Trust, by Domenico Starnone

A book about sex and power and memory.

I read this book forever ago and forgot to book-thought it, which I was reminded of by reading Susan Choi's Trust Exercise.

I basically did not like Trust much, although with the caveat that I was reading it in translation and I'm not sure what I would have thought of the original. Usually I wouldn't mention that, but for some reason I got the sense that it might be the fault of the translation. How would you know it's maybe the fault of the translation?, I hear you ask, which is an interesting thing to noodle on. Well, here are some facts about the translation:

- the translator was famous American author Jhumpa Lahiri- Jhumpa Lahiri did not, until recently, speak any Italian
- she did, however, learn Italian, and published a novel in Italian in 2018
- my Friend In Publishing said Jhumpa Lahiri speaks high-school level Italian, and was only allowed to publish a novel in Italian because she's Famous Author Jhumpa Lahiri
- my friend could just be jealous of Famous Author Jhumpa Lahiri?- I myself have never read anything by Jhumpaa Lahiri
- I don't think I believe, in general, that people can learn a second language well enough to translate in it?
- but then, most people can't publish several bestselling works of fiction, either.
- ????

The other fact that's relevant here is that Domenico Starnone is most-probably either the husband of famed pseudonymous novelist Elena Ferrante or the editor or co-author or (possibly, allegedly) author of the Elena Ferrante books. It was hard not to read these books through the lens of those speculations, and I can only say that if the translation of Trust was a good one then I don't think Starnone could be the author of the Ferrante novels.