While waiting for the library copy of Hernan Diaz’s novel Trust to become available, it won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, so when it was my turn to borrow, I rushed to start reading. I was lost in the lush language of Part 1 when I turned the page and saw ink.
A library patron had vandalized a book that belongs to the public, no different from defacing subway cars, but without the artistry of graffiti.
This vandal defaced the library book at least four times, each time “correcting” the author’s style, as if there’s only one way to write, inserting the word “increasing” as an adjective, editing “a myriad of” to simply “myriad” (twice), and commenting—in ink—“? It doesn’t add up.”
The irony, of course, is that these intrusions on Diaz’s text demonstrate that this patron is a poor reader with little understanding of fiction.
“Trust” is a work of fiction by Hernan Diaz
Trust is a fabricated story about a character named Andrew Bevel, a gifted stockbroker, whose story is told four times: in the novel-within-the-novel titled Bonds, by the imaginary author, Harold Vanner; in Bevel’s own unfinished autobiography, My Life; in A Memoir, Remembered, by Ida Partenza, hired to ghostwrite Bevel’s autobiography; and in the private journal kept by Mildred (Mrs. Andrew) Bevel, titled Futures. All four of these imaginary authors and their made-up stories comprise the fiction that is Trust, by the real life author, Hernan Diaz.
Each story is told from an imaginary character’s point of view. Language is the primary tool the author uses to create character: how a character speaks, or—in this case—writes, is an idiosyncratic trait that makes a fictional character distinct, just as how each of us speaks is an individual characteristic that makes us recognizable and individual.
Part I: BONDS by Harold Vanner
In Part One, the novel Bonds within the novel Trust, a character named Harold Vanner tells the story of a stockbroker who inherits both wealth and mathematical acumen, but not the social graces of his ancestors who made family fortune in the first place. It’s the 1920’s, and the stockbroker marries a woman whose mathematical ability is even sharper than his. It’s she who sees the pattern of stocks rising and falling, and he who’s deemed the financial wizard. But no one knows, and the stockbroker wants to keep it that way. The story is believed to be a roman-a-clef; the names are changed, but the stockbroker and his wife are Andrew and Mildred Bevel.
Part II: MY LIFE by Andrew Bevel, ghostwritten by Ida Partenza
The “real” Andrew Bevel (who is a fictional character) is outraged by Vanner’s novel and does what he can to suppress both the novel and the man who wrote it. Bevel is an immensely wealthy man with a great deal of power. He buys and destroys all copies of Bonds, and he succeeds in destroying Vanner’s career. Then he hires Ida Partenza to ghostwrite his autobiography, which is a monument of fictionalization, where he writes Mildred out of the story. But he dies of a heart attack before the book’s finished.
Part III: A MEMOIR, REMEMBERED by Ida Partenza
Ida Partenza, the ghostwriter, tells the story of getting the job and working on the autobiography with Mr. Bevel. It’s no coincidence that Ida is hired because Bevel’s spies know her real name even though she applies using an anglicized name and offers up a fictional autobiography and resumé.
Part IV: FUTURES by Mildred (Mrs. Andrew) Bevel
In Part Four, Mildred speaks from the dead in the text of a journal that Ida finds in the 1970’s. Ida’s sleuthing and Mildred’s journal reveal the previous fictions, but it, too, is invented—by Hernan Diaz.
To demand linguistic orthodoxy is to deny humanity.
Language constantly changes and grows, as does how we use it. To demand orthodoxy is to deny humanity. Just read novels written in dialect to see how rich so-called “non-standard language” can be. Diaz uses language, syntax and style of New York society in the 1920s, language particular to his characters. The pen-wielding reader who defaced the public library’s copy of Trust reveals how little they understand the mutations of language by showing off what they think they know about it.
Trust Allows Public Libraries to Function
“Trust” is both a noun and a verb, and characters in this novel benefit from monetary trusts and suffer from lack of trust with one another. The entire proposition of reading—reading anything, really, but fiction in particular—requires trust. In the case of fiction, the author has to earn our trust in the imagined world of the novel. I trust Hernan Diaz’s language more than I trust the reader who, by vandalizing a library book, broke the trust that allows public libraries to function.
Deborah, you are so right!
Language is a living and fluid and constantly evolving way of how individuals and groups express themselves. Much of the fun of language is learning about words that have fallen out of fashion and learning words that have recently arrived on the scene. If language doesn’t evolve, how can our thoughts evolve?
Words are powerful, which is why so many authoritarian regimes like to ban books and in some cases try to eradicate the very language of the peoples they conquer.
Here in the UK, language has been / is used to reinforce class distinctions. Apparently posh people never use the word “toilet” or “serviette” for example – “lavatory” and “napkin” please!
Words can be a bridge or a barrier – it’s up to us.
Once a week I go into a local school to hear 6 year olds read on a one-to-one basis, which I love. Today, a local librarian came in to tell the all the school children about the summer reading challenge, run annually by the library service. It was so lovely to see her enthusiasm and the great response from the children. (I was especially touched as the librarian used to be one of my students).
Public libraries continue to play an important role despite the best (or should I say worst) efforts of our current abysmal UK government who prefer to slash funding and close libraries. Not everyone can afford to buy the books they want and so lending libraries are vital. It all comes back to the power of the written and spoken word – and to what extent governments and societies are willing to share that power and those resources across the whole of the population.