Katie Kitamura

You know, even now as we're talking to each other, even in our most intimate moments, we're always playing parts of some kind or another. Yeah. whether that is a part of a mother or a daughter or a partner or a writer or a student or a teacher. There are all these parts that we play every single day, and they come with quite prescriptive scripts in a lot of ways.

And the thing that struck me when I was thinking about audition is how seamlessly we flip between parts without almost being aware of it. So, for example, I can be... talking to my husband about something and I will be using a certain vocabulary and a certain way of speaking and then my children can come in and literally my voice will almost go up half an octave. The vocabulary changes completely.

And the thing that struck me when I was thinking about audition is how seamlessly we flip between parts without almost being aware of it. So, for example, I can be... talking to my husband about something and I will be using a certain vocabulary and a certain way of speaking and then my children can come in and literally my voice will almost go up half an octave. The vocabulary changes completely.

And the thing that struck me when I was thinking about audition is how seamlessly we flip between parts without almost being aware of it. So, for example, I can be... talking to my husband about something and I will be using a certain vocabulary and a certain way of speaking and then my children can come in and literally my voice will almost go up half an octave. The vocabulary changes completely.

It's bizarre. And yet that is how the vast majority of people go through their day. And we're not even really aware of it. I think in audition, the central character is very much aware of it she sees where those cracks are and at a certain point she can no longer paper over them

It's bizarre. And yet that is how the vast majority of people go through their day. And we're not even really aware of it. I think in audition, the central character is very much aware of it she sees where those cracks are and at a certain point she can no longer paper over them

It's bizarre. And yet that is how the vast majority of people go through their day. And we're not even really aware of it. I think in audition, the central character is very much aware of it she sees where those cracks are and at a certain point she can no longer paper over them

There's kind of two narratives of creative development. development in the novel. There is The development of the younger man who has a very standard kind of coming of age story. In the beginning, he seems to not know exactly what he's doing. And by the end, he has emerged as an artist. And that is a narrative that I think we're very familiar with. We understand the shape of that.

There's kind of two narratives of creative development. development in the novel. There is The development of the younger man who has a very standard kind of coming of age story. In the beginning, he seems to not know exactly what he's doing. And by the end, he has emerged as an artist. And that is a narrative that I think we're very familiar with. We understand the shape of that.

There's kind of two narratives of creative development. development in the novel. There is The development of the younger man who has a very standard kind of coming of age story. In the beginning, he seems to not know exactly what he's doing. And by the end, he has emerged as an artist. And that is a narrative that I think we're very familiar with. We understand the shape of that.

The narrative that is much less clear even now is a narrative of what happens to a woman, particularly in the middle of her life. Right. Which is astonishing to me. I mean, one thing that was striking to me when I published Intimacies is that the central character in that novel is explicitly not a young woman. She is in her mid to late 30s, say.

The narrative that is much less clear even now is a narrative of what happens to a woman, particularly in the middle of her life. Right. Which is astonishing to me. I mean, one thing that was striking to me when I published Intimacies is that the central character in that novel is explicitly not a young woman. She is in her mid to late 30s, say.

The narrative that is much less clear even now is a narrative of what happens to a woman, particularly in the middle of her life. Right. Which is astonishing to me. I mean, one thing that was striking to me when I published Intimacies is that the central character in that novel is explicitly not a young woman. She is in her mid to late 30s, say.

But in a lot of descriptions of the novel, she was described as a young woman, moves to The Hague to start a new life. And that was really interesting to me because it was almost as if story and narrative only happens to the young. Which we know is not true.

But in a lot of descriptions of the novel, she was described as a young woman, moves to The Hague to start a new life. And that was really interesting to me because it was almost as if story and narrative only happens to the young. Which we know is not true.

But in a lot of descriptions of the novel, she was described as a young woman, moves to The Hague to start a new life. And that was really interesting to me because it was almost as if story and narrative only happens to the young. Which we know is not true.

And I think in this novel, we have a character who is certainly on a passage of discovery, but the narrative is not pre-established in the same way. She's not following something by rote. And so in a lot of ways, I think that's why it felt right for me. for the narrative to fracture in a lot of ways, for there to be kind of multiple possibilities that she might be exploring.

And I think in this novel, we have a character who is certainly on a passage of discovery, but the narrative is not pre-established in the same way. She's not following something by rote. And so in a lot of ways, I think that's why it felt right for me. for the narrative to fracture in a lot of ways, for there to be kind of multiple possibilities that she might be exploring.

And I think in this novel, we have a character who is certainly on a passage of discovery, but the narrative is not pre-established in the same way. She's not following something by rote. And so in a lot of ways, I think that's why it felt right for me. for the narrative to fracture in a lot of ways, for there to be kind of multiple possibilities that she might be exploring.

Whereas the narrative for the younger character, this young man, is much more linear. It's much clearer because I think it's something within our culture that is much more familiar.