SAN FRANCISCO
Lee Heidhues 6.1.2025
I finished Katie Kitamura’s ‘Audition’. It certainly is a dark story. I am still trying to make sense of it. I can only conclude the unnamed narrator decides at the conclusion of this short 197 page story, “I can’t take it anymore.”
Particularly since the plot line has two distinctive threads. In the first half of the story the narrator, an accomplished stage and screen actress, establishes a relationship with a young man, Xavier. He claims to be the narrator’s son. He most definitely is not as the story unspools.
In the story’s second half Xavier is indeed the narrator’s son in a quick and jarring juxtaposition in the story line. He returns home to live with his mom, the narrator, and his father, Tomas. The entire relationship inevitably collapses. I must read ‘Audition’ a second time. It’s not so much that the story is difficult to follow, particularly in the second half.
What’s challenging is the relationship with her son Xavier, the narrator is dissecting. Why would the narrator know Xavier is not her son in the first half of the story. When in the second half, Xavier is portrayed as the son and proceeds to destroy the entire family relationship.
Xavier’s father Tomas is an integral part of this mind bending story. Initially Tomas is the strong, elusive, silent parent who welcomes Xavier home. But when Xavier precipitates the ruination of the family unit the father Tomas is a willing collaborator. He is both psychologically and physically battered in the end.
Part of which has to do with the eerie demonic Hana who moves into the New York City apartment with Xavier and his parents. The narrator has a very frosty relationship with Hana from the outset. While Tomas is obviously smitten in a way which leads to a very perverse denouement.
This is the kind of dark story which would benefit by Katie Kitamura concluding the novel with an essay about the thought process which went into the creation of this novel. The development of the plot and characters.
Katie Kitamura’s novels, and I have read several, are different in the sense the protagonist is never named. There are never any quotation marks. The sentence construction is often disjointed which ads to the fascination with her writing style. Katie Kitamura’s books are best digested in a quiet contemplative setting, Because the story lines are invariably so deep. ‘Audition’ in particular
The nuts and bolts of ‘Audition’ are straight forward.
It’s the psychological impact which merits a lot of scrutiny. And for the simple literary consumer there’s a lot to digest in ‘Audition’. As there is with the narrator who concludes without saying it, “I can’t take it anymore.”
Lee's Perspective 