Katie Kitamura's novel, Audition, explores the unnerving tension associated with performance and identity. Through the lens of a narratively self-aware actor, the story delves into the complexities of social perceptions and personal roles as the protagonist navigates her Manhattan lifestyle. As she reflects on the impact of representation, her experiences evoke a sense of both longing and resistance. Kitamura's prose captures a fraught physicality, wherein even mundane interactions are infused with deeper significance, challenging readers to consider how we perceive ourselves and how we are perceived by others.
"The perspectives are tortuous, unmanageable. Who is this you that might imagine their way into the opinions of unseen others?"
"How many times had I been told how much it meant to some person or another, seeing someone who looked like me on stage or on screen?"
"The narrator is anxious, hyper-vigilant. Narrowing her gaze to the terrain of the body, she invests even the solicitations of a waiter with portentous significance."
"Initially, we wonder if we are being subjected to the prose equivalent of bad acting: a surfeit of fussy movement, signifying nothing."
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