Ida Partenza: The Ghostwriter Who Stole Mildred’s Voice

Overview

Ida Partenza is the young stenographer hired by financier Andrew Bevel to ghostwrite his autobiography in Hernán Díaz’s novel Trust. She is the narrator of the novel’s longest section, which chronicles her gradual discovery that Bevel’s story—and the official account of his wife Mildred—is a carefully constructed fiction. Ida’s arc moves from obedient secretary to determined truth‑seeker, culminating in her theft of Mildred Bevel’s hidden diary, “Futures.” A first‑generation Italian‑American raised by an anarchist printer in Brooklyn, Ida embodies the novel’s central tensions between loyalty and integrity, poverty and power, silence and voice.

Plot Role

Ida’s role is dual: she is both a character within the story and the primary lens through which the reader questions the reliability of the other narratives in the book. After winning a secretarial position at Bevel Investments in June 1938 (/books/trust/), she is personally selected by Bevel to transcribe and edit his life story. She becomes his ghostwriter, tasked with “removing contradictions” and adding “a feminine touch” to his version of events. As she writes, she uncovers discrepancies between Bevel’s idealized portrait of Mildred and the evidence she finds—annotated books, a backwards‑written blotter, and ultimately a hidden ledger containing Mildred’s own memoir. Ida’s decision to steal that diary and present it as the novel’s final section makes her the agent who restores Mildred’s erased voice.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Ida is driven by a need for economic security and, later, by a hunger for truth. She teaches herself typing and shorthand to escape the debt her father’s printer’s income cannot cover. When Bevel offers her a well‑paid permanent position, she accepts despite his demand for absolute secrecy. She shows pragmatism and adaptability: during her job interview she fabricates a “potential autobiography” to stand out, and when blackmailed she confidently outmaneuvers the blackmailer by threatening that Bevel is onto him.

Her intelligence and critical awareness emerge as she compares Bevel’s dictation to Harold Vanner’s novel Obligations and to the physical artifacts she uncovers. She begins secretly taking her own notes. When Bevel buys the publishing house that printed Vanner’s book and plans to pulp every copy, Ida realizes the lengths he will go to control his narrative. Fear does not stop her; instead, it sharpens her resolve. She steals Mildred’s blotter from the locked bedroom, and later the “Futures” diary from the library. Each action shows a woman who learns to wield narrative power against the man who tried to erase it.

Chronological Arc

Ida’s story unfolds across the novel’s second and fourth parts. In the opening chapters (Part II), she is a Brooklyn‑born daughter of a proud but embittered anarchist. She recalls mocking the poet Arturo Giovannitti with her father, only to later understand that her father was mocking his own unfulfilled ambitions. She wins the job at Bevel Investments by typing a one‑page “potential autobiography,” a fiction that pleases Bevel. During her first meeting, he reveals that Vanner’s Obligations has defamed him and his wife; he wants Ida to write the “true” account.

Over the following months (explicit facts of this section: she transcribes Bevel, composes Mildred’s biography, and invents a fake memoir for a blackmailer, all while researching at the New York Public Library). She discovers that Bevel’s story is being fabricated from her own inventions: he repeats an anecdote about Mildred and detective novels that Ida herself had created. This realization crystallizes her disillusionment.

After Bevel’s sudden heart attack, Ida works for Mr. Shakespear but continues to refine the memoir on her own. Years later, in an almost empty library, she finds Mildred’s diary concealed inside a ledger. She steals it and resolves to let Mildred’s voice be heard, closing her own story with that act of reclamation.

Relationships

Andrew Bevel: Ida’s employer, who treats her as a tool for image‑making. He manipulates her with salary, apartments, and champagne, yet she never becomes his mistress as she feared he might intend. She sees through his monologues about cooperation being self‑interest and increasingly recognizes the harm he has caused.

Her father (the printer): Her most emotionally complex bond. He is an anarchist who refuses automated machines and lives in squalor, proud and isolated. Ida covers for him financially and emotionally, but she also chooses Bevel’s side when forced—e.g., lying to her father about the nature of her work and moving into Bevel’s Manhattan apartment. The final reconciliation comes after Bevel’s death, when her father buys a knife from her for a single penny, a gesture of acceptance.

Jack: Ida’s boyfriend, who initially appears supportive but later attempts to blackmail her by stealing pages of the memoir and sending a goon. Ida exposes him by threatening that Bevel will destroy him, forcing Jack to flee to Chicago.

