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Fiction.
Literature.
HTML:A NEW YORK TIMES TOP 10 BOOK OF 2021 LONGLISTED FOR THE 2021 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION ONE OF BARACK OBAMAâ??S FAVORITE 2021 READS AN INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A BEST BOOK OF 2021 FROM Washington Post, Vogue, Time, Oprah Daily, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Atlantic, Kirkus and Entertainment Weekly â??Intimacies is a haunting, precise, and morally astute novel that reads like a psychological thrillerâ?¦. Katie Kitamura is a wonder.â? â??Dana Spiotta, author of Wayward and Eat the Document â??One of the best novels Iâ??ve read in 2021.â? â?? Dwight Garner, The New York Times A novel from the author of A Separation, an electrifying story about a woman caught between many truths. An interpreter has come to The Hague to escape New York and work at the International Court. A woman of many languages and identities, she is looking for a place to finally call home.
She's drawn into simmering personal dramas: her lover, Adriaan, is separated from his wife but still entangled in his marriage. Her friend Jana witnesses a seemingly random act of violence, a crime the interpreter becomes increasingly obsessed with as she befriends the victim's sister. And she's pulled into an explosive political controversy when sheâ??s asked to interpret for a former president accused of war crimes.
A woman of quiet passion, she confronts power, love, and violence, both in her personal intimacies and in her work at the Court. She is soon pushed to the precipice, where betrayal and heartbreak threaten to overwhelm her, forcing her to decide… (meer)
I like that Kitamura seems to tell us how to interpret this novel in the title she gives it. Granted, it’s not an always foolproof measure (the first blurb on the back of the hardcover states confidently that it is “a novel about the ruthlessness of power…â€, which, no its not) but I think here it accurately lets the reader know that the novelist’s primary concern in the work is to do with intimacy and intimacies.
When you think of “intimacy†a relationship with physical geography probably isn’t what first springs to mind, though given how basic and integral the idea of “home†is to identity for many of us, I can see it being a base for other intimacies. The novel begins with this intimacy - our narrator has left New York, where her immigrant family had lived and which she lacked a connection with - and moved to The Hague, where she wonders “if I could be more than a visitor here.†Unaware of it, a late reveal shows that she has an early and intimate connection with the city, which subconsciously may have helped direct her there, early roots producing a shoot.
Interpersonal intimacies are presented in varying forms. Friendship and romantic love, of course, are craved by almost all of us, including the narrator. These pass by mostly uninterestingly in my reading here. Sometimes you accidentally become party to a stranger’s as you go about town on your own business: “On occasion, I found myself stumbling into situations more intimate than I would have liked…â€
More interesting is the presentation of intentionally forced intimacy. A strong passage in the novel relates to Judith Leyster’s 1631 painting “Man Offering Money to a Young Womanâ€, in which there are two figures in a candlelit room, a man leaning down over a seated woman who is working on a handicraft and staring straight down, while he holds out money in one hand and pulls on her with the other. The intimate closeness he forces on her is most unwelcome. In parallel there is a man whose attentions towards the narrator are also trying to force an unwanted intimacy, and who has financial power over her.
Then most interestingly there is conflicted intimacy, compromising intimacy, that our narrator is led into through her work. Shades of grey are always the most interesting, eh? Working as a translator at the International Criminal Court she provides undoubtedly necessary and useful services in translating court and lawyer’s proceedings for defendants charged with murder on a statecraft scale. But by necessity providing services for one person brings you into a sort of intimate relationship with them. You are there for that one person’s benefit. Speaking to them. Even whispering quietly into their ear while seated next to them.
About halfway into the novel (unfortunately not sooner!) this mostly comes into play when the narrator becomes interpreter for an ex-President of an African nation charged with atrocities committed while trying to hang onto power:
I was close enough to observe the texture of his skin, the particularities of his features, I could smell the scent of the soap he must have used that morning. […] I sometimes had the unpleasant sensation that of all the people in the room below, of all the people in the city itself, the former president was the person I knew best. In those moments, out of what I can only describe as an excess of imagination, he became the person whose perspective I occupied. I flinched when the proceedings seemed to go against him. I felt quiet relief when they moved in his direction. It was disquieting in the extreme, like being placed inside a body I had no desire to occupy. I was repulsed, to find myself so permeable.
