Trust by Hernan Diaz

Amy  

historical fiction

In Trust, by Hernan Diaz, the reader is given four versions of the lives of Andrew and Mildred Bevel. The first section is a novel within the novel, a fictionalized telling of the Bevels using the aliases Benjamin and Helen Rask. Benjamin is a quiet, anti-social, brilliant investment manager/financier who becomes one of the wealthiest men in America in the early part of the twentieth century. He meets and marries Helen and they live a happy albeit reclusive life until mental illness strikes.  But wait, this is only the fictionalized version of the Bevels’ lives, published without their consent. To set the record straight, in the second section, Andrew Bevel sets out to write his own memoir containing the truths of his life instead of the sensationalistic fabrications published by Harold Vanner. But what is truth and what is fiction? In the third section, Bevel’s personal secretary, Ida, hired to help him complete his memoir, attempts to seek out the truth. The fourth section, Mildred Bevel’s diary, includes her memories which bring everything to light.

I made two mistakes with Trust:

1) I went into this novel blindly for my book club which is normally a good thing. I typically like to be surprised by a novel without reading the summary and getting preconceived notions. However, for Trust, this was a mistake.  Told in sections, I did not realize that the first two sections were the same story told by different authors. Rather, I was getting bored thinking these two men sounded like they led extremely similar lives. Neither was likable and I was about to stop reading. I did finally seek out the book’s summary. It would have been much more interesting to read both accounts with an eye for the discrepancies and nuances. I didn’t like the story enough to start over from the beginning to gain a fuller appreciation. But I would recommend that anyone reading this novel understands how the first two sections of the novel are related so you can pay attention to the places where different narratives were built.

2) I listened to the audiobook which is, also, normally a good thing. Not so with Trust. I partially blame the fact that I did not grasp the structure of this novel on the fact that I was unable to see the written format. Additionally, the second section (Andrew Bevel’s memoir about his own life) was a draft, often including outlines and side notes. It was sometimes difficult to distinguish his actual narrative from the notes when listening to words being read instead of seeing them in print. Also, without the benefit of a visual of the page, the longer lists got tedious when I had no idea how long they would continue.

In the end, I understand the awards and attention Trust has received. It’s cleverly-devised and smartly implemented, even though it doesn’t translate all that well to audiobook, IMO. Once I understood the structure, it held my attention despite the not-so-lovable characters. The atmospheres and settings of the time periods were especially vivid. The characters all had interesting living situations and were unusual people. The ending was extremely satisfying.

There were four audiobook narrators.  The first, narrating the fictional novel (called Bonds) starring Benjamin Rask, was one of my long-time favorites, Edoardo Ballerini, who, once again, did a terrific job. He’s simply a superb voice actor. He gets an A. The second, Jonathan Davis, did the memoir draft section by Andrew Bevel and he was alright. I wish he had somehow better vocally differentiated the lists/notes from the rest of the narrative. I give him a B+. Ida’s section was narrated by Mozhan Marno. Sadly, while she did a great job voicing and acting as her protagonist, Ida the secretary, she didn’t use different voices for the other characters and there were a few times I wasn’t sure who was speaking during conversations. How disappointing. Of the two other novels I’ve heard her narrate, she had this same problem with one of them. I give her a B. The final narrator was Orlagh Cassidy reading Mildred’s section. She was perfect. She only had to voice the one character so I’m giving her an A.