Trust is primarily a historical novel: it details the rise and fall of Wall Street in great detail. Still Ida carries on wondering who portrayed Bevel’s wife accurately. Also being the daughter of an anarchist/Marxist father and working for a rich man puts their relationship into doubt. Bevel trusts Ida to write something faithful but her research proves otherwise. She is hired to ghost write bevel’s memoir as we discover that the Vanner book is a fictional account of Bevel’s life. The third section is a criticism of the Bevel memoir, also in the form of a memoir by Italian immigrant Ida Partenza.

At this stage the reader realises this but, at least in my case, not too sure how both sections connect. Every detail of his life mirrors the Vanner book. The next section is a memoir by A wall street tycoon called Andrew Bevel. He eventually marries a European based American woman, who uses the money for philanthropist means. The Vanner novel is about a the child of a wall street tycoon, who inherits his fathers’ tobacco company and has a knack for making money, thus becoming richer, mainly through a trust fund. All these sections are linked, which means that Trust is a post modern novel. The first is a novel by Harold Vanner, The next two are memoirs and the final part is a diary. Trust is divided into four parts and they are all books.

Hernan Diaz’ second novel Trust utilises the ‘novel within a novel’ structure, or to be more precise the book within a novel structure.

Trust: firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something. Trust: an arrangement whereby a person (a trustee) holds property as its nominal owner for the good of one or more beneficiaries.

Harold vanner