Mildred Bevel: Though dead before Ida’s story begins, Mildred is the absent presence Ida becomes obsessed with. She finds traces of Mildred’s intelligence—annotated books in multiple languages, the backward‑writing blotter—and ultimately decides that Mildred’s diary must be preserved, even at the risk of betraying Bevel’s trust.

Key Decisions and Consequences

1. Fabricating an identity in the job application: To stand out, Ida writes a forward‑looking “autobiographie potentielle” that omits her real background. This lands her the job but also commits her to a life of double‑consciousness, hiding her father’s anarchist ties from Bevel.
2. Accepting the secretarial position under secrecy: She pledges never to reveal Bevel’s story, a promise that later forces her to lie to her father and Jack, deepening her isolation.
3. Stealing Mildred’s blotter: During a house tour, she pockets a blotter covered in chaotic backwards writing, numbers, and symbols—a physical clue that the official portrait of Mildred is incomplete.
4. Confronting the blackmailer: Instead of handing over pages, she bribes him with $10 to reveal that Jack is behind the scheme, then persuades the man that Bevel is after Jack, forcing Jack to leave New York.
5. Stealing Mildred’s diary: Years after Bevel’s death, Ida finds “Futures” hidden in a ledger, steals it, and rationalizes the theft as a long‑delayed conversation. This act gives Mildred the final word in the novel.

Theme and Symbol Connections

Ida’s arc is the novel’s primary vehicle for exploring narrative unreliability and truth ([/books/trust/themes/narrative-unreliability-and-truth/](theme page)). She experiences firsthand how stories are crafted, censored, and weaponized. Her own role as ghostwriter blurs the line between stenography and authorship. The wealth and power theme ([/books/trust/themes/wealth-and-power/](theme page)) is embodied in Bevel’s ability to buy publishing houses and silence critics—until Ida undermines his control by preserving Mildred’s testimony. The gender and authorship theme ([/books/trust/themes/gender-and-authorship/](theme page)) is central: Ida writes on behalf of a man, and Mildred’s voice is buried by that collaboration. Ida’s theft is a feminist reclaiming of narrative. The connection to self‑interest vs. common good ([/books/trust/themes/self-interest-vs-common-good/](theme page)) appears when Ida chooses her own independence (and access to the truth) over loyalty to either her father or Bevel. Finally, memory and legacy ([/books/trust/themes/memory-and-legacy/](theme page)) are at stake: Ida decides whose memory will survive—not Bevel’s vanity project, but Mildred’s words.

The symbol of the knife recurs when Ida buys one for her father, who refuses to accept it as a gift and instead purchases it for a penny. That transaction represents the ending of their old bond and the beginning of a more honest one.

Questions and Answers

Why does Ida take the job when she knows Bevel wants her to fabricate a version of the truth?

Ida takes the job because it offers economic security she has never had. She is deeply in debt, her father cannot support himself, and Bevel’s salary is far higher than any temp work. She also rationalizes that she can write honestly within the constraints—at least at first. Only later does she realize the full moral cost of her complicity.

How does Ida discover the truth about Mildred Bevel?

She discovers discrepancies through concrete evidence: Mildred’s library is full of heavily annotated books in multiple languages, contradicting Bevel’s portrait of a “simple” woman. She also finds a blotter covered in chaotic backwards writing and symbols, and later the diary “Futures” hidden inside a ledger. These physical artifacts show Mildred’s intellectual depth and emotional turmoil that Bevel deliberately erased.

What is the significance of Ida’s relationship with her father?

Her father represents the working‑class, anti‑capitalist world Ida is leaving behind. He is proud, bitter, and unable to accept her success in the world of finance. Their relationship forces Ida to confront her own values: she chooses Bevel’s employment over her father’s ideology, but remains devoted to him financially and emotionally. The final reconciliation, marked by the knife transaction, suggests she has found a way to honor both worlds.

Why does Ida steal Mildred’s diary, and is it ethical?

Ida steals the diary because she believes Mildred deserves to be heard after being silenced by Bevel and Vanner. She reasons that she is restoring a lost voice. The ethics are ambiguous: she is taking private property, but the diary is a historical document whose suppression serves an injustice. The novel does not judge her—it presents the theft as an act of restitution.

What does Ida learn about the nature of truth in Trust?

Ida learns that truth is not fixed but is constructed through narrative power. Bevel’s wealth allows him to impose his version of events, while Mildred’s truth survives only in hidden artifacts. Ida’s own ghostwriting shows her that truth can be manufactured. By the end, she chooses to preserve a contradictory account, embracing uncertainty over a single authoritative story. For more on this theme, see ([/books/trust/themes/narrative-unreliability-and-truth/](the narrative unreliability theme page)).