Throughout the novel Trust by Hernan Diaz, Andrew Bevel's true self is scattered between multiple stories and recounts of his life by multiple authors and point of views. In the first book, Bonds, by Harold Vanner, Bevel, or in this story "Rask," is a genius in the stock market. He doesn't have much of a personality outside of being good at trading. He was portrayed in a sense as a "robot" having no other interests other than the stock market and being exceptionally good at it. But Andrew Bevel is portrayed to have no interest in the money at all. He trades because he enjoys it. The numbers are a game for him, The end is not important to him, the only important thing is "winning." To other's around him he was a genius, someone untouchable. No one could compete with is trades and no one understood the market like he did.
In Ida Partenza's point of view, Bevel is given much more personality. We see that he is not the stone cold person he is shown to be by Vanner. Bevel was shown to be much more vain. He cared what people thought and that was why he hired Partenza to write an autobiography pretending to be him. He did this to fight the beliefs that Vanner's account did. He did not like how he and his wife, Mildred, where portrayed. But in her retelling, Bevel is shown to be a man that needs control, he is not a carefree man who only enjoys trading, but instead, he is shown to be a selfish man who wants control. He seems to only care to make himself look good. Most notably, Bevel controls exactly what Partnza puts into the book and shapes the people, mostly his wife, to how he thinks the public should view them. He also talks highly of his wife and wants everyone to know how amazing she was, but when Partenza asks for examples of her fraility and kindness he says, "Oh, I think you'd do a much better job"(286). Showing that he has no interest in it whatsoever. It makes his claims seem ignorant and untrue. Like he actually doesn't know of any times, he is just saying it to make her look good, and in turn, make him look good for talking highly of her.
This all comes crashing down in the retelling of the story by his wife, Mildred Bevel. The grand reveal at the end of the book shows that Mildred was the mastermind behind Bevel's success in trading. Constantly throughout Mildred's journal, Bevel calls her and asks for his input in the deals he is making and follows her directions. This is completely different than how he wanted her to be shown in his autobiography. He showed himself having all the knowledge and power. She states, "I made him a new sketch for his volume. And it worked"(380). It was known in the first book that Bevel just enjoyed the game of finances, but Mildred believed the opposite. She said that she enjoyed the process of gaining the money, while Bevel was only interested in results.
Mildred being the mastermind makes sense as Vanner's account states that he lost "his touch" after Mildred died. His touch was indeed Mildred who encouraged each of Bevel's investments and oversaw his portfolio. They were a team and Mildred was the brain behind the financial success. Bevel was a fraud, his fortune was not gained all by his own knowledge. His wife, Mildred earned the fortune, but Bevel would never let the world know that.
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