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cover of episode Katie Kitamura's 'Audition' is a puzzle, but she says it's not meant to be solved

Katie Kitamura's 'Audition' is a puzzle, but she says it's not meant to be solved

2025/4/29
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NPR's Book of the Day
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Andrew Limbaugh
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Ari Shapiro
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Katie Kitamura
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Andrew Limbaugh: 我在读完凯蒂·基塔穆拉的新小说《试镜》后，立刻又从第一页开始重读。这本书的信息会随着阅读的深入而改变读者对故事开端的理解。最终，它是一个家庭剧，但紧张的文风使人联想到恐怖小说。 《试镜》以纽约一家餐厅的场景开篇，讲述了叙述者与一位年轻男子共进午餐，两人关系模糊不清，这正是小说的核心。 Katie Kitamura: 我从一条新闻标题“一个陌生人告诉我他是我的儿子”中得到创作灵感。这个标题引发了我对身份认同和人际关系的思考，小说探讨了“陌生人”和“儿子”这两个看似对立的概念之间的张力，以及为人父母、婚姻、爱情和艺术创作等普遍体验中存在的无法调和的矛盾。小说以一种“不稳定”的方式探索了人们对亲密关系中的人的认知的不确定性，小说的形式旨在传达亲密关系中的人突然变得陌生时的不确定感。 小说的结构灵感来源于一些被分成两部分的电影，例如《迷魂记》和《小偷家族》，我希望通过这种形式来展现故事中人物关系的转变。小说中叙述者是一位演员，她排练的戏剧也分成两部分，这与小说结构形成了“套娃”式的结构。小说探讨了每个人内在的不可调和的部分，以及整合这些部分的困难。小说并非一个需要解答的谜题，而是开放式的，允许读者有多种解读，我从小就喜欢阅读推理小说，但《试镜》并非一个需要读者解谜的小说，而是开放性的，允许读者有多种解读。读者对小说的解读多种多样，这正是作者所希望看到的。我希望小说能够成为一个邀请，让读者参与到创作中来。 Ari Shapiro: 我认为这本书随时可能变成恐怖小说，但最终没有。 Katie Kitamura: 我在创作过程中确实考虑到了恐怖小说的元素，例如《罗斯玛丽的婴儿》。小说中恐怖的时刻在于熟悉的场景变得面目全非。

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In a Manhattan restaurant, the narrator of Audition meets a young man for lunch. Everyone has a different understanding of the pair's relationship, including the narrator herself. Katie Kitamura says she got the idea for the story after coming across a headline that said, "a stranger told me he was my son." That headline turned into the premise for her latest novel, which experiments with the idea of contradictions to destabilizing effect. In today's episode, Kitamura joins NPR's Ari Shapiro for a conversation about her decision to cut the book in half. They also discuss other media that's split into two parts – like the films Vertigo and Shoplifters – and Shapiro shares his interpretation of the novel.To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookofthedayLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices)NPR Privacy Policy)