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Irish Times
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Audition by Katie Kitamura: This hotly anticipated novel is psychologically chilling
Audition Author : Katie Kitamura ISBN-13 : 978-1911717324 Publisher : Fern Press Guideline Price : £18.99 American author Katie Kitamura has acquired a reputation as something of a writer's writer – her work meditates on writing craft, interrogating the relationship between the ideas underpinning her work and the form of their delivery. Her previous novels have been well received; the most recent, Intimacies , was longlisted for the US National Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award and named by Barack Obama as one of his favourite books of 2021. As such, Audition , her fifth publication, has been hotly anticipated. This is Kitamura's third novel with an unreliable, unnamed first-person narrator – a point of view that allows the author to activate her great strength as a puppet-master of perspective and interpretation. The short novel is constructed in two parts; both are narrated by the same accomplished actor who is contemplating the roles she must play both on stage and off. In her current production she is challenged by a scene where the character undergoes a subtle transformation with little direction: 'the movement from the woman in grief to the woman of action'. This is echoed in the structure of the novel where between parts one and two the reader is thrust into a different dimension with no explanation. At the beginning of the novel, the actor is meeting an attractive young man, Xavier, for lunch when her husband happens upon them. The nature of their relationship, and the tense, unstable, dynamic between them, is psychologically riveting and propels the narrative forward. READ MORE In part two, Xavier has situated himself in an entirely different position in her life. The connective tissue between the two set pieces is the narrator's hypnotic unspooling of the narrative, but the world in which this novel is set is an abstract one, with little concrete detail to ground the reader. The degree to which that alienates or tantalises is a matter of taste. [ The 'other Americans': 20 books that celebrate US literature's rich diversity Opens in new window ] This is the third of Kitamura's novels where the theme of interpretation has been central to the narrative. Not least of all is the question of how people, and therefore her characters, interpret their own agency or lack thereof in their lives. It is interesting that both parts of this novel could be read in either order and provoke similar questions of interpretation and understanding. It would be miscategorising to position this novel as a psychological thriller, but it is nonetheless psychologically chilling. If you are drawn to novels that raise more questions than answers, this one is for you.
Express Tribune
17-02-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
The value of other perspective
In November 2024, the US National Book Award winners were announced. The National Book Awards are one of the most prestigious book awards in the US and the programme dates back to the 1930s. The winner in the non-fiction category last year was a book by Jason De Leon, an anthropology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. Titled Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling, the book is built on years of research and field work in central America by the author to understand the lives, hopes, aspirations and pain of those who are forced to flee their home and seek asylum in the US, as well as those who make this journey possible. It is a complex portrait of human smuggling, and the lives of those who are part of it. While beautifully written, it nonetheless asks difficult questions about freedom, policy, law enforcement, cruelty and corruption at all levels. In its citation the award committee said "this profoundly political book holds the US to account for its cruelty, without getting lost in the bizarre American politics of border walls." Jason De León compassionately illuminates a world of limited choices, when young men are conscripted into gangs and violence, a life of constant vigilance and early death, but most of all, a life not of the smugglers' own choosing. As the topic of migration and human smuggling becomes even more politicised, understanding the human toll and the difficult choices people make is even more important today than it was a month ago. But there is bigger issue here: in a world where we put people in neat buckets of those "with us" and those "against us" - or labels of patriots and rebels - should we not question our own assumptions? Should we not think about the choices people make and the forces that shape those choices? Should we not wonder what would we do if we were to be in the same situation? Closer to home celebrated Indian author Arundhati Roy wrote about her own interactions with Naxalites (sometimes also called Maoist insurgents) in her 2011 book, Walking with the Comrades. This book, like Jason's, focuses on the individuals, not just on the political part of the story. It focuses on a group that is viewed as insurgents and anti-state rebels by the Indian government. The author dispels many myths about who the people are, and why they think the way they do. She finds many ideas and practices of the movement deeply problematic, but she is also empathetic about human suffering, pain, frustration and marginalisation. The narrative is rich, honest and beautiful. At a meeting with some students in January, I learned that there are courses at universities in Pakistan that use Roy's text. I was really pleased (or perhaps surprised) to hear that, but also troubled that no such text critical of our own policies is ever part of the curriculum. I went to bookstores in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad, both in affluent areas and in old markets, and met with booksellers and those who were casually browsing, but there was rarely anything on the shelves that would humanise those who we demonise. The lived experience of those who we are quick to label, or otherise, was not to be found. Perhaps those books have not been written. Perhaps they have been written but not published. The point here is not to agree with Jason De Leon or Arundhati Roy (and I am quite certain that they do not expect the readers to not disagree on some premise, point or argument), but to push ourselves to understand others. To allow for alternative perspectives, in books, op-eds, poetry and prose, is not a sign of weakness, but one of strength. In a hyper-polarised world, we should remember that putting people and their lives in pre-defined bins only creates sharp edges, not an integrated society.
