An Interview | Susan Choi

By Dana Wilson

Susan Choi’s new novel Trust Exercise, a National Book Award Finalist, is a brilliant, inventive, and deeply thought-provoking exploration of the ways in which we tell our stories and the inherent tensions between individual and collective experience. Set in a performing arts high school, the story begins with Sarah and David, two young students whose romantic relationship unfolds under the scrutiny of their classmates and their charismatic acting teacher, Mr. Kingsley. Because of the nature of the story, I hesitate to share anything more about the plot: the reading is a trust exercise in and of itself, and to know too much at the outset is almost to betray the trust that the novel inherently asks of us.Check out the interview at The Brooklyn Review.