Trust

The overall concept of Trust is quite appealing. However, it was maybe not executed as well as the author had hoped. Perhaps it’s my own inexperience as a reader, this being the first novel I’ve read where the premise is a novel-within-a-novel, but I was confused when the first story ended and the second began.

Although perhaps the confusion is intentional. What you don’t know is which version of the truth is the most truthful?

Trust is about the story of Andrew Bevel, a wolf of wall street type character that ruled the world of financiers in the early 1900s. Diaz took an interesting angle with this story and fractures the novel up into 4 distinct parts. The first, a novel-within-a-novel called Bonds—a biography about Bevel with the names changed. The second, an unfinished memoir by Andrew Bevel, with short, choppy accounts about his life that wildly differ from Bonds. The third being the recount of Ida, the ghost-writer of an unfinished autobiography about Bevel’s life. The last, a diary.

As you make your way through the story and learn more and more about Bevel, it seems like the less you actually know. How accurately portrayed was Bevel in Bonds? Why was his autobiography so disjointed and different? What was Ida’s take on Bevel’s life story? And who’s diary is revealed at the end?

The split of the stories make for a wonderful, adventurous read. However, half way through Ida’s recount, I found myself losing interest. Maybe too much is given away between the lines or maybe too little was provided, too slowly. Whatever the reason may be, I grew bored of the story as it started to come to an end.

Is this book worth reading? It’s earned the accolades to say that it is. Having been a nominee for one of the best historical fictions of 2022 by GoodReads, and having won a Pulitzer Prize the same year, I’m surprised by my rating as well. I’d love to read more stories with this structure and concept but Trust lives as a 3/5 stars read in my books.