You A Look Back on The Separation by Katie Kitamura
I came across a description of a book recommendation in article of the NY Times by Jennifer Wilson (Read Like the Wind, July 15, 2023) which compared the writing to this book. I vaguely remembered reading it and found my previous review.
You can read my review below of The Separation by Katie Kitamura.
“The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty,” by Vendela Vida
Jennifer Wilson, NYT, Read Like the Wind, July 15, 2023
Fiction, 2015
Harper Collins
 |
In “The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty,” we meet an American woman traveling to Casablanca. Within minutes of her arrival at the hotel, the bag carrying her computer and wallet is stolen, along with all her identification. Not long after, our nameless traveler starts making an “inventory of lost contents” for the local detective, a list that might as well include her too. She is running away from some vaguely outlined personal disaster that occurred back home in Florida. Whatever it was triggered a divorce and a trip to Morocco she cannot really afford. “I’m a writer for The New York Times. I’m doing a travel story on Casablanca,” she lies to the police, hoping to scare them into finding her belongings. “I really don’t want to have to include this,” she adds, in the politely threatening tone of an American abroad. |
Without money, she starts improvising, taking on new identities that take her further and further from herself — including, at one point, a job as a body double for an American actress shooting a movie in Casablanca. In other words, she will pretend to be another woman pretending to be someone else. While waiting for her scene to start, she grabs a book from the set. It is a collection of poems by Rumi. She starts reading: |
You’re sitting here with us, but you’re also out walking |
The poem captures the tension at the heart of the novel. Is this a story about sadness or adventure? Sometimes a life lived fully and voraciously can look like absence to the people you leave behind, and maybe, in a way, it is. |
Read if you like: “A Separation,” by Katie Kitamura, “Intimacies,” also by Katie Kitamura, literary doubles, books about movies, making thought-out travel itineraries that you know/hope will fall to pieces |
 |
A Separation by Katie Kitamura
240 pages
Riverhead Books
From Swedish translation
February 17, 2017
4/21/17-3/22/17
3/5
As much as I was uncomfortable with the authors writing style, I found the book difficult to put down. The narrator seemed to rambled on in her own head most of the time. The narrator seemed unconvinced by her own musings which had me doubting her observations and assumptions throughout much of the book.
The title "The Separation" is symbolic of the many events and situations in life where we might experience a separation. With birth, one is separated from a mother. In marriage there is a separation of families, such as with death or divorce. On the same note, that which separates also connects in an awkward fashion.
Ultimately, my patience was rewarded with a rather thought provoking ending. It is interesting how emotional ties can endure the many trials and tribulations in life.
No comments:
Post a Comment