Title: Trust
Author: Hernan Diaz
Publisher: Picador
ISBN: 978-1529074505
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 416
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5
There are books that manage to take your breath away – while reading them and also when you are done with them. Trust is one of them. It consumes you; it draws you in from the very first page, and you as a reader go along where it takes you, no questions asked. Diaz in a way asks you to “trust” the plot, the structure, the story within stories premise and you do (though you are not supposed to, as it becomes clear as you go along).
Trust is a series of novels within a novel – there are four of them to be precise. It starts with “Bonds” written by Harold Vanner, a 1937 bestseller about the rise of a Wall Street Tycoon named Benjamin Rask and his wife Helen – living life to the fullest in the Roaring ‘20s till the crash of 1929 changes their lives.
This moves us on to the other three sections of the book – each a novel within this novel, upending the truth, giving us parallel truths, lies, which ultimately unravels most shockingly at the end of it all.
Diaz’s writing is experimental, playful, post-modernistic with a historical twist in every chapter – merging the style of Edith Wharton with his own unique style of giving the reader an illusion and staying with it till the very end. At the same time, as a reader, I just loved how Diaz becomes the writer who has written the books within this novel. With every chapter you go deeper – unearthing and getting lost deeper in the maze that Diaz most succinctly has created.
Trust by Hernan Diaz is a rollercoaster of a ride, a mad trip, a tale of wealth, love, madness, passion and about how we view the world and how in turn are viewed by the world at large. This book will definitely be in my top reads of 2022. Please read it.
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