Book Review: Intimacies by Katie Kitamura

Rating: 

3.5⭐

“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.”

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.”

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."