Trust

This book received many awards and I had it on my to-read list for a long time. I just finished it and can only say a few things about it without revealing too much of the plot.

First, it was a story devoid of emotion, written very matter-of-factly, without useless details or embellishments, and that was a relief! I truly enjoyed this almost journalistic writing, direct, simple, to the point.

Second, the book is divided into four main parts. I enjoyed the first one, didn’t like the second one at all, but I loved the third one—my favourite, I think—and had a hard time with the fourth part, although it was short and it finally revealed the « secret. » I still don’t understand why the second part was necessary.

Third, the ending did surprise me, even though I had read tons of reviews and summaries. That was nice.

Finally, this book is hailed as a strong feminist story, but I don’t think I agree. Yes, men are arrogant and selfish, but I didn’t find the wife’s character to be much better, in the end. Only the woman in the third part was really interesting to me, because she asked herself many hard questions about what she was doing, and she was truly honest with her answers.

Overall, I enjoyed this book (a bit more than 10 hours of narrations by four different readers). I enjoyed learning about many historical events and interesting facts about the stock market, I enjoyed the clean journalistic writing, and I was annoyed that I had not guessed the truth by the end of the book, which is a positive point. I can’t say I loved the book, but I am glad I read it, it was a good « vacation » for my brain.

PS. ‘Trust » in this case is a play on words related to Trust Funds, financial investments that are managed by « financiers, » the main players in this book.