they touch after that goes bad and wrong. Everything.
The more I think about this book, the more impressed I am with it. I literally hated plodding through it, but not in the "This book is garbage, why am I reading it?!" way - but in a "I can't NOT look at the trainwreck that's happening in slow motion in front of me... is that a severed head flying through the air?" kind of way.
Scott Smith writes really grim, brutal books. They are not fun or easy to read. They are not uplifting. They are not likable. They will absolutely not restore any faith in humanity that you've lost in your journey through this life. They are flawed and imperfect. But they are damn good, despite all of that. Maybe it's a good thing that he only gave us two of them.
Random.org says 4 stars. I concur.
April 17, 2020
Holy shit. I am speechless.
March 4, 2023
This is the best recommendation I've had for a while and will be a potential best book of 2023 for me.
In the first chapter, we meet our protagonist Hank, along with his brother Jacob and his friend Lou.
This felt like a character study of what money can do to you, and the lengths it can drive you to. The justifications, the dreams, the risks. Is there anything we wouldn't do for 4 million dollars?
This is a suspense novel which builds up from chapter one. Building slowly, quietly raising your heart rate until that final chapter.
Everyone is unlikeable within these pages, but I couldn't stop thinking about all the characters.
Five stars. I think this one will prove to be very memorable over time.
In the first chapter, we meet our protagonist Hank, along with his brother Jacob and his friend Lou.
This felt like a character study of what money can do to you, and the lengths it can drive you to. The justifications, the dreams, the risks. Is there anything we wouldn't do for 4 million dollars?
This is a suspense novel which builds up from chapter one. Building slowly, quietly raising your heart rate until that final chapter.
Everyone is unlikeable within these pages, but I couldn't stop thinking about all the characters.
Five stars. I think this one will prove to be very memorable over time.
August 1, 2024
"My parents died in an automobile accident......they crashed head on into a semi hauling cattle. My father was killed instantly in the wreck, decapitated by the hood of his car." These are the opening lines to Scott Smith's "A Simple Plan". It is later explained that the hypothesis for the cause of the accident is suicide (which obviously makes it not an accident at all). Does this prepare you for the mindset of the story to come? I think yes.
Hank and Jacob are the surviving children. They both have different beliefs and understandings of their parents death. But both are certainly shaped by the rearing of their childhood and their parents fall into bankruptcy and alcoholism.
Their father placed a clause in his will that they swear to visit his grave every year on his birthday (dec 31st), without fail. It was the only thing that bonded the two brothers together. Otherwise they never make an attempt at socializing. You see Hank went to collage and got married and is expecting a baby. Jacob dropped out of high school is unemployed and probably is an alcoholic.
On this particular December 31st (number 8 of the annual visits), Jacob is to pick up his brother after an ice fishing day with his only friend Lou (who is an equal loser to Jacob). They're supposed to drop Lou off before the visit. But on the way the very unexpected happens. And it will change their entire lives. It will pit family verses friendship. Morality verses greed. And no one is immune.
This is a very disturbing tale. It is a page turner. It will have you on the edge of your seat yelling "Don't do it!! What are you thinking?!" And it will have you reflecting on every mistake you ever made. At least take some self umbrage.
4 stars (should have ended sooner for 5. I'll say no more).
Hank and Jacob are the surviving children. They both have different beliefs and understandings of their parents death. But both are certainly shaped by the rearing of their childhood and their parents fall into bankruptcy and alcoholism.
Their father placed a clause in his will that they swear to visit his grave every year on his birthday (dec 31st), without fail. It was the only thing that bonded the two brothers together. Otherwise they never make an attempt at socializing. You see Hank went to collage and got married and is expecting a baby. Jacob dropped out of high school is unemployed and probably is an alcoholic.
On this particular December 31st (number 8 of the annual visits), Jacob is to pick up his brother after an ice fishing day with his only friend Lou (who is an equal loser to Jacob). They're supposed to drop Lou off before the visit. But on the way the very unexpected happens. And it will change their entire lives. It will pit family verses friendship. Morality verses greed. And no one is immune.
This is a very disturbing tale. It is a page turner. It will have you on the edge of your seat yelling "Don't do it!! What are you thinking?!" And it will have you reflecting on every mistake you ever made. At least take some self umbrage.
4 stars (should have ended sooner for 5. I'll say no more).
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