This book explores the idea of history and by whom and how that history is written. Someone once said that history is written by the victors and, as Diaz points out, history is also written by the wealthy and powerful who can control that narrative. But is that the truth?

The first third of this book is a “novel” by Howard Vanner, loosely based on the life of legendary Wall Street tycoon, Benjamin Rask and his wife, Helen. Written in 1937, the book traces Rask’s rise, explores the questionable sources of their immense fortune and enumerates unseemly details of their personal lives.

As might be expected from a ruthless man of wealth and power, Rask decides to rebut these scurillous accusations by writing a book of his own and hires a secretary to take dictation and to help him pull together a book that will tell the truth about his family, his accumulation of wealth and his relationship with Helen. But as the project moves forward, his secretary, Ida Partenza, begins to see first hand how truth is shaded, unseemly details overlooked or molded so they are more palatable, and uncomfortable realities ignored. As Ida works on the project she keeps being confronted with uncomfortable questions about truth, who gets to control the narrative, and whether History, as such, can ever be completely truthful.

This Pulitzer Prize winning book asks big questions and although at times it feels a bit convoluted and the sudden change in narration jarring, it is well worth these slight discomforts to get to the shocking twist at the end.

Diaz is a confident writer who creates the unique world of the Rask family in order to explore some powerful and slightly subversive questions about the stories we tell about ourselves, our families and our country. This would be great Book Club book!

Brenda’s Rating: ***** (5 out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Keith, Sharon, Ken and Marian

Book Study Worthy? Yes

Read in ebook format.