“I was repulsed to find myself so permeable.†It’s a fascinating insight. How solid are our own selves, and how much altered could they be by the intimacies we inhabit, voluntarily or not, positive or not. I only wish the novel had spent much more time on this question, and cut out other parts of the novel, unmentioned here, that I don’t feel contribute much to it. ( )
The character descriptions were kind of long to the point where I couldn't just breeze through the book. I like the idea and the topic was new to me. ( )
Very nice. A very good book. Interesting subjects, moving depiction of a certain alienation and quiet search for belonging. A lovely ending that feels right. There can be no intimacy in a world committed to…the neutrality of professionalism.
“The fact that our daily activity hinged on the repeated description—description, elaboration, and delineation—of matters that were, outside, generally subject to euphemism and elision.â€
Our unnamed protagonist (who is also our narrator) has recently taken up a one-year contractual position as an interpreter with the International Criminal Court in The Hague, moving from New York to The Hague, and is still in the process of adjusting to her new life. She is professionally tasked with interpreting for the high profile case of a former West African President, who is being tried for horrific war crimes. Her interaction with the former President was not just limited to her removed presence behind a glass-fronted soundproof booth. She is also required to sit in and interpret for him during his private meetings with his legal counsel.
"The Court was run according to the suspension of disbelief: every person in the courtroom knew but also did not know that there was a great deal of artifice surrounding matters that were nonetheless predicated on authenticity."
On the personal front, she is involved with Adriaan, a married man separated from his wife, yet to be divorced. She also befriends Jana, a curator of an art gallery. Her personal relationships do not appear to be particularly stable, her friendship with Jana feels fragile and Adriaan seems conflicted over the future of his marriage. She also befriends an art history teacher whose brother was recently mugged in the vicinity of Jana’s apartment building but who does not divulge his reasons for being in that area. The novel follows our protagonist as she navigates her personal relationships and professional commitments all the while learning to fend for herself in a new city. The plot of the novel revolves around the varying degrees of intimacy in her professional and personal experiences and how they impact her as an individual and as a professional.
Katie Kitamura‘s Intimacies is a quiet novel, direct and lacking embellishment. The narration at times lacks a ‘personal component’ despite being narrated in the first person by our protagonist. I loved the scenes depicting the proceedings in the Court and found the detailed look into the responsibilities of the translators /interpreters very interesting. The tone of the novel feels so impersonal that I found it very difficult to feel any connection with the protagonist. The novel gives us a look into her personal life – romantic relationships and friendships, the superficial nature of all her personal relationships is very subtly portrayed. In fact, the only point in the novel where the protagonist shows any vulnerability is in the course of her work while interpreting for the former President on trial, a vulnerability that makes her uncomfortable with the very nature of her work. “It was disquieting in the extreme, like being placed inside a body I had no desire to occupy. I was repulsed, to find myself so permeable.â€
This is a unique novel with a very interesting setting and elegant prose but an unconventional plot structure. It is an interesting read, but I think many would find it hard to connect with the protagonist due to the dispassionate tone of the novel and in that it may not appeal to many readers.
"It is surprisingly easy to forget what you have witnessed, the horrifying image or the voice speaking the unspeakable, in order to exist in the world we must and we do forget, we live in a state of I know but I do not know." ( )
I luoghi hanno un che di bizzarro quando se ne capisce la lingua solo in parte, e in quei primi mesi la sensazione era stata particolarmente strana. All'inizio brancolavo nel buio, i discorsi introno a me erano impenetrabili, ma tutto era diventato meno sfuggente quando avevo cominciato a capire le singole parole, poi le frasi e adesso perfino interi brani di conversazione, certe volte mi imbattevo in situazioni più private di quanto avrei voluto, la città non era più il luogo innocente che era sta al mio arrivo.
