Trust (2022) by Hernan Diaz

Book Review

Trust (2022)

by Hernan Diaz

   There is always a bit of lull for me in the reading year- starting in mid June and running until the Booker Longlist is announced in July.  I'm always inclined to wait for that longlist to come out before I venture beyond the books that grab at me from my feed.  Americans were strongly represented on this year's longlist- notably Nightcrawling by Oakland's own Leila Mottley, The Trees by USC literature professor Percival Everett and two books that I had already passed on until their inclusion made me reverse myself- Booth by Karen Joy Fowler and this book, Trust by Hernan Diaz.

   I'd read reviews when Trust came out earlier this year- I was both ignorant of the author, Hernan Diaz, which reflects poorly on me, not him, and leery of the elevator pitch, "Metafictional text about an extremely wealthy early 20th century Financier and his wife."  It sounded interesting but not compelling, but after the Booker Longlist arrived I quickly checked out the Audiobook from the Los Angeles Public Library.   Trust is a set of four different texts: The first is a work of fiction a la The Financier by Theodore Dreiser.  It's called Bonds, and its tells the ultimately tragic tale of the first and greatest Wall Street operator and his arty wife.  The next text is notes towards an autobiography written by the "real life" inspiration for the main character in Bonds.  The third text is a New Yorker type article by a woman who served as the personal secretary for said inspiration when he was writing his autobiography.  The final text is the pay off, and none of the reviews I've read actually discuss it, leading me to believe its revelation would consitute a "spoiler." 

  I quite enjoyed Trust, though I'm not sure its a short lister- it might be a National Book Award and/or Pultizer Nominee- vibe-wise Trust reminds me of Richard Powers- a recent winner and author of a book- Gain, that really reminds me of Trust, in that it attempts to convey an economic narrative in a novel.   I'm very into that idea, and I wish there were more books that took economics and money seriously-  I often have the thought while reading literary fiction from American and the English speaking world, that every writer of literary fiction is a teacher of literature  or a journalist.  Any novel that takes me outside of that narrow world is a win. 

Lapvona (2022) by Ottessa Moshfegh

Book Review

Lapvona (2022)

by Ottessa Moshfegh

    Ottessa Moshfegh is one of my favorite American authors of literary fiction working today- I look forward to each of her books since her break out hit (My Year of Rest and Relaxation.)  Also, I went back and read all of her earlier publications excepting her book of short stories.  What I like about Moshfegh is that she moves around in place and time.    You've got McGlue- set in Salem in the 19th century.  Eileen is set in small-town New England in the mid 20th century.  Death in Her Hands and My Year are both contemporary, though the former takes place in the country side and My Year is a very New York City kind of book.  I would describe that quality as "range."  Ottessa Moshfegh has range, and it is often range that is sorely lacking in contemporary American literary fiction, with its surfeit of stressed out  mothers and nervous fathers.

  With Lapvona she invents her own fictious land- it's what we would call the Middle Ages, in someplace that resembles the petit feudalism of medieval Europe.   Lapvona is not a fantastical place- quite the opposite in its resolute grimness.  The world is grim, the characters as well.   Those looking for uplift are best warned away ahead of time.   The obvious comparison within her own bibliography is McGlue, though McGlue is squarely within the 19th century vein of American literature that reached its apogee with Moby Dick, i.e. tales of the sea and seamen,  Lapvona doesn't clearly fit into any pre-existing genre that I'm aware of- certainly historical literary fiction is a pre-existing genre, but Lapvona doesn't resemble that sort of book.

  Perhaps the closest comparison would be to The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro- which is a work of gentle fantasy (which Lapvona is decidedly not.)  No, Lapvona is in no way gentle.  It is in fact, Brutal.  It is one of those books which loses impact if you know what is coming, even though it is in no way a book with a twist.