Reviews with content warning for Genocide - Intimacies

I had high expectations for this book. The premise is exciting—a woman entangled in a relationship with a married man, her life intertwining with a violent crime victim, and interpreting for a war criminal. There is so much going on in this book just for nothing to happen. The court scenes feel like they take up most of the book and seem to drag on forever. Everything else fell flat to me. Her relationship with the married man was interesting but only really happened at the beginning and end of the book. The whole time I was just waiting for something to happen. I also didn't enjoy the writing style. The directness just wasn't for me.

however, I did appreciate the hopeful ending. I'm a sucker for ambiguous endings, and Kitamura did it in a way that felt satisfying, which I think is hard to do.

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hkburke2's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book felt tightly written and very layered. I love a book that seems to capture something actually TRUE - sometimes it feels like characters are observing and thinking about people in ways no one does in real life, but the narrator here was definitely observable and in her own head in a way that felt so... palpable. I don't know, I see why people feel frustrated with the way dialogue is presented (without quotation marks) and sometimes the long sentences were disorienting, but it all just felt so sharp, to me. And vibrant. And oof.

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grex_ronnie's review against another edition

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3.5

Credo che il titolo inglese sia una miglior esemplificazione di cosa sia questo libro, un momento intimo a chi noi possiamo partecipare.
Non c’è una vera trama, non c’è un vero obiettivo. È semplicemente una tranche de vie della protagonista, un momento in cui possiamo comprendere quanto le radici della nostra esistenza possano essere insignificanti e nello stesso tempo sono l’ unica cosa che ricerchiamo.
Una lettura leggera, un piccolo momento con l’ autrice. Niente di estremamente coinvolgente ma interessante, come un uscita con vecchi amici per recuperare pezzi di vita perduta.

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serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I found Intimacies a rather sad and melancholic read. The unnamed narrator seems to have few if any true intimacies in her life - not even with herself. She is relatively new to the city (The Hague) and her job (translator with The International Court of Justice), and her new relationship and friendships are quickly formed but superficial.

The professional aspects of this book - the details of the work of a translator, the politics involved in bringing war criminals to trial, and the complicated feelings the narrator felt when translating for the charismatic defendant in a pivotal trial - were what interested me most. I found myself frustrated with her behaviour in her personal life (so much drifting, an almost stalkerish obsession I struggled to understand) but was relieved to see growth by the novel’s end. It seemed that she was seeking knowledge of, and therefore intimacy with, herself. And that is probably the most crucial, the most foundational, intimacy of all.

Overall, the author did a great job depicting her protagonist’s world. My reactions to that world were a little mixed.

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