Women have been writing about abuse for 1000s of years, and it’s weird to then consider a book that continues that long tradition a book referencing the #metoo movement. Mostly this feels weird because, one — it necessarily limits the author and makes them potentially seen as a cynical actor and not a serious writer. Two, it’s an oddly particular way to frame an enduring and eternal issue as a fad.
So this book does involve a group reflecting back on abuses of power of a trusted authority figure. But it’s unfair to limit its qualities in the ways I’ve listed above.
Instead, this book does something quite good especially compared to books I’ve read in the last year that did it particularly poorly. Teenagers have a wonderful and truly gifted ability to feel like their lives are the center of everything and that these experiences are purely golden. So, too, do older people, sure, but it’s a particular and consistent feature of youth. So this book continues that idea by focusing on a small group of theater students in a performing arts school. In the middle of everything in this book, everything stops and jumps to adulthood.
So two books I read in the recent past decided two things — one basically claimed ACTUALLY theater students are the special gifts to the world they seem to think they are, even and especially into adulthood. Two, any book we write could quickly become an indictment of power without putting the work into crafting a strong narrative framework.
But this book decides that theater kids are, well kids, of a particular bent, and they grow into the same kinds of adults we all do with our own limits and disappointments.
(Photo: https://www.amazon.com/Trust-Exercise-Novel-Susan-Choi/dp/1250309883/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3LNIJNUZZLTZY&keywords=trust+exercise+susan+choi&qid=1555680372&s=gateway&sprefix=trust+exercise%2Caps%2C203&sr=8-1)