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sbogue's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
thedogmother's review against another edition
4.0
Another quiet and understated masterpiece by Katie Kitamura. Kitamura's observations about the nature of long term romantic relationships are subtle and perceptive. A quote I loved in particular and that serves as a great example of her delicate and piercing analysis: "This was the process by which two lives were disentangled, eventually the dread and discomfort would fade and be replaced by unbroken indifference, I would see him in the street by chance, and it would be like seeing and old photograph of yourself: you recognize the image but are unable to remember quite what it was to be that person" (67). Ultimately, I think Intimacies captured me more, but I thoroughly enjoyed both and look forward to more from Kitamura.
bswartjes's review against another edition
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
ammcnamara's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
robshpprd's review against another edition
2.5
There is this recurring experience that I have with some novels (which is certainly partly to do with my own expectations). The story starts out and I notice certain things about the style and the narrator that I initially understand to be intentional on the part of the author: a transparently flawed, limited perspective that we will come to understand on another level by the end of the novel. But by the end, I find nothing more, no deeper level at which the story was operating, no further meaning or deeper emotional impact. A Separation was another of these reading experiences for me. From the outset there is a decided coldness to the tone. The narrator is in an ambiguous phase of her life and seems to be dealing with that by grafting these trite gendered observations onto the world around her. She writes in these grating run-on sentences that reveal something disordered in her state of mind. There are clear signs from the beginning that Kitamura is doing all of this intentionally. But of course I'm waiting for there to be something more. Because a cold tone and trite philosophizing and run-on sentences—on their own, if they're not a surface under which something more profound is concealed—are just bad writing. I can't say for certain that there's not something more than meets the eye here, but I certainly didn't find it. There was all this setup of archetypes and tableaux and ideas, and then nothing of interest happens with them. By the end, the narrator has doubled down on her situation and her big deep thoughts about the world: “...every alteration in the past dictates an alteration in the future. Even a change in our conception of the past can result in a different future, different to the one we planned.” I hope I'm not being unfair to this novel. I've just recently read Cusk's Transit series, Patricia Lockwood's No One is Talking About This, and Jenny Offil's Dept. of Speculation, and all of these novels are tackling a similar scenario: a grieving narrator deflecting the narration away from herself experimental ways. Those novels managed this brilliantly, and this one just never followed through for me.