A Mediocre Review of "Trust" by Hernan Diaz
So...this is an interesting book.
Lets get some core stuff out of the way for it:
It was published in 2022, and won multiple awards, and it is understandable exactly why!
The story was cleverly told, the indipendent portions were in conversation with eachother (to be clarified later), the style shifts were strong, which I love, and seemed to have something valuable to say! (whether or not a book actually has something of value to say I think depends on the reader)
Overall, I give it an 8/10!
Now to brass tacks, which may or may not be a spoiler depending on ones view (also, note: I went into this book completely blind beyond: 'Read it' so I have no idea how much of this is usually told to people).
The book is divided into 4 parts, with various names underneath each portion (eventually you find out that the name is the presumable author).
The first portion is in a fairly dry style, and it tells of 2 people: A man who cares for practically nothing, but finds he loves the stock market for itself, is brilliant with it, and is intstrumental to the boom in the early 20s, and predicted the collapse in 29 early enough to make money off of it.
And his young wife who is also brilliant even more so, but given more to literature, philanthropy, etc.
The second portion is written as a half finished autobiography:
It tells of similar individuals, major life events are the same, but their care is deeper. The man isn't purely obsessed with the stock market for it's own sake, but believes that it is an ultimate good.
The woman's life is far less tragic than the one in the first part.
This portion has far more detail, the characters are more sympathetic and 3 dimensional.
The third portion is an old woman reviewing certain portions of her life, and it turns out, she was hired by the man to help him write the autobiography, because he was so infuriated by the lies in the first one (which was presented as a novel by clearly about him), that he needed it to be addressed.
It more focuses on personalities, on actual life, as well as describing what the man actually said, before he had her edit it out of his "auto"biography.
The fourth portion is segments from the wife's journal, recounting a few of the major points from the narrative from her point of view, revealing the 'Truth'.
Now, here is the problem with the book:
The details/plots of the first 2 and the fourth portion are irrelevant.
There is no actual reason for it to be about a stockbroker.
There is no need for it to have unwound the way it did.
There is no true plot in those stories as a whole.
If it had been about a career politician, an Oil Barron, a theoretically over influential movie producer, the story would have been the same.
All that was required was that the Man be someone powerful enough yet semi reclusive that the rumor mills could go, that he be very good at his profession, that the wife be intelligent, and that they be involved in major nation impacting events (for both good and ill).
The 'plot' of the stories is just place settings for the 4-way conversation, and while the 4-way conversation is a delight, it's plot without being plot made me feel unsatisfied.
(The third portion, being to me the core, did require the details it had, but it's conversation with the others is of a different enough style that my point stands. At least, I think so.)
As well, I feel that he was weaker with some of styles than others, such that the enjoyability of reading each section was fairly uneven, though that may just be a 'me' thing.
In all, I feel it is a good book from an 'academic' standpoint: If you like clever stories, interesting literary techniques, etc. you'll love it!
But from a plot perspective it fell very flat.
