Hernán Díaz (1973–)

I wanted to give this 5 stars because "a book that stays with you" is one that is a great book. I admit I did not see what happened between Bonds and the Autobiography. I was confused....and it took Ida to help me understand the two. I had to go back and reread Bonds. Reading other reviews below, I am increasingly interested in the writing and the construction of this book...and the story that goes beyond and deeper that Helen and Mildred, Andrew and Benjamin. The word Trust means so much....but really what does it mean? Mr. Diaz asks us to think about that.… (altro)

Trust is Hernan Diaz’s second novel. It is a collection of four manuscripts at different stages of completion, and they tell different versions of the story of a Wall Street businessman and his wife in the years leading up to the Great Depression.

In the first part, Bonds, ostensibly a bestselling novel authored by one Harold Vanner, a monkish mogul manages to make a massive windfall during the 1929 stock market crash while his wife tragically succumbs to mental illness far away in Switzerland. My Life is the partial autobiography of Andrew Bevel, clearly the model for the tycoon in Bonds, strewn with half-finished chapters and paragraph outlines. The first few pages of Futures, the scribbled diaries of Andrew’s wife, Mildred, have been randomly ripped out. The Bevels’ competing narratives are mediated by a long postmortem memoir, written by Ida Partenza, once the gullible ghostwriter of Andrew’s book.

Thought this was a fascinating read. Really enjoyed putting to together the puzzle of the pieces of the story told from the different perspective. Whilst this innovative format has been done before, this was elegantly written and it's a really enjoyable book.

I had selected Trust as my Book of the Month this month on my site
https://quizlit.org/book-of-the-month-april-2023… (altro)

At the halfway point: I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't this.

The first part is a short novel, a novella really, about a successful financier and his tragically ill wife and their relationship. There's a lot about money and investing. The second part is about a successful financier and his tragically ill wife and their relationship. This time, the relationship seems much shallower and paternalistic. I finished this second part thinking, wtf? This is the same story as the first, essentially. Why is this book nominated for the Pulitzer? I had to read some reviews to understand that the first part is a novel based on the second part, which is an autobiography. It's very meta. Both parts break the fourth wall, with editorial notes and writerly intentions of things to come. The book has a great deal of self-awareness. I can understand why critics might laud it, since it has an innovative structure and premise. But is it good to read?

As a reader, so far I don't find it engaging. The entire thing is pure exposition. No dialogue, no emotion on the page, no individual scenes. Just the author telling us two different versions of "what happened" between the financier and his wife. There's a certain amount of narrative drive, which I credit to the skill of the author. But it's just not that interesting. Haven't decided yet if I'll go further.

------------

Okay, going further. Third part is much more interesting, the POV of the secretary engaged by the financier on whose life the first part is based. He wants to put the record straight and tell the 'true' story of his life. The second part of the book is the story written by the secretary, dictated and edited by the financier. Part of the secretary's POV is when she is much older, doing actual research on the financier's wife instead of taking notes from the financier. The secretary is convinced that neither story contains the true portrayal of the wife.

The fourth part is the wife's actual journal, and the prose here is beautiful and filled with subtext. We at last get the true story -- or do we?

My overall opinion of this novel is that the structure is very interesting and complex, and that the author, Hernan Diaz, did a really nice job of writing in several different 'voices.' I enjoyed the second half of this story quite a bit. From a craft perspective, I would give this work 5 stars. What he has done is very difficult to do well. However, as a reader, I thought the first half of the book was a slog, and was confused by the similarity of the two parts. You almost have to go into it with the knowledge that the thing works better as a whole, and how the parts are interrelated. Because of that, I'm dropping the rating to 4 stars, which is still generous given the fact that I almost put it down.

The title becomes apropos. One must trust that the author is going to deliver something worth reading.… (altro)