Publisher’s
write-up:
‘Trust is a sweeping puzzle of a novel about power, greed, love and a
search for the truth that begins in 1920s New York.
Can one person change the course of history?
A Wall Street tycoon takes a young woman as his wife. Together, they
rise to the top in an age of excess and speculation. Now a novelist is
threatening to reveal the secrets behind their marriage. Who will have the
final word in their story of greed, love and betrayal?
Composed of four competing versions of this deliciously deceptive tale,
Trust by Hernan Diaz brings us on a quest for truth while confronting the lies
that often live buried in the human heart.’
Trust is a four part novel historical novel from the writer Hernan Diaz.
Most of the story happens during the Great Depression of the 1920s and 30s. The
first part of the novel, titled ‘Bonds’, features the investor Benjamin Rask,
who had immensely profited from the Great Depression. It also talked about his
socialite wife Helen, where the marriage was not one of love but simply out of
mutual respect, Benjamin for her intellect and Helen for the success of Rask in
Wall Street.
However, the second part of the story talks about Andrew Bevel, a Wall
Street investor again, but this time we understand that he is the real life
version of ‘Benjamin Rask’ from the novel within the novel – Bonds. He is
disappointed about the portrayal of his wife (Mildred being the real life
version) in the novel and how she ended up in a mental health facility in Switzerland
and to him this was an unfair portrayal. Bevel was at the same time, more concerned
about his reputation and portrayal he did not like how his success was attributed
to his wife.
To correct this, he hires an Italian-American writer Ida Partenza, who
had to anglicise are last name as ‘Prentice’ at a time when discrimination
against people of Italian origin in the US was still very high. Much as she
initially took up this job for the pay offered by Bevel, she tries to uncover
more and discover who Mildred really was. In the fourth and final part, we get
the story from Mildred’s own perspective.
I liked the idea of an experimental novel in the backdrop of a financial
crisis – first featuring a novel about a Wall Street investor who had made
money out of the financial crisis and then going on to present an alternative
perspective. Moreover, this was also highly relatable to many of the
present-day readers given how billionaires across the world increased their
wealth manifold during the Covid-19 crisis when the rest of the working population
suffered.
It is also often seen how many living persons are not happy with the
fictionalised versions of their own story and it was good to see the reactions
of Andrew Bevel. Through his reactions, we also understood his personality, who
was the typical 1920s misogynist in Wall Street, who was prepared to increase
his wealth at any cost but at the same time, has a wife only for his social
image but does not want any credit attributed to her.
The mystery that was kept around Mildred Bevel, till the very end was
interesting too, after which, and in the end, we are left to wonder whose
perspective was closer to the truth – the fictionalised account Bonds, Bevel’s
perspective or that of Mildred.
The weakest point of this novel I felt was the sub-plot involving Ida’s
personal life, be it with her egoist boyfriend or her anarchist father. It is
true that women struggled to make a mark back then and she had her own
challenges, but given how deep we got into the plot involving Andrew Bevel,
this felt like an unnecessary digression even though individually this could
have been a great story to tell.
As an economist and professional accountant myself, I would have liked
the author to have gone more in detail about what was it that Andrew Bevel did
that led to his success in the markets, but we just had passing mention that he
was successful but I did not have any insights into why and how.
On the whole, I would say that this was an interesting novel to read and
I would award it a solid seven on ten.
Rating – 7/10
Have a nice day,
Andy
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