7.2 You Write Because You Want to Feel Free: Katie Kitamura and Alexander Manshel (SW)

Novel Dialogue

Although Katie Kitamura feels free when she writes—free from the “soup of everyday life,” from the political realities that weigh upon her, and even at times from the limits of her own thinking—she is keenly aware of the unfreedoms her novels explore. Katie, author of the award-winning Intimacies (2021), talks with critic Alexander Manshel about the darker corners of the human psyche and the inescapable contours of history that shape her fiction. Alexander and Katie explore how she brings these tensions to “the space of interpretation, where the book exists” and places trust in her readers to dwell there thoughtfully. They also discuss the influence of absent men (including Henry James), love triangles, love stories, long books, and titles (hint: someone close to Katie says all her novels could be called Complicity). Stay tuned for Katie’s answer to the signature question, which takes listeners from to the farmlands of Avonlea to the mean streets of Chicago.

Mentioned in this episode

By Katie Kitamura