Trust Exercise, Susan Choi, Henry Holt and Company, 2019, 212 pp
Reading Susan Choi for me is always a trust exercise but I have yet to lose my faith in her. I have learned that she rarely goes where I think she is going. Her theme in the novels I have read before (A Person of Interest and My Education), as well as in this one, is self-perception and self-preservation. It is no wonder that radical shifts take place as a hallmark of her fiction.
The title of this novel comes from a training step for acting students in a performing arts high school located in an unnamed southern American city. It is a doozy of a drill created by a drama teacher who turns out to be an untrustworthy fellow. He is that kind of charismatic personality that suckers the impressionable to follow him blindly and eagerly.
I agree with other reviewers on the inadvisability of revealing much about the plot. Susan Choi manages two complete turn-abouts in the course of the story, so disorienting that at first I had no idea what was going on. She did not lose me though.
I think that is why I am such a fan. Despite a sort of reader's whiplash I never suffer any permanent injury. In fact, I have felt great at the end of all three novels while being highly aware of having been emotionally and intellectually challenged almost beyond my tolerance. This is what I look for in books.
The book sounds very good. Charismatic personalities are so fascinating and they often make good fodder for fiction. Twisty plots are also fun.
ReplyDeleteYou are right, Brian!
DeleteNow you've gone and done it - I'm super curious; enough to add to my TBR list.
ReplyDeleteHa! That is great!
DeleteLook, I am really trying hard to not request any more holds at the library with school starting up again, and you are making that extremely difficult! :)
ReplyDeleteIt's not my fault! All these authors keep writing such great books.
DeleteShe definitely challenges with this one. It's unsettling the high school place & people in this one ... and their return. I had various questions when I read it; the author might have been a bit over my head with what she was doing -- but that's all right. I recall liking her first novel The Foreign Student.
ReplyDeleteI get you! I need to go back and read those earlier books. Apparently she is working on a historical novel now. Can't imagine!
DeleteOkay, this is one that I have to read! I hope my library has it!
ReplyDeleteOh, I hope your library does have it. I waited for weeks on a hold list. It was worth the wait!
DeleteI've been tempted to try this author, but am also a bit intimidated. Now might not be the best time, but I will try her work when things are more settled.
ReplyDeleteShe is not hard to read but she is certainly intense!
DeleteSounds fascinating.
ReplyDeleteYes, you could say that!
Delete