Tour de force אמיתי,
ארבעה ספרים על אותו סיפור כל אחד עם הסגנון שלו, האנגלית שלו, האמת והשקרים שלו. ביחד התמונה מתחילה להתגלות. בינתיים אנחנו לומדים כלכלה, פוליטיקה, ואיך כותבים ספר. כבדרך אגב אנחנו לומדים על נפלאות השפה האנגלית. וכל זה מרתק וקריא להפליא. ראוי לכל הפרסים שזכה בהם ( )

Hernan Diaz's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, TRUST, presents four parallel, yet contradictory, narratives about Andrew Brevel, a wealthy financier of the Jazz Age and Great Depression, and his wife Mildred. TRUST's structure is unique: each of the four narratives exist as novels-within-the-novel told in four subsequent chunks. The first narrative is a fictional novel titled "Bonds", that tells a damning tale of a financier modeled after Andrew, in which the financier purposefully causes the Great Depression for financial gain, and forces his wife--ostensibly Mildred--to undergo abusive, catastrophic treatment for mental illness similar to electroshock therapy. After reading "Bonds", we read Andrew Bevel's self-serving, unfinished autobiography, and, in the third narrative, the writings of the ghost writer--Ida--who helped him write his autobiography. In the fourth narrative, we read Mildred's personal diary in the weeks prior to her death from cancer, which include "confessions" of her relationship with Mildred.

My respect and interest in this story grew with each narrative that Diaz added. I found the initial novel "Bonds" to be a...drag. Beyond feeling concern for the wife and anger at her financier husband, I was underinvested in the characters and saw little to learn in their development. However, readers who continue to the second, third, and fourth narratives in TRUST will be rewarded. Diaz crafts a story in which the reader is never sure if a narrator can be trusted--in fact, if asked for an example of unreliable narration in literature, it would be difficult to find a more interesting example than TRUST. While there are multiple mysteries to unpack in this novel, including how the Bevels built their fortune, I found the character of Mildred to be the core mystery driving the book forward. Ida's interest in Mildred deepened my own, and I found myself trusting the narration in Mildred's diary more than the other narrators. Finally, I find this book worthwhile for its commentary on the extractive nature of wealth creation and it's depictions of the 1920s, including financial markets of the era. I would recommend this book to readers interested in finance, wealth and inequality, and postmodern structure-bending narratives. ( )

Winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize
Longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize

4.5⭐

"Most of us prefer to believe we are the active subjects of our victories but only the passive objects of our defeats. We triumph, but it is not really we who fail—we are ruined by forces beyond our control."

I’ll admit that I had put this book aside when I first received it a month ago. The subject matter- financial markets, Wall Street tycoon, the crash of 1929- wasn’t pulling me in. But eventually, my curiosity got the better of me and I finally cracked it open three days ago and I have been immersed in it ever since. This is a book that takes time and patience. I did put it down a few times – not because I lost interest but because I needed to take a pause and absorb what I was reading. In general, I enjoy meta fiction when it is done right and Hernan Diaz takes meta fiction to a different level altogether with “Trust”.

It is hard to summarise this book without giving too much away. The plot revolves around a successful financier (and his wife) who not only survived the crash of 1929 but thrived and added to their wealth through well-timed investment decisions. He attributes his success to his strong intuitive capabilities, intense research and his acute understanding of the financial world. Needless to say, reaping profits in an era wherein the economy collapsed and investors and businesses lost substantial amounts of money, does invite questions and conjecture directed toward his investment practices, even inspiring fiction based on the life and times of said person with distorted facts and whole a lot of speculation. Now how does one protect his image and manage public perception? Who is he trying to convince? – Those in his close circle? Business associates? Family members? Himself?

“Trust” is a complex, layered novel divided into four parts- four distinct narrative styles in four distinct voices. This novel is composed of four intricately woven novels/segments - each presenting a different perspective on the events center to the plot - a work of fiction inspired by the main character and his wife, an incomplete draft of an autobiography written by the egotistical protagonist, a memoir written by the young woman hired by the main character as his biographer and the final segment is a part of the diary of the financier’s late wife. As the narrative progresses, and the line between fact and fiction gets blurred, which version of the events and the people involved rings true? Whose version can you trust?

