A review by el_tuttle
A Separation by Katie Kitamura
2.0
To be clear, I read this because Kitamura keeps coming up under "readers also enjoyed" for people like Elif Batuman and Jennifer Egan, and Intimaces was checked out of the library. Kitamura is not reminiscent of those authors.
For a story about betrayal, deceit, guilt, and grief, the entire work was remarkably unevocative. I don't think I felt a single emotion the entire time (and I'm a big emotional baby who cries at pretty much all books).
Then of course there is the stylistic choice to drop quotation marks from dialogue. Why do authors do this? If you're going to make an annoying literary choice, at least tell a story with more substance. Neither the writing nor the narrative were compelling.
For a story about betrayal, deceit, guilt, and grief, the entire work was remarkably unevocative. I don't think I felt a single emotion the entire time (and I'm a big emotional baby who cries at pretty much all books).
Then of course there is the stylistic choice to drop quotation marks from dialogue. Why do authors do this? If you're going to make an annoying literary choice, at least tell a story with more substance. Neither the writing nor the narrative were compelling.