Katie Kitamura's spectacular Audition examines the enigmatic relationship between a middle-aged woman and a younger man, until readers "can no longer distinguish between what is real and what is not real." Kitamura (A Separation) divides her spare, Manhattan-set novel into two distinct parts that open and close in the exact same settings--a "large establishment in the financial district" and a theater stage. Both feature the same main cast: an unnamed actor; her husband, Tomas; director Anne; playwright Max; and Xavier. While the actor claims the definitive "I"-voice throughout, the linchpin is actually Xavier, as the mutability of who he is drives both narratives, with unpredictable results.
In Part I, the actor agrees to lunch with Xavier but tells him, "I don't think we should see each other again.... No relationship between us can be possible." They first met each other two weeks previously, when over coffee he tells her, "I think you might be my mother." She recalls her past--abortion, miscarriage--suggesting an impossibility to his claims.
Part II unexpectedly mutates what was initially presented as a physical impossibility into an altered reality in progress: the actor is now "Xavier's mother," their relationship comprising "the affinities and understandings built over a lifetime."
Kitamura offers a virtuoso performance of sly agility, presented in elliptical, elegant prose. "There are always two stories taking place at once, the narrative inside the play and the narrative around it," the actor observes about the theater, "and the boundary between the two is more porous than you might think." Provocatively perplexing and utterly beguiling, Audition deftly captures that playacting magic on every page. --Terry Hong