Choose Your Own Interpretation: Audition by Katie Kitamura

I’m comfortable enough with my reading whims to admit I usually have entirely shallow reasons for reading literary fiction. It’s usually one of two things — I feel like I need to up my street cred by having something that’s been nominated for something on my book list for the year, or because something gets so many rave reviews I have to cave and read it (see: James, which for the record, I LOVED.).

Don’t get me wrong, I love literary fiction. I just know I need to squeeze a little more juice from my internal battery to read these kinds of books, and you just have to know when is a good time to pick up that Booker nom.

Such is the case with Katie Kitamura’s “Audition” — once the Booker and National Book Award noms were released, I was able to score a couple at the library (Susan Choi, you’re up later this or next month!).

Clocking in at a slim 197 pages, I grabbed “Audition” off the top of my towering TBR pile because I needed something quick and engrossing to keep me company on a weekend of waiting room stints. Literary, indeed, is Kitamura’s tale of an unnamed actress navigating relationships with two different men, one of which is her husband, and the other … well, that’s up to the reader.

And this is where literary becomes salacious and soapy if the reader is willing to put that kind of lens on it, which for me, made it nearly impossible to put down. I just had to know where Kitamura was taking me next, and if I was ever going to get some sort of resolution to the mystery at hand.

In brief, we have a story in two parts — an actress taking the lead in a play that is expected to garner some level of acclaim, when she is approached by an unknown individual claiming a family connection. When readers arrive at the second half of the novel, the story is turned on its head and you’re left to make up your own mind as to what is real and what is not.

It’s impossible, I think, to go into too much detail without spoiling what is one of the best things about this book — that as readers, we each get to decide what we really think is going on. This would make for an excellent book club read for no other reason than to hear what everyone else thinks. Personally? I think anxiety and general narcissism are the demon mixers in a mental health illness cocktail. This woman has ISSUES.

“Audition” is absolutely worth your time, and worthy of its accolades. It’s a quick read that will leave you thinking about it for a longer time than it takes to complete it. And did I mention the exquisite writing? There are some magical passages in here, especially when it comes to defining the intricacies of famiiy. Don’t skip it.