Era facile scordarsi che L'Aja si trova sul mare del Nord, per tanti è una città che sembra affacciarsi verso l'interno, dando le spalle alla distesa d'acqua.
Tutti hanno diritto a una giusta rappresentanza legale, anche chi ha commesso crimini indicibili, oltre ogni immaginazione, crimini che a sentire descrivere ti verrebbe voglia di tapparti le orecchie e correre via. L'avvocato difensore non può cedere a una simile vigliaccheria, deve non solo ascoltare, ma studiare con attenzione la storia di quei crimini, viverne e respirarne l'atmosfera. Quello che il resto di noi non è in grado di sopportare è proprio ciò in cui l'avvocato difensore deve immergersi.
Un'apparenza di semplicità è una cosa, la semplicità un'altra, lo sapevo.
Per un attimo, io e Jana lo osservammo servire il cibo. Eravamo diventate due donne in contemplazione della bravura di un uomo, una situazione assurda e raggelante.
Se si possiede una casa, la percezione delle cose cambia, che lo si voglia o meno. Basta anche solo avere un piccolo appartamento e il gioco è fatto, si è contagiati, c'è una differenza tra vivere nella teoria e vivere nella pratica.
Ma nessuno di noi è davvero in grado di vedere in che mondo viviamo. Questo mondo, situato nella contraddizione tra la sua ordinarietà (il muro tozzo del centro di detenzione, l'autobus che corre lungo il solito percorso) e i suoi estremi (la cella e l'uomo dentro la cella), è qualcosa che vediamo solo per poco e che poi non vediamo più per lungo tempo, per non dire mai. È sorprendentemente facile dimenticare le cose cui assistiamo, orrende immagini o voci che dicono l'indicibile; per esistere dobbiamo dimenticare, e lo facciamo, e viviamo in uno stato di so ma non so.
[...] mi venne in mente che Adriaan sapeva molto poco del mio lavoro, e delle parti della mia vita che non condivideva con me. In effetti, Kees avrebbe comparso molto meglio di lui il mio quotidiano; se a quella festa gli avessi detto che lavoravo alla Corte, probabilmente avremmo avuto una conversazione molto diversa, mi sarebbe sembrato un uomo intelligente e informato, esperto di un mondo dove io stavo appena entrando. A quel punto, forse, sarei stata più disponibile alle sue avance, magari avrei preso il suo numero o sarei andata a casa sua, invece che da Adriaan. Era un pensiero inquietante - che le nostre identità , e quindi il corso della nostra vita, potessero essere così mutevoli. Mentre fissavo Kees, quella versione alternativa degli eventi sembrò vibrare nell'aria tra noi.
Tornai alla tela [Judith Leyster, Man Offering Money to a Young Woman, 1631], e mi venne in mente che solo una donna avrebbe potuto realizzare quell'immagine. Il dipinto non parlava di tentazione, ma di molestia e intimidazione, una scena che avrebbe potuto aver luogo in quell'esatto momento in qualsiasi parte del mondo. Il quadro operava intorno a uno scisma, rappresentava due inconciliabili punti di vista: l'uomo, che la ritenga una scena di passione e seduzione, e la donna, immersa in uno stato di paura e umiliazione. Quello scisma, capii in quel momento, era la vera incoerenza che animava la tela, e il vero oggetto dello sguardo di Leyster.
Nel corso delle lunghe ore in cabina, a volte avevo la spiacevole sensazione che di tutta la gente nella sala sottostante, di tutta la gente in quella città , l'ex presidente fosse la persona che conoscevo meglio. In quei momenti, causati da quanto posso solo definire un eccesso di immaginazione, era come se mi calassi nella sua prospettiva. Sussultavo quando il procedimento sembrava andargli contro, provavo un silenzioso sollievo quando invece era in suo favore. Era per me oltremodo inquietante come trovarmi in un corpo che non avevo alcun desiderio di occupare. Scoprirmi così permeabile mi disgustava.
Era un'illusione credere che avessimo ancora una relazione, credere che potesse tornare da me. Eppure, nei momenti in cui riuscivo a guardare oltre i miei sentimenti e il mio ego, ero costretta a riconoscere un'indecorosa verità : che sarebbe bastata una telefonata per farmi tornare a sperare.
