Belief and Trust as Characterizing Elements

As I hinted at in class, a large part of Allegra Goodman's novel The Cookbook Collector is belief.  This element could also be called faith, which has a more religious connotation, and there is a religious (Jewish) component to this idea, but I would like to think that it is a quality that encompasses more than religion.  Also involved is trust, and Goodman is definitely commenting on how a character can be defined by what/who that person trusts.

Many of the characters in the novel are definitely not completely trusting.  George for one has this permanent skepticism of Jess' tree movement (perhaps also motivated by jealousy), and definitely does not trust her lifestyle.  Even when George is introduced, he is defined as "suspicious--his friends say paranoid" (16).  Yet despite this overwhelming cynicism, George neither has  a religion, nor has specific political beliefs, and seems to put his trust in material objects.  He is a collector, equates objects with wealth, and does not share with just anybody--"he might have considered donating some of his acquisitions to deserving libraries, but he...spurned research institutions" (17). One can't help but to call George sort of scrooge- or Midas-like, building his castle, hoarding expensive objects, carefully investing in certain companies, only trusting objects and not truly trusting people (Jess being the exception).  

George's lack of belief in causes and ideals and trust in the material only serves to contrast with Jess' trust in people and fascination with ideas.  She is committed to Save the Trees, spends her academic career reveling in other people's ideas of life, and is drawn to Judaism.  She trusts her sister to be successful; she trusts herself to be impulsive; she trusts her father to disapprove of her life choices.  And yet Goodman does not paint her as overly trusting  She is no more hurt in this novel than anyone else by mistrusting.  In fact, she ends up better off than Emily, who is filled with a sense of betrayal at the memorial service when she learns that Jonathan really did steal her intellectual property (351).  Jess does not end up damaged because of her trust, but rewarded.

Because George is depicted as too untrusting, and Jess' trust and belief is glorified to a certain extent, Goodman may be commenting on how the balance of life should lean a little bit towards the trusting, since the fact is pretty intangible.  The startling last lines of the novel may further strengthen this idea: "George and Jess floated together, although nothing lasted.  They held each other, although nothing stayed" (394).  Trust/believe/have faith, because otherwise your life will just be worse for no reason.  Goodman, on a very basic level, may just be writing a story that is claiming that "life is what you make of it."