67 pages • 2 hours read
Hernan DiazTrust
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Book Club Questions
Background
Literary Context: Postmodernism
Postmodern literature employs literary devices such as metafiction, unreliable narration, and incomplete texts to draw the reader’s attention to the constructed nature of fiction. These devices dissolve dichotomies such as fiction versus reality, reminding the reader of the artificial nature of such distinctions. Postmodern literature emphasizes the subjectivity involved in all claims to truth, showing that different characters can see the same events in radically different ways. Each of the four books in Trust represents a subjective perspective that vies for objectivity; the juxtaposition of these four narratives highlights that no one person can lay sole claim to the truth. Truth isn’t fixed but mutable, something one deduces from a series of fragments instead of being handed.
Postmodern literature often challenges established narratives with the intent to provoke thought, demanding an active reader willing to engage with a book’s provocations. Diaz’s first novel, In the Distance, is a reimagining of the Western genre that challenges the ideology underpinning traditional Westerns. Similarly, Trust interrogates the ideology surrounding prosperity and finance, exposing the dark underbelly of boundless wealth. The point is to make readers question how they see wealth and finance and how these concepts are depicted. Trust disturbs the narratives of the benevolent billionaire philanthropist and the business genius as it examines the consequences of profit at all costs.
Historical Context: The Great Depression
Trust revolves around the historical crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression. While Trust is a work of fiction, it hews to the historical account of the crash. The 1920s—known as the Roaring Twenties—were a time of economic prosperity driven by new technologies and industries following World War I. Hundreds of thousands of Americans began investing in the stock market for the first time, using money borrowed from banks. Everyone wanted a piece of the prosperity. By 1929, the total amount of money borrowed for this speculating exceeded the amount of currency in circulation. Bonds reproduces a historical quote from the preeminent economist Irving Fisher that “stock prices had ‘reached what looks like a permanently high plateau’” (68).
Rask/Bevel is accused of rigging the crash because he becomes the richest man in the world by shorting it, something no one else does. In the years preceding the crash, Rask/Bevel offers favorable lending rates to the legions of amateur speculators who lack the money to invest. This fictional character plays the part of the historical banks that contributed to the crash with their reckless lending.
Diaz’s depiction of the crash borrows elements from the Great Recession of 2007-2009, updating the story for the modern reader. Rask/Bevel shares a hodgepodge of characteristics with the parties and factors involved in the Great Recession, distilling them into one person. Rask/Bevel engages in the reckless lending of the large banks, profits from the crash like the small group of short sellers who recognized the housing bubble, and exemplifies the callous billionaires who emerged from the crash even richer. Like the head bankers, Rask defends his actions before a senatorial committee, which absolves him of wrongdoing.
