I so admire Katie Kitamura’s prose that I really wanted to like her new novel Audition, but it simply did not work for me. While the prose carries the reader along, I did not buy into the idea of two different realities. Perhaps I would have done better with it if I had known ahead of time to expect weirdness in Part II. I was so curious to see where Part I would lead and then abruptly the scenario I was following ended. I simply did not believe the plot in Part II either. I didn’t think the couple would have allowed their son to move in spur-of-the-moment and bring his girlfriend into such a small Manhattan apartment, where they all lived together for a while, a girlfriend he had never mentioned. No one seemed to have any sex. The mother would have certainly heard the two lovers, but Kitamura did not touch on this at all, although the mother’s interior dialogue made up most of the novel and she was extremely observant of everything else. I did not believe the father’s behavior or the sudden ending. Writers read the work of other writers for inspiration as well as pleasure. This book was a disappointment on both counts.
