Andy Krieger became a famous foreign exchange trader on the heels of the 1987 crash known as Black Monday. From his office in New York, Andy maneuvered a trade relating to the value of the New Zealand dollar (Kiwi) where he made $300 million dollars.

When was the last time you made $300 million dollars in one day? If you did, chances are you are a foreign exchange (Forex) trader. You can look up the richest current day Forex traders. Leading the pack is George Soros with a new worth of $8.6 billion.

For the average working stiff grinding it out in an office or behind a counter, in a factory or on a construction site, such astronomical sums of money exist in a different universe.

Hernan Diaz's absorbing novel examines the world of kingpin financiers back in the 1920s and 1930s. Ah, the power and magic of money.

Trust contains a four part structure: a novel, an autobiography, a memoir and a diary. Since readers are best discovering the twists and surprises while turning the pages, I'll avoid dropping any spoilers by zeroing in on several choice specifics:

BONDS, A NOVEL
Hernan Diaz acknowledges Henry James as a prime influence. Bonds, Diaz's fictional novel within his novel, is authored by one Harold Vanner. It might be a stretch but I couldn't help thinking of another author with a similar name: Hugh Vereker, the novelist in James' Figure in the Carpet, where sage Vereker divulges his big secret to a young literary critic: his central authorial purpose undergirds all of his writing, like a complex figure in a Persian carpet. I kept wondering if, by having Bonds as his first part, Hernan Diaz was, in turn, indirectly pointing to his authorial purpose in writing Trust. Hint: Think in terms of fiction influencing history along with history influencing fiction.

“Because he had enjoyed almost every advantage since birth” - Harold Vanner's novel about Benjamin Rask opens with these words. We come to learn how Rask used advantages of inherited wealth and his special gifts for mathematics and finance to become on of the wealthiest individuals in the world. Indeed, applying discipline and creativity, Rask can been seen as a variation on Hermann Hesse's Magister Ludi - but instead of the Glass Bead Game, Rask's sophisticated game revolves around reading stock market ticker tape. And he doesn't even have to travel to Wall Street; rather, Rask can maneuver stock transactions from the privacy of his townhouse on West 17th Street.

The plot thickens when Rask marries Helen Brevoort, a young lady who possesses special gifts of her own. However, Helen also has serious health problems. The bulk of Vanner's later chapters provides the gruesome, grisly details.

Thus we have the tale of Benjamin Rask, financial genius, husband, philanthropist, cornerstone of a great, booming American economy. But, but, but...reading between the lines, we can detect what the novel does not address: things like the institution of slavery, the decimation of Native Americans, the brutalization and exploitation of waves of immigrant populations, the pollution and destruction of huge swaths of land and water. Perhaps this unspoken dimension speaks to Hernan Diaz asking readers to question the framework and underlying assumptions of all historical accounts whatever their form: novels, biography, historical treatises, history textbooks.

MY LIFE
In the second section of Trust, we read about the life of a real financier – Andrew Bevel (real, that is, in the context of Hernan Diaz's novel). There is a particular reason Bevel wants to recap his odyssey as one of the leading men of his age, a reason relating to Harold Vanner's novel. Again, so as to avoid spoilers, I'll focus on a few specific passages, as per -

“During this time I saw not only the destiny of our great nation fulfilled but also of my own.”

Much of Bevel's autobiography amounts to a paean to American capitalism. Bevel goes to great lengths to proclaim an individual's success and the good of the country are one and the same. Sounds like someone is living in the bubble of his own mythology. To note one of the many, many instances where individual profit and the common good are contrary: the Sackler family and the pharmaceutical industry made a fortune by getting millions of Americans hooked on OxyContin.

“Woman represented only 1.5 per cent of the dilettantish speculators at the beginning of the decade (1920s). At the end they neared 40 per cent. Could there have been a clearer indicator of the disaster to come?”

Bevel's misogyny is almost laughable. When in doubt, place the blame on women. Bevel is writing this in the early 1940s, where the world of serious business has always been the exclusive domain of men. Of course, white men.

“I have a scientific approach to business. Every investment requires profound knowledge of a myriad of specific details.”

Sure, Bevel, you're very scientific but, as we find out in later sections of the novel, Bevel is also a narrow-minded, self-serving scumbag and, even worse, a criminal. Guy should have been put behind bars.

“All of us aspire to great wealth.”

Do we all, Bevel? The ultimate in arrogance: assuming everyone on the planet values what he values, Bevel carries on as if the financier combined with the Protestant work ethic is the final stage of human evolution. Pathetic.

A MEMOIR, REMEMBERED
The two preceding sections are interesting but with this third section where writer Ida Partenza reflects back on the dramatic turning point in her younger life, Trust picks up steam and becomes a page-turner.

"Fiction harmless? Look at religion. Fiction harmless? Look at the oppressed masses content with their lot because they have embraced the lies imposed on them. History itself is just a fiction - a fiction with an army. And reality? Reality is a fiction with an unlimited budget. That's what it is. And how is reality funded? With yet another fiction: money. Money is at the core of it all. An illusion we've all agreed to support. Unanimously."

So speaks Ida to her father in their rundown Brooklyn apartment. One could read Trust as an amplification of Ida's words here. So much so I'll conclude with a recommendation: Pick up this Hernan Diaz novel and read with an eye to the final two sections. We shouldn't be surprised it takes a pair of very perceptive, sensitive, intelligent women to sort things out.


Hernan Diaz, born 1970