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serendipitysbooks 's review for:
Audition
by Katie Kitamura
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Book number 6 from the 2025 Booker Prize longlist, albeit one that I read before its longlisting, is Audition. Talk about a difficult book to review - especially when I'm still not entirely sure what happened! Given the author has said that there are at least two mutally exclusive interpretations that she hopes are true, I'm giving myself a pass for my confusion. It does make me wish I'd read this as part of a group. It's a book that would benefit from discussion and rereading.
The book opens with a well-known older actress having dinner with a much younger man at a restaurant, and it takes some time for the question of who they are to each other to be answered. And then, in the second part of the novel, that answer is totally turned on its head. Our narrator is clearly unreliable, but that trope is not being used cheaply or manipulatively here. Performance - both on the stage and off it, for others and for ourselves - and perception are key themes, as are relationships, especially that of mothering. It's a novel you read for the ideas rather than the plot or the characters. It's intellectual and enigmatic; a book that doesn't offer easy answers (or even many reliable clues) but will leave you thinking. It's bound to be a polarising read - and not one I would recommend to casual readers looking for light, escapist reading.
The book opens with a well-known older actress having dinner with a much younger man at a restaurant, and it takes some time for the question of who they are to each other to be answered. And then, in the second part of the novel, that answer is totally turned on its head. Our narrator is clearly unreliable, but that trope is not being used cheaply or manipulatively here. Performance - both on the stage and off it, for others and for ourselves - and perception are key themes, as are relationships, especially that of mothering. It's a novel you read for the ideas rather than the plot or the characters. It's intellectual and enigmatic; a book that doesn't offer easy answers (or even many reliable clues) but will leave you thinking. It's bound to be a polarising read - and not one I would recommend to casual readers looking for light, escapist reading.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infidelity, Miscarriage, Abortion