Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of Trust

Trust
Trust
Author: Hernan Diaz
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Book Type: Hardcover
hostalover avatar reviewed on


I did not care much for this novel. The New York Times called it âexhilaratingâ, but I found it exhilaratingly dull. It is a story told in four parts and from different viewpoints. The first and longest section reads as a novel within a novel-a fictional take on a Wall Street tycoon and his wife. It is an unflattering portrait of the tycoon for the most part and reads like a soap opera. Part two is the autobiography of the famous tycoon (using a ghostwriter) that portrays him in a totally positive light. This part was pretty boring but not overly long. Part three was written by the ghostwriter, and part four was a journal written by the wife on her deathbed. Our understanding of events changes drastically with each viewpoint. So which version do we âtrustâ?
This novel won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, so give it a try. Reviewers had wildly different opinions on it, so you might like it. I did finish it, so it wasn't terrible, just disappointing.