Trust

 Trust by Hernan Diaz, 402 pages.

This nested novel is divided into four fictional books. The first is a novel that is a fictionalized account of a New York financier and his wife. The second is an incomplete autobiography from the real man himself, attempting to correct the slanders of the novel and paint himself in a better light. The third is an essay from the ghostwriter of that autobiography, at the time a young woman just starting out, but now an aged author at the end of a brilliant career. The final, shortest section, is the journal of the financier's wife, whose life has been reinterpreted by so many people. Throughout these narratives more truth emerges from the contrasts, as no one person's story can be complete, as much as power would like it to be so.

This novel was very well-written, which unfortunately couldn't make up for the fact that I found it interminably boring. It turns out reading well over a hundred pages of a biography of a fictional financier with no real hobbies of meaningful connections is not any more interesting than reading that of a real one. The mystery the synopsis promised is not as large or dramatic as implied, and the ways each narrator was unreliable were generally easy to spot. Overall this felt like a solid concept that didn't turn out to be as interesting in execution as I may have hoped.