by Hernan Diaz, 2022
Pulitzer Prize Winner. Two versions of the life of Andrew Bevel and his wife, Mildred, extremely wealthy as a result of playing the stock market, culminating in the crash of 1929. The first version is a novel by Harold Vanner depicting them as Benjamin Rask and his wife, Helen. The second version is the real Benjamin Rask (Andrew Bevel) telling the story his way, depicting his wife, Mildred, (Helen in the first book) as a sweet, sickly, quiet person who enjoyed music and flower arranging and died of cancer.
Then, the third part of the novel is about Ida Partenza, a young Italian girl who is hired by Andrew Bevel to write his version of the story. She is the only character I liked. She is so smart and fearless and real. Andrew Bevel dies of a heart attack before they are finished with his version of the memoir.
The fourth part takes place years later, when Andrew Bevel’s house is a museum and Ida can go in and look at books and journals that were kept. She finds one of Mildred’s journals inside a log book, takes it home and deciphers it. That is the last part of the book. It turns out Mildred was the genius behind Andrew Bevel. She is the brains behind all that made them so extremely wealthy.
Interesting book, well-written, but I didn’t like the ending. Mildred’s last writing in her journal: “In and out of sleep. Like a needle coming out from under a black cloth and then vanishing again. Unthreaded.”
There were a lot of big words in this book: sycophants, abnegation, aphorisms, infelicitous, incorporeal, hemicrania, arbitrage, simulacra.
A couple of quotes from near the end-Mildred’s journal while in the Swiss hospital:
“Sleepless. Never fail to find an exasperating sound, an awkward memory, a sore spot, a grievance.”
Very near the end, again from the journal: “Priest came with soggy offerings of comfort. God is the most uninteresting answer to the most interesting questions.”