A Simple Plan

You know that phrase, circling the drain? That’s the best way to describe this novel about greed and the lengths people will go to in the name of it. Recently I was involved in an inheritance process that involved more money than at first suspected. It brought out the worst in some family members so the actions and attitudes of the people in this novel seemed on the money to me. I was a bit surprised by the fluidity of criminal schemes that Hank and Sara came up with on the spur of the moment and also their lack of caution in some areas (keeping the money under the bed? with a newborn in the house???), but mostly the book hung together. It’s basically one bad decision after another with things getting worse and worse, scene by show more scene.

Spoilers commencing -

There isn’t anyone to root for in this book, but there are degrees of dirt-baggery to be plumbed and not all the deaths are lamentable. Most are though and by the end I was hoping Hank would get caught. He and Sara deserved it. They don’t, but neither do they profit by their crimes and they seem pretty comfortable with them on the whole (all that self-serving justification must have gone down well). The FBI logged about 10% of the serial numbers and without knowing which bills are on the list, the whole pile is worthless. Sara tries everything in her power to hang onto it, right to the bitter end. In a way, I’m glad there wasn’t much denouement to the book since it would have meant spending more time with the two of them. I’m not sure the kid’s accident and subsequent near-vegetative state is effective as a sop to justice though. And I can’t imagine the law ignoring so many deaths in such a short time period, especially when there’s no GSR on Lou’s body. But other than those things, the story is good, compelling and reasonably believable if a sad testament to one of humanity’s least admirable traits. show less

Two brothers and a friend find four million dollars in a crashed airplane and decide to take the money for themselves. It's a simple plan: they will wait until spring when the snow thaws and the plane is discovered, see if anybody reports missing the money and if not, divide it up between them. But it's turning into a long winter and the bonds of friendship and family begin to crack like ice.

I have always loved this book. It starts off with a good man then adds a little temptation and then ever so slowly it all goes to hell. It's a pitch-perfect morality tale. The plainness of it is what makes it so scary; you know it could really happen this way.

Scott Smith's beautifully controlled and disturbing first novel delivers a total of nine deaths, harrowing murders all, but it is surely a morality tale, with not a whiff of the whodunit about it. Instead, its trail of blood starkly raises many rudimentary philosophical questions. What is necessary? What is inevitable? What is justifiable? The story's effectiveness in fact hinges on these very tensions. We have a natural resistance to the idea that "ordinary" people could bear the commission, not to mention the psychological consequences, of such atrocities without going mad. And yet they do, which is both alarming and, in the context of the story, utterly plausible. An absorbing exploration of the nature of greed.

This was an utterly gripping read. It starts off so normally, with two brothers on a winter day, and convincingly tells how their lives unravel from the chance discovery of a plane and a bag of money. Horrfiying, uncomfortable reading that really makes you think: what would I do?

This book was rated as one of the top thrillers ever written in Kirkus Reviews, so I wanted to read it because of that. It wasn't at all like I expected, but it's a very interesting premise for a book. Two brothers and a friend come upon a plane that has crashed in the bush and the pilot is still inside. The pilot is dead, but when Hank Mitchell goes inside the wreckage he finds a duffel bag stuffed with 4.4 million in cash. Hank instantly takes charge and makes a plan that they will take the money and keep it for six months in order to see if the money is being searched for and then, if nothing happens, the money will be divided up among the three of them. The men agree to this plan, but the finding of the money forever changes show more everyone involved. Reading the book was like watching a disaster unfolding. It went from one bad decision to another as Hank tries to keep the secret and to keep himself from getting caught for stealing. The genius of this author in showing so clearly "that there but for the grace of God go I", is what keeps the momentum going in this book. As I read I couldn't help but put myself into Hank's shoes and it made me question how far I would go if pushed in this way. I would hope that I wouldn't succumb to the temptation to protect the money at all costs like Hank did, but who really knows how one would act in such a situation? The violence that erupts throughout the book was a bit off-putting for me though. But as the story was told from Hank's perspective it placed me in a front-row seat, from Hank's viewpoint, to observe the depths that a seemingly ordinary person can fall to with the right temptation. show less

A SIMPLE PLAN is a modern-day morality tale. In a relentless progression, the novel demonstrates how quickly ordinary people can stoop to committing the most horrendous acts, and how easily they can justify it to themselves. It begins with a situation that we can all imagine ourselves in: Three guys discover a downed plane with a duffel bag full of money and a dead pilot on-board. Once they decide to take the money -- concocting a "simple plan" to make sure they don't get caught -- they become enmeshed in a series of escalating events that seem inevitable.

SPOILERS AHEAD

This book is a fast, suspenseful read, and my only quibble with it is that the climax seems a little off. It seems like too much when Hank commits the two murders in the show more liquor store, and any remaining sympathy for him dissipates when the reader realizes that he comes pretty close to being a psychopath. I think the movie adaptation's climax was more effective, as it ties up all the missing ends. Despite that, the novel was both entertaining and stomach-churning, and I enjoyed reading it. show less

A few years back I watched the 1998 movie based on this novel, and loved it to pieces: it's the most wonderful noir tragicomedy, eliciting bleak laughter at the same time as a profound sorrow at the way potential human destiny and dreams are forever thwarted by human stupidity. So, although I picked up my copy of the novel a while ago, I fought somewhat shy of actually reading it in case I found it a let-down.

Not so: it's wonderful. And here, too, we have one of those very rare instances where, even though the movie is (according to my memory) very faithful to the book, the two also complement each other. Part of this may be the movie's casting of Bill Paxton in the central role of Hank, the upright and uptight accountant who with show more ne'er-do-well brother Jacob and Jacob's even ne'er-do-weller pal Lou comes across, in the midst of an Ohio snowfield, a crashed light plane containing a dead pilot and four million bucks. The three reckon the money must be illicit or there'd have been a hue and cry about the lost pilot; so Hank and his wife Sarah decide the best course is to sit on the money for a few years before leaving the area and living the life of Riley somewhere safely afar. Unfortunately, this simple plan starts unraveling pretty soon because, essentially, Jake and Lou are too stupid to follow through on it.

Not that Hank's any genius; indeed, when blood starts to be shed, Hank proves to be the most ruthless member of the little gang, a trait that brings problems and complications of its own.

A Simple Plan is something of a white-knuckle read, which may tend to obscure the fact that it's also quite beautifully written. And, once you've read it, get hold of the DVD -- or vice versa. show less