‘Intimacies’ by Katie Kitamura    (2021) – 226 pages

‘Intimacies’ is the second novel by Katie Kitamura which I have read, the first being ‘A Separation’. To both novels, Kitamura brings a forthright clear style that is easy to like.

In ‘Intimacies’, our first-person narrator is a female interpreter at the U.N. International Court of Justice or as it is often called, the World Court, in The Hague, Netherlands. This court mainly deals with cases of war crimes or genocides or other crimes against humanity perpetrated by leaders of nations.

“The record was unfortunately blunt: the Court had primarily investigated and made arrests in African countries, even as crimes against humanity proliferated around the world.”

The case she is called on to act as interpreter involves the former president of a, yes, African country for terrible atrocities committed in his former country. This is “her first true encounter with evil”.

“Although she knew there was nothing the man could do to her, she could not deny that she was afraid, he was a man who inspired fear, even while sitting immobile he radiated power.”

Meanwhile our interpreter, new to The Hague, moves into an apartment, meets a couple of new friends, and begins a relationship with a man, a still-married man who has children.

Being an interpreter, especially for this type of World Court, is a particularly fraught experience. She must interpret the words of this African leader as he tries to defend himself against these brutal charges.

“He is petty and vain but he understands the depths of human behavior. The places where ordinary people do not go. That gives him a great deal of power, even when he is confined to a cell.”

Interpreting is more than just translating word for word. There are subtleties that must be taken into consideration.

“If a joke was made, it was the interpreter’s job to communicate the humor or attempt at humor; similarly when something was said ironically it was important to indicate that the words were not to be taken at face value. Linguistic accuracy was not enough.”

What I found most impressive about ‘Intimacies’ is the steady plain clarity of its prose style. Often the best style is one that does not call attention to itself and proceeds ahead in a reliable straightforward manner. This lucid style as well as the interesting story sold me on ‘Intimacies’, and I will be eagerly awaiting the next novel by Katie Kitamura.

Grade:    A

‘A Separation’ by Katie Kitamura   (2017) – 229 pages

The woman telling the story in ‘A Separation’ is the opposite of an unreliable narrator.   She is sincere, honest, and steady. Her heartfelt first-person account of a marriage gone bad is refreshingly straightforward.  Perhaps some of the appeal of ‘A Separation’ for me was that I truly did like this woman.

The novel begins with the thirtyish woman, we do not find out her name, alone in her home in London.  Her husband Christopher is gone off to Greece on one of his trips to research his next book on Greek mourning rituals. However the wife realizes that her husband is a serial philanderer which probably is the main purpose of his trip.

“It was a question of things withheld, information that he had, and that I did not. In short, it was a question of infidelities – betrayal always puts one partner in the position of knowing, and leaves the other in the dark.”

She finds out in a phone conversation that Christopher’s mother is worried about him since he hasn’t called for quite a while.   Our narrator wife agrees to go to Greece ostensibly to find her husband but her real reason is to tell him she wants a divorce.  She already has a new promising boyfriend Yvan who is a friend of her husband’s.  She remembers a line she overheard that is now quite offensive to her.

“Women are like monkeys, they don’t let go of one branch until they have got hold of another.”     

The rest of the novel takes place in a Greek village, much of it occurring in the hotel where Christopher stayed and now where she is staying.  She suspects that her husband may have had an affair with the young woman Maria who is a desk clerk at the hotel.

About half way through this novel, this story of a marriage gone bad turns into a murder mystery.  The body of her husband turns up along a sparsely travelled road.  The Greek police authorities show her the body.

“But it was more than this, he looked as if he were sleeping – it was also, I now understood, an effort to pretend the journey into death, the process of dying, was in some way peaceful which it was almost certainly not.”  

Our narrator wife is so trustworthy that the Greek authorities never once suspect her of the murder. She has her own suspicions.  She overhears a bitter argument between Maria and her fiancé Stefano.

In the end she just leaves Greece and heads back to her waiting boyfriend Yvan.  There is no clear resolution as to who actually killed Christopher, but we readers don’t object.  Our reliable and likable narrator wife has outlined all the possibilities for us in her mind.

Grade :   A-