Katie Kitamura’s The Audition reminded me a bit of Elizabeth Strout in style – declarative, descriptive sentences with little flash or flair – and a bit of Sally Rooney in the weird plot presented as just normal things.
In this case there are two versions of the plot with two different connections among the same characters all exploring the same themes: living with the consequences of our choices, finding (and becoming) the person we want to be amid the person we think we are supposed to be; how and why we perform particular roles in our lives and relationships – and to what effect.
Exploring these themes through two mirrored – and yet significantly differently – plots offers the reader a way to see how their own lives might fracture and follow very different trajectories based on one choice.
And while that one (or several) choices might lend to a different outcome the persistent qualities of ‘character’ – that is the values, beliefs, qualities – are both consistent and reasonably changed by circumstance – asking the question of whether we are who we are because of some intrinsic character trait or because of circumstance (leaning heavily on circumstance).
In the end I found the form interesting and the writing weird enough to be engaging. But I wasn’t particularly moved or changed by the reading and don’t see myself finding it memorable. So maybe read it for the experiment in form and character? Or not.
Literary Vice 