Hello!
Books
Audition, by Katie Kitamura
Told in two acts, Katie Kitamura’s Audition is a strange, short novel, and I’ve been thinking about it a lot since I read it at the beginning of the month. In the first half, a woman and a young man meet for lunch, and their relationship unfolds carefully, revealing the multiple roles each of them play. In the second half, a different reality takes place, shifting perspectives on the characters. I read the second half much faster than the first, and it feels much more unsettling than the first half, which is interesting given that it’s perhaps the more “stable” of the two setups. It’s very clever, almost like a play in itself, looking at performativity and role-playing in a way that feels original.
This one isn’t out until next April - sorry! I read an ARC from Netgalley.
Kairos, by Jenny Erpenbeck
I loved the first half of this, and then I was a bit unsure in the middle, and pulled it back together at the end. It’s got an absolute stunner of a first line - Will you come to my funeral? - and then hops back in time to 1986 when 19 year old Katharina meets writer and broadcaster Hans, in his mid-fifties and married. Their rollercoaster relationship mirrors the politics and collapse of East Germany in the late eighties. Bleak and brilliant.
The Degenerates, by Raeden Richardson
Orbital, by Samantha Harvey
I started both of these and then got distracted and put them down, unfairly. So they’re top of the list for next reads.
Online reads
Obviously, I read the Vanity Fair piece about Cormac McCarthy’s muse and then pestered people to read it and DISCUSS with me, because I have lot of thoughts. Please tell me yours if you’ve read it because I’m not over it yet.
This Q&A with J Wortham (I miss Still Processing, and it remains the ONLY podcast I have ever listened to more than one episode of) made me follow their substack
immediately.Patricia Lockwood’s Encounters With Aliens.
Emma Corrin and Maggie Nelson in conversation.
Reading plans for the end of the year(!) are my Babel buddy-read, and I have some Netgalley-ing to catch up on. How about you?
Terri-Jane x