BookBrowse Reviews Trust Exercise by Susan Choi

BookBrowse:

A wildly inventive, surprising portrait of the inner lives of teenagers enrolled in a competitive arts school.

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At face value, Susan Choi's Trust Exercise appears to be a familiar story. Narratives centering around teens fighting it out to see who will be deemed the most talented have existed in the entertainment lexicon for decades (Fame, Glee, even High School Musical). However, it's telling that this is a story rarely encountered in a literary form, and even more rare that it's an adult author choosing to tell it. This combination creates a novel that both moves past the "teen drama" and simultaneously revels in it.

Trust Exercise primarily follows Sarah and David, two teens attending a prestigious performing arts high school who fall in love. Their romance quickly becomes a maelstrom of emotion that involves everyone who comes in contact with it and particularly draws the notice of their demanding, charismatic acting teaching, Mr. Kingsley. However, as the novel continues on, it becomes clear that the narrative we think we're being told may not be what actually happened. This is as much of a synopsis as can be given without spoiling the intricacies of the plot, but rest assured, many surprises remain in store. This story is an insightful look at how the relationships we form in high school impact us even when that period of time has closed, and it forces the reader to ask the question, "Can there ever really be one truth?"

The draw of Trust Exercise is undoubtedly Choi's portrayal of her teenaged characters and particularly how they are influenced by the social setting of the Citywide Academy for the Performing Arts. She writes both Sarah and David in an extremely nuanced manner by shaping them through their contradictions. Their flaws are obvious, but also complex. The problems in their relationship seem both earth-shatteringly inevitable and also incredibly solvable. In this way, Choi perfectly captures the reality of the extreme magnification of emotion that occurs in high school adolescence. Everything appears important and necessary, when in actuality most of the events they experience are mundane. Similarly, the characters themselves seem both ridiculously over-the-top and grounded in real emotion. It is this quality which makes them so compelling; the audience is slightly repelled, but still deeply invested in the characters' stories.

The only element which fell slightly flat for me was the plot pacing. The initial section of the book in which we follow Sarah and David's relationship is undoubtedly slow, and it is unclear for around the first one hundred pages or so where exactly the novel is going. Choi then abruptly flips the script on the reader and introduces an entirely new angle and perspective on the story of Sarah and David. While this twist was one of my favorite aspects of the story, I do think that it could have been more poignant if the section focusing on Sarah and David had been shorter. However, this is a small gripe, as the initial portion of the novel is immensely readable in its own right.

Trust Exercise's impressiveness lies in its inability to be defined. It's about the stories women tell themselves to explain their difficult relationships and encounters with men. It's about the intensity of being a teenager, and the extreme depth of emotional experience that occurs without an understanding of what it means to who you are and who you will become. Susan Choi's story taps into a universal experience - the impact high school has on shaping not only the person you are, but the narratives you construct.

This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in April 2019, and has been updated for the May 2020 edition. Click here to go to this issue.