• Home
  • About Us
    • Board of Trustees
    • General Information About the Library
    • Hours & Directions
    • The Friends of The Cascade Public Library
    • Recycled Book Store
    • Policies
  • Agenda & Minutes
  • Calendar
  • eBooks
  • Library Services
    • Book Review Blog
    • Book Clubs at the Library
    • Discovery Kits
    • Idaho Job Services
  • Research
  • Programs
    • Summer Reading 2021
    • Kindergarten Readiness Program
    • Brag Tag Reading Competition
    • Girls Who Code
  • Contact Us

Cascade Public Library

Welcome to Cascade Public Library

Current Hours (as of June 1 2020) :
Mon-Fri: 11:00 am - 5:00 pm
Sat: 10:00 am - 2:00 pm
Address: 105 N Front St Cascade, ID 83611
Phone: (208) 382-4757
Email: [email protected]
  • Online Catalog
  • Your Account
  • See What’s Hot!
  • Advanced Search
  • Community Links
  • Let’s Talk About It
You are here: Home / Library Staff / Trust Exercise

Trust Exercise

June 30, 2020 By Cascade Library Staff

Trust Exercise Cover Art - Orange background with a blue folding chair laying on its sideBook: Trust Exercise

Author: Susan Choi

Reviewed by: Amelia Valasek, Library Manager

Who should read this: Anyone who enjoys stories with an unreliable narrator and perspective shift, coming of age, theater (or “theatre”), and stories that focus on how people deal with trauma.

Personal impression: I will admit I was somewhat hesitant to read the book based on the description inside the front flap, but I figured it won the national book award, so it was probably worth at least a try. I was glad I did.

Review: This book is many things, both in the sense of what happens, and in the sense of how the story is told. The first half of the book unfolds as a fairly straightforward coming-of-age story, set in an unnamed sprawling southern (or maybe western?) US city, as well as in the halls and classrooms of a charter (or maybe private?) high school for artistically talented youth. The second half of the book revisits a handful of these same characters in their adulthood and calls into question everything we read in the first half. The book ends with one brief, and final shift in perspective that in some ways clarifies the first two sections, and in other ways deepens our doubt about what we have read.

Discussing too much of what this book is “about” will ruin what makes it satisfying. This isn’t to say that “Trust Exercise” is one of those books that sets out to trick the reader or one where, to discuss the plot would ruin some type of revelatory twist at the end. Such twists often imply that there really is only one set of facts, one ultimate truth that we just failed to grasp because we were distracted by the author’s sleight of hand. There is no sleight of hand here. Instead, this is a book that shows us how truth and trauma can be elusive, slippery, muddy, perhaps not totally understood even in the stories we tell to ourselves about ourselves.

Susan Choi exhibits a range of writing styles without ever feeling contrived or dishonest. The first half of the book gives us a story of high school angst and heartache told with a brutal realism and urgency anyone who has ever been a teenager can appreciate. The second section of the book focuses on a different character who is forced to re-visit a trauma from her youth, and plays with identity and narration in an interesting and unexpected way that I enjoyed.

Back to the main blog page

Filed Under: Library Staff, Reading Tagged With: book review

Search Our Catalog

Like us

  • Facebook

Current Book Review

Book Reviews

January 21, 2022 By Cascade Library Staff

Miss Sherry has a webpage called Director’s Corner you can find her reviews there.    

Other Recently Reviewed Titles

  • Idaho Education Tax Credit
  • December Board Of trustees Meeting Agenda
  • New Display
  • Thanksgiving

Recycled Book Store

Thursday - Saturday
11 am - 2 pm

Hosted by the Friends of the Cascade Library

Have fun with math and science

Have fun with math and science game

Help The Library

Friends of the Cascade Library

Help support the Cascade Friends of the Library when you shop at Amazon by using this link Amazon.

This website and program are brought to you by the Idaho Commission for Libraries and made possible, in part, by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

Institute of Museum and Library Services Idaho Commission for Libraries

Top | Log in