Trust

This book interested me because of the social criticism angle - the depiction of extreme wealth during the build up to the crash and depression. I didn't know that much about it - turns out there is a four part structure in which you first get a "novel" about a financier and his wife; Then you get an autobiography meant to correct the record which the "novel" misrepresented and to advance an ideology of the virtue of self-interest; then a memoir from the ghost writer of that autobiography as she discovers that the correcting of the record was just as distorting as the original "novel"; and then finally a diary from the wife of the financier in which you get a broader idea of her role in his career.

As it turns out, there isn't a ton of social criticism in the sense of the extreme inequality of wealth. Instead the focus is on how history is made, how females were erased or misrepresented in that history. It is very well written, though I never really feel like it fully landed any major idea. I would have found the (semi-) feminist message more convincing if it wasn't wholly fiction. Or it would have felt more impactful if the wife's personality felt more connected to the lower classes somehow. Instead, it felt like people were mostly arguing over reputations, which just isn't as interesting.

Stunning novel, and unexpectedly moving