With its unique structure, elegant writing, interesting characters (even the immensely unlikable protagonist) and the 1920s setting, Hernan Diaz’s Trust is a sharp, compelling and creative work of fiction. The first part of the novel does not quite give the reader an idea of the complexity and the intrigue of the plot that lies ahead. The final two parts of the novel were my favorite and the most absorbing part(s) of the book. I will definitely be looking out for more from this author.

“Every life is organized around a small number of events that either propel us or bring us to a grinding halt. We spend the years between these episodes benefiting or suffering from their consequences until the arrival of the next forceful moment.” ( )

Didn't read this

‘Can you believe it? The imaginary events in that piece of fiction now have a stronger presence in the real world than the actual facts of my life.’
p237

There is a reason that this book has appeared on so many ‘Best of the Year’ book lists and that is because it is fantastic. I love a clever book and this is very clever.

At it’s heart, this is the story of a couple in America during the early 1900s and beyond in the build up to the financial crash and depression. Two young people, Andrew and Mildred, meet, both of whom have had unusual childhoods and find in each other something that the rest of their family and society don’t give them which is time on their own, peace and solitude and so they marry. The implication is that the marriage is ‘chaste’, no children are produced but what does occur is that more money is made than at any other time in both their families and the crash was anticipated by them and so they prepared for it by selling their shares etc. Once the crash had happened they became the pariahs who society believed had brought the economy down single handedly. Eventually, Mildred becomes ill, retires to a sanatorium and dies

The book is structured into four narratives; fiction, autobiography, memoir and journal and as you read further into the book, each of these narratives overlaps and reveals something else about the story. So, this book is a historical novel about a time in American life where the ‘bubble’ burst from different points of view but it is also so much more.

One of the very clever things that Diaz has done is to link the financial world to the world of fiction – not an easy task and not one that we would all make the connections with. Included in this is the word play of terms that you find in the financial world but also outside of that sphere such as bonds, futures and ultimately trust.

The first narrative is fiction and is a thinly disguised account of Mildred and Andrew’s life where their names have been changed but the story is theirs written by the author Andrew Vanner. It illustrates beautifully the bonds between husband and wife when they work together but also shows how easily those bonds can be broken both between husband and wife but also between the couple and the society they inhabited. One of the saddest sections of the book was the notes sent to Mildred excusing her ‘friends’ and aquaintances who were withdrawing from her social circle as the Bevels became the pariahs of the crash.

Dear Helen,

You know how consumed I’ve been with work – lectures, reviews, articles, et tedious cetera. Everything seems to conspire against my writing. And I do need to finish this manuscript. I am ever so sorry, but I will have to bow out of the reading program at your lovely library for the remainder of the year. Please do wish me good luck with the wretched novel of mine!

All best wishes,

Winne
p77

The second section of the book is a partially finished autobiography by Andrew Bevel. Here he tells his own story but it is unfinished. There are sections where more detail is to be added particularly about his wife.

When we get to the ‘Memoir, Remembered’ written by Ida Partenza, Bevel’s secretary, the story starts to unravel and more is revealed.

‘Can you believe it? The imaginary facts in that piece of fiction now have a stornger presence in the real world than the actual facts of my life.
p278

It turns out that the autobiography is ghosted and large parts are left upto Ida to create or manufacture and so now as the reader, we ask ourselves, ‘Where is the truth?’

The final section is the long lost journal of Mildred Bevel where she details her life. No one in the museum that the Bevel’s home has become can read her writing so no one has bothered to read through her papers to find out anything about her.

So, this is a book questioning where the truth lies but it also turns out to be a book about how a woman is written out of history – her part in the successes of great financial accumulation and survival in a marriage which is not really a marriage.

‘. . . I am writing this book to stop the proliferation of versions of my life, not to multiply them. I most emphatically do not want more perspectives, more opinions. This is to be my story.’
p278 As spoken by Andrew Bevel

Although told as a historical novel, much in this book has relevance today: Trump and his fake news, The Royal family and The Sussexes alongside others, Ultimately, we are asked to question who do we trust, and I have to add after that the word most? Strangely, fiction does reveal more of the truths than we might think but can also mislead us.

My book club review can be found here ( )