A review by serendipitysbooks
Intimacies by Katie Kitamura

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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