"Trust," Hernan Diaz - A Review

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

Burrowing into Books

“Trust,” Hernan Diaz

February 25, 2023

 

“Chaos is a vortex that spins faster with each thing it swallows.”

                                                                                                                                Hernan Diaz (1973-)

                                                                                                                                Trust, 2022

 

This is an exceptional story. Because of the way it unfolds, the book is difficult to review without spoiling it for readers. The title is cryptic and ambivalent. Characters are believable, until contradicted. Who is telling the truth? We are left in wonder, but we are pleased.    

 

The table of contents alerts us that this is no ordinary story. Four chapters listed, each by a different author. In reality, it is the same story told by different people, and, of course, all by Hernan Diaz. The question: Which version should the reader believe? At its heart is a gifted, but ethically challenged, early 20^th Century New York financier, Andrew Bevel and his troubled but brilliant, and now deceased, wife Mildred. The book opens with “Bonds,” a fictional story by Harold Vanner, based on Bevel’s life, but with the names changed to Benjamin and Helen Rask. The story tells of Rask’s background and that of his wife, his financial prowess, and Mildred’s mental health troubles. The second section, “My Life,” is written by Bevel in response to Vanner’s story. In it, he presents his tale of events, emphasizing his financial acumen and his story of his wife’s illness. The third section, “A Memoir, Remembered,” is by Ida Partenza. Ida had been Bevel’s secretary in the late 1930s and helped him compile his book. Looking back from a distance of fifty years, she offers remembrances of that time. At just over 160 pages, this is the longest section. The fourth story, or chapter is the shortest and is comprised of notes written by Mildred when she was in the Swiss sanitarium. In this we learn that Bevel’s fortune may not have been made as have been led to believe. So, whom do we believe: Vanner, Bevel, Partenza, or Mildred? Whom should we trust?

 

Not wanting to give the story away, a few samples of Diaz’s writing might entice a potential reader: “Despite his honest efforts, he could not argue, with any semblance of passion, for the virtue of a lonsdale over a diadema…” “Since they both lived on the outskirts of political reality, they did not immediately understand the grave implications of Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination.” “Whatever the past may have handed us, it is up to each one of us to chisel our present out of the shapeless block of the future.” And one with relevance for my recommendation of this book: “‘Well, sweetheart.’ His diction was muddled by a spoonful of ice cream he rolled around his tongue. ‘You’ll just have to trust me.’”

 

Hernan Diaz was born in Buenos Aires in 1973 and spent his early childhood in Sweden. He currently lives in New York City. This is his second novel. His first, In the Distance, published in 2017, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. This novel won the Booker Prize in 2022. A fascinating novel, it won’t disappoint.