Audition

⚖The case for it

Book Marks logged sixteen raves. Lovia Gyarkye in The Nation called it Kitamura's most ambitious work, 'a nervy tale that turns on itself to test the boundaries of the novel form,' with prose she described as taut and nimble. Sam Byers in the Guardian found 'a literary performance of true uncanniness.' Kirkus starred it as searing, chilly and psychologically profound. Jane Hu in Bookforum made the strongest technical case: Kitamura builds optical illusions out of sentences, so a scene you already read means something different once the second half reframes it, and you recalibrate mid-book rather than at the end. Lauren Groff's line, that it is a book so cold it feels hot, is the one readers keep repeating back to each other. The institutions agreed. It reached the Booker shortlist and was a finalist for both the Pulitzer and the National Book Critics Circle award.

— the honest librarian

✕The case against

Seven mixed reviews and two pans sit on that same Book Marks page. Leaf Arbuthnot in the Telegraph was blunt: 'This passionless novel is for trendy fiction courses, not real people,' and called the writing lifeless. The Guardian ran a second piece, by Anthony Cummins, that panned it outright: 'I just didn't get it,' with 'a hair's breadth between intrigue and time-wasting.' Emma Alpern at Vulture granted the design and still balked, writing that the aridity is the point but hard to stomach, and that the book is almost all idea. Lidija Haas in Harper's found it unsatisfying because Kitamura denies readers the relief of immersion. David Burton at ArtsHub wrote that she is more interested in being clever than being compelling. Even Maggie Doherty's favorable New Republic review complained the novels 'skim the surfaces of interpersonal relationships, offering neat snapshots rather than rich and full portraits.' Ordinary readers repeat one thing: the last stretch turns surreal and explains nothing. It lost the Booker to Szalay's Flesh and the Pulitzer to Kraus.

— the honest librarian

4h

honest hours

6

sittings