TRUST

by Hernan Diaz

Even before Hernan Diaz won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Trust, I knew I needed to read this book.  My husband, Rufus, had read it before me and couldn’t stop talking about it.  He was anxious for me to read it too so that we could discuss it.  A request of this kind doesn’t come along often, so my interest was really piqued.

Trust tells the story of Benjamin and Helen Rusk in 1920s New York City:  he a Wall Street millionaire and she his beautiful, eccentric wife.  Diaz presents the Rusks’ story from three different narrators’ perspectives, in fact.  And I believe it is that unique way of telling the story that makes it such a must-read.  First, the reader learns there has been a wildly successful novel written about a fictitious couple, who clearly was modeled after the Rusks.  Benjamin is so incensed with that novel that he hires a writer to write his biography – and to set the record straight.  As his biographer struggles to sort out what is truth and what is Rusk’s attempt to control the narrative, questions begin to populate the reader’s mind.  Then, Rusk’s biographer does some research of her own and she uncovers a startling and fascinating, alternative story, which becomes the third narrative in Trust.

If it all sounds cumbersome or hard to follow, I assure you it is not.  What Trust does so successfully is remind us that no one’s story is simple.  No relationship is as clearcut as it may appear to outsiders.  And it is often those with money and power who get to write the story.  Another novel to put at the top of your “to read” pile, Trust is potent and beautifully written. (Liz)