"Bonds," the first part of Trust, is set in the 1920s and explores the lives of a couple called Benjamin and Helen Rask. Benjamin was born into money but aims to make as much money as he can in his life through a business career. But Benjamin is a very callous and rude man who struggles to maintain a relationship with anyone—except Helen because they both enjoy being alone. After the Stock Market Crash of 1929, which brought about the Great Depression, Helen's mental health breaks down and she is forced into a sanitarium. Shortly thereafter, Helen starts therapy with Doctor Frahm, a man who Benjamin grows to dislike because he is unwilling to share the details of his sessions with Helen to Benjamin. Benjamin grows increasingly frustrated and uses his money to fire Dr. Frahm and hire Dr. Aftus, who employs convulsion therapy—also called electroconvulsive therapy. But after Helen undergoes convulsion therapy, she has a heart attack and dies, upsetting Benjamin but allowing him to return to New York to pursue his business endeavors and his quest to get more money.
The second section of the book is called "My Life." Nominally, it is the first-person biography of a man named Andrew Bevel, who used to be close to Helen and Benjamin Rask. In his memoir, Bevel reveals how he played a part in the 1929 Stock Market Crash. He also digs into his relationship with Helen and Benjamin, who he reveals is based on a couple in his life named Mildred and Howard Vanner. Bevel is fascinated with the Vanners and decides to write about Mildred (Helen), who he felt was incredibly misunderstood. He talks about Mildred's interests, her mental illness, and her philanthropic efforts, as well as her life more generally.
The next section of the book is called "A Memoir, Remembered," which is told from the perspective of Ida Partenza, who was formerly employed by Andrew Bevel. One day, Partenza decides to visit her former employer's mansion. When she gets there, she discovers it has been turned into a large and fantastical museum. The museum houses Bevel's documents—documents which are no doubt personally interesting to many across the world. And it was Partenza who helped Bevel write his biography, which was covered in the previous section of Trust. "A Memoir, Remembered," is fundamentally an exploration of Partenza's relationship with Bevel, who she grew to admire despite taking a job with him to pay off her debt. She developed a voice for Bevel which allowed him to continue his business pursuits, but she was still perplexed by Bevel's relationship with the aforementioned Mildred. Finally, at the end of her visit to her former employer's mansion, she finds Mildred's hidden personal diary.
In the fourth and final section of the novel, entitled "Futures," Mildred writes in the first person about her experiences in the hospital in the days immediately before her death. This section is, in fact, Mildred's diary. As she grows older and increasingly unable to take care of herself, Mildred channels her energy into the diary, which she uses to regain a sense of independence. In her diary, Mildred lets readers know that she was Andrew's closest confidant and was largely responsible for his financial success. Mildred also reveals that she was the one who discovered an issue with the stock market in 1929 that allowed Bevel to profit tremendously from the stock market crash.
Thematically, Trust explores themes of the quest for power (and the struggle to maintain it), personal and societal history, the conflict between the aristocracy and lower classes, and truth and deception. It is an incredibly complex novel that is divided into four sections. And within those four sections, the narrator in each explores their history and their relationship with different people—including Andrew Bevel, the Risks, and Mildred.
At its core, Trust is a memory novel. It explores our relationship with the past and the lengths to which someone will go to remember the past. Not only that, it provides commentary on the cruel and oftentimes illegal games rich people embarked on to make money in the stock market—all while other people suffer because of the downturn in the stock market. It is also a novel meant to entertain its readers (as virtually all novels are meant to do) and keep them interested in the message and themes of the novel. And entertain it does: the novel is widely regarded as one of the best books of 2022.
