Susan Choi: The Limitation of Perspective

Set in a performing-arts high school in the American South, Susan Choi’s newest novel, Trust Exercise, opens with the teen love affair of Sarah and David, both aspiring actors. At first, the narrative seems bound to their doomed relationship, offering us the infatuations and misunderstandings of a conventional love story. Their abrupt breakup comes as a surprise, redirecting our focus to the web of passions and betrayals not only among the students, but also between the students and the adults charged with educating them. As adolescents often do, the characters in Trust Exercise perceive themselves to be mature beyond their years, and their decisions ripple with consequences across generations—a hallmark of Choi’s writing.

Choi’s previous books—, , , and , which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize—have always been immersive experiences, offering a depth of feeling and perspective as well as a Biblical aura. But uses Choi’s quality of voice to vault the book in an entirely new direction, after a minor character interrupts the narration, demanding to be heard, telling her own truth about events we previously thought we understood. In the hands of this more-reliable narrator, the book launches forward once again, although the reader’s doubts begin to grow. To whom