La prospettiva che si era aperta per un istante, l'idea che il mondo dovesse ancora formarsi, o essere riscoperto, forse era qualcosa che in fin dei conti non potevo spiegare.
Laatste woorden
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis.Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
Fiction.
Literature.
HTML:A NEW YORK TIMES TOP 10 BOOK OF 2021 LONGLISTED FOR THE 2021 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION ONE OF BARACK OBAMAâ??S FAVORITE 2021 READS AN INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A BEST BOOK OF 2021 FROM Washington Post, Vogue, Time, Oprah Daily, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Atlantic, Kirkus and Entertainment Weekly â??Intimacies is a haunting, precise, and morally astute novel that reads like a psychological thrillerâ?¦. Katie Kitamura is a wonder.â? â??Dana Spiotta, author of Wayward and Eat the Document â??One of the best novels Iâ??ve read in 2021.â? â?? Dwight Garner, The New York Times A novel from the author of A Separation, an electrifying story about a woman caught between many truths. An interpreter has come to The Hague to escape New York and work at the International Court. A woman of many languages and identities, she is looking for a place to finally call home.
She's drawn into simmering personal dramas: her lover, Adriaan, is separated from his wife but still entangled in his marriage. Her friend Jana witnesses a seemingly random act of violence, a crime the interpreter becomes increasingly obsessed with as she befriends the victim's sister. And she's pulled into an explosive political controversy when sheâ??s asked to interpret for a former president accused of war crimes.
A woman of quiet passion, she confronts power, love, and violence, both in her personal intimacies and in her work at the Court. She is soon pushed to the precipice, where betrayal and heartbreak threaten to overwhelm her, forcing her to decide
When you think of “intimacy†a relationship with physical geography probably isn’t what first springs to mind, though given how basic and integral the idea of “home†is to identity for many of us, I can see it being a base for other intimacies. The novel begins with this intimacy - our narrator has left New York, where her immigrant family had lived and which she lacked a connection with - and moved to The Hague, where she wonders “if I could be more than a visitor here.†Unaware of it, a late reveal shows that she has an early and intimate connection with the city, which subconsciously may have helped direct her there, early roots producing a shoot.
Interpersonal intimacies are presented in varying forms. Friendship and romantic love, of course, are craved by almost all of us, including the narrator. These pass by mostly uninterestingly in my reading here. Sometimes you accidentally become party to a stranger’s as you go about town on your own business: “On occasion, I found myself stumbling into situations more intimate than I would have liked…â€
More interesting is the presentation of intentionally forced intimacy. A strong passage in the novel relates to Judith Leyster’s 1631 painting “Man Offering Money to a Young Womanâ€, in which there are two figures in a candlelit room, a man leaning down over a seated woman who is working on a handicraft and staring straight down, while he holds out money in one hand and pulls on her with the other. The intimate closeness he forces on her is most unwelcome. In parallel there is a man whose attentions towards the narrator are also trying to force an unwanted intimacy, and who has financial power over her.
Then most interestingly there is conflicted intimacy, compromising intimacy, that our narrator is led into through her work. Shades of grey are always the most interesting, eh? Working as a translator at the International Criminal Court she provides undoubtedly necessary and useful services in translating court and lawyer’s proceedings for defendants charged with murder on a statecraft scale. But by necessity providing services for one person brings you into a sort of intimate relationship with them. You are there for that one person’s benefit. Speaking to them. Even whispering quietly into their ear while seated next to them.
About halfway into the novel (unfortunately not sooner!) this mostly comes into play when the narrator becomes interpreter for an ex-President of an African nation charged with atrocities committed while trying to hang onto power:
“I was repulsed to find myself so permeable.†It’s a fascinating insight. How solid are our own selves, and how much altered could they be by the intimacies we inhabit, voluntarily or not, positive or not. I only wish the novel had spent much more time on this question, and cut out other parts of the novel, unmentioned here, that I don’t feel contribute much to it. ( )