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 once the plates are cleared, she tells him, "I don't think we should see each other again.... No relationship between us can be possible." During their uncomfortable exchange, Tomas enters the same restaurant, may or may not see them, and promptly walks out again. Later, the actor will comment, "After that day... things were never entirely the same between Tomas and me." The actor and Xavier first met each other two weeks previously, when Xavier appeared at the theater where the actor works. 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: months later, the actor, Xavier, and Tomas are seated together at the same restaurant. The actor, freshly successful from the latest production, mulls over the play's pivotal scene, "the transition from the first half of the play into the second, the instant of transformation--the play's hinge." The novel is undergoing exactly that as the actor is now "Xavier's mother," their relationship comprising "the affinities and understandings built over a lifetime." With his lease expiring, Xavier asks to move back home with the actor and Tomas; he's warmly welcomed into his old room. The trio is restored--albeit the reunion is fraught with missed cues and disruptive exits.
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
Shelf Talker: Katie Kitamura's spare, captivating Audition provocatively spotlights an enigmatic, transformative relationship between a middle-aged woman and a younger man.