Trust

Fact, fiction unreliable narrators, "Trust" has it all. This is a multi layered book within a book within a memoir, within a diary where the reader is brought through this winding literary maze to finally discover the truth.
Set in the gilded ear of 1920s New York, part one is a novella about fictional couple Benjamin and Helen Rask, he is a Wall St tycoon, she a cultural philanthropist. There is more than a shade of comparison with Jay Gatsby at times with questions over the source of the famously reclusive Rask's wealth and how he not only survived the financial crash of 1929 but prospered throughout this turbulent period.

Part Two is a pompous, bombastic narrative by Andrew bevel, upon whom the character Rask is allegedly based. But its meant to be annoying, Bevel is meant to be unlikable. This is the most challenging part of the book for the reader so just stick with it as the final two parts slowly reveal the truth. .The third part is a wonderful memoir by Ida Partenza whom Bevel employs to write his biography and debunk the lies contained in the novel. Ida becomes intrigued by Bevels wife, Miriam, and it is Miriam's diary which forms the final part of this literary jigsaw, connecting all four narratives.

This is such a clever book. As the story unfolds you find yourself constantly referring back to the first 100 pages and questioning everything you have read. Diaz explores the patriarchal world of stocks and finance, who the voices of women are rarely heard and the allure of money. Its also a story about how wealthy men create myths about themselves. This is a challenging and elegant story where I never felt manipulated but captivated by the truth being slowly revealed.. At times it reminded me of the labyrinthine quality of Emily St John Mandel's writing. A highly recommended thought provoking 5 star read.

'Trust' is a clever and beguiling novel that offers four different versions of the same story in order to explore ideas of authorship and control.

Initially, we read 'Bonds', a short novel ostensibly written in 1937 by Harold Vanner about financier Benjamin Rask and his wife Helen, telling the story of Benjamin's financial wizardry, his controversial role in the Wall Street Crash, his distant relationship with Helen and her descent into mental illness. This is followed by an unfinished autobiography by financier Andrew Bevel, which leads us to understand that 'Bonds' was clearly a roman à clef based on Bevel and his wife Mildred; Bevel's autobiography is a far more hagiographic document which disputes many of the implications of Vanner's novel. We then read two further narratives which further contest the truth of the events laid out in Vanner's novel and Bevel's autobiography.

The style of each section feels completely convincing - 'Bonds' reads like a Henry James or Edith Wharton pastiche, while Bevel's ghostwritten autobiography is believably certain and self-satisfied. With each narrative, this novel becomes more compelling as the gaps between the stories people tell and the truth behind them are further exposed. Although we may be able to predict some of these discrepancies, there is at least one revelation that I didn't see coming and turned almost everything else on its head.

Overall, this is a fascinating exploration of money, power and stories. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC to review!

“There is a better world” a man said. “But it’s more expensive.”

Trust is a novel in 4 parts, each section telling a similar story in a different form. It opens with a novel about an American finance tycoon - a genius at work on Wall Street in the 1920s - and his philanthropist wife. The next section acts as the autobiography of the real (fictional) tycoon on whom the novel is based, as he seeks to clear up the slanderous claims made against him. The third section is presented by the ghostwriter of the autobiography, who details the unembellished truth of how the autobiography was written and her attempts to discover more about the death of the tycoon’s wife, and to locate his late wife’s diary - which is presented to us as the fourth and final section.

This structure is unique and engaging, as questions from previous sections are answered without fanfare later on, leaving the reader to put the pieces together and uncover which parts are true. The novel as a whole serves as an exercise in the concept of the unreliable narrator - we are presented with 4 narrators over the course of the book, and things that we initially take as true are later shown to be anything but. Diaz goes as far as to show characters in later sections creating the very lies that we have earlier accepted as true - which can, at times, feel a bit heavy-handed and over-explained, though I think still works well as a storytelling device.

While the book at first glance seems to be about finance (and there IS a lot about finance within), it becomes clear that Diaz is far more interested in telling a story about truth, and how those with money and power can control the narratives that we come to accept as truth.

I had issues with a couple of subplots, largely in the third section (one extortion subplot is resolved too quickly, and the pacing is slowed by a character explaining why he dislikes Marxism though agrees with it in places). Ultimately though, these issues are minor. This is an excellent novel about truth and power, and I think likely to be on award longlists later in the year.

Thanks to Netgalley and PanMacMillan for the e-ARC!

This will, no doubt, be one of my favorite novels of the year. This book is about a wealthy investor (Andrew Bevel) and his reclusive wife (Mildred Bevel) who actually made a lot of money when the stock market crashed in 1929. After a scathing biography is published about the Bevels, Andrew hires Ida Partenza to write his autobiography. This is a novel within a novel with a memoir added to that. Diaz does a sublime job of twisting the realities and the myths of these characters and keeps the reader wondering who or what can be trusted. The characters are quite cold and unlikeable, but I was fascinated with Mildred (or was it Helen?) from the very first page.

Recommended for fans of Edith Wharton, old New York, and historical fiction.

An impressive novel on so many levels. Diaz sets out to re-examine myths of American exceptionalism through the novel’s central figure of Andrew Bevel, financier and one of the richest men in the world during the interwar period. He does so via four distinct narratives: Bonds, a novel about “Mr and Mrs Rusk”, thinly disguised Bevel and his wife Mildred; Bevel’s own unpublished memoirs; a narrative set several decades later by Ida Partenza, hired by Bevel to ghost write his memoirs and finally, snippets from Mildred Bevel’s diaries.

Trust is also very much a novel about capitalism and money. The first part, the-novel-within-the-novel is written in realist style reminiscent of Henry James and Edith Wharton. Both influenced Diaz but rather than the luxury and the excess associated with wealth, he wanted to focus on the process of accumulation of wealth. This is taken even further in the second part, Bevel’s memoirs, where Bevel rages against any and all regulations to control the markets. He is very much a free market capitalist.

I’ve deliberately left Mildred Bevel out so far, as Diaz notes in an excellent interview with The Book Review podcast from NY Times, women have often been deleted out of historical narratives dealing with American myths. The second half of Trust addresses this, firstly through a young Italian-American woman hired by Bevel to type his memoirs and secondly, through Mildred’s diaries. Bevel aims his memoirs to do justice to his wife’s memory (he hated the novel Bonds) but as he dictates his many financial triumphs, it becomes clear that he doesn’t have much to say about Mildred. And through tantalising snippets from her diaries, it becomes clear that there was much more to her than all the previous narratives suggested.

So, Trust is also about storytelling, who gets to tell the story and, as the different narratives unfold, there is some ambiguity as to which – if any to believe. I loved the concept and very much enjoyed reading Trust. One of the best books I’ve read all year.

My thanks to Pan Macmillan, Picador and Netgalley for the opportunity to read Trust.

A novel, two memoirs, and a diary, each telling the same story of 1920s New York wealth from not just different perspectives, but with completely different concepts of the truth of what happened. Trust is a complicated novel that unfolds, and the reader needs to trust that it will get interesting because the initial section didn’t grab me. But it just gets more and more intriguing as you learn more about the couple at the centre of the story. The last section reveals an aha moment, but it’s hard to trust even that to be the truth once you know how many times you’ve been lied to. Trust isn’t a perfect novel, but it’s dazzling and memorable.

This is an impressive book mainly set in the world of 1920s Wall Street and New York society at that time, and with - for this reader at least - a brilliant exploration of how women are side-lined in life, or written out of history. It is a metafiction comprising four very accessible (and different) tellings of a wealthy financier's life and times leaving it up to the reader to decide which is the most trustworthy narrative.

I was half way through reading the novel when the longlist for the 2022 Booker Prize was announced, and I'm not at all surprised that "Trust" is one of the 13 books listed.