Trust
What makes a book “very readable”?
Something simple that makes allowances for a wandering mind/distraction? A “page turner”? A book that allows you to rattle off an overview in two brisk sentences? Hernan Diaz’s Trust is only one of those things (for me, a page turner), but I’d for sure put it in the “(very) readable” category.
It’s been billed as an illumination of money, power, and American capitalism (the stock market crash of 1929 plays a central role, after all), but for this reader, Trust is all about “the arts” (specifically the written word) and its malleability — and therefore its ability to demonstrate that even the most quantifiable can be a teeny bit “squishy” depending on how you look at it.
Something that is “readable” to a select few (the financial markets, perhaps?) might look very different — and become far more accessible — if shifted on its side a tiny bit. Is that fiction? Or maybe it’s simply the “bending and aligning of reality,” which is a term that pops up in Trust more than once.
What makes a novel “readable”? I’d vote for its ability to prod readers toward seeing what of “real life” they can find in something supposedly made up. (In other words, Trust is the epitome of…a ‘lifely’ read.)
originally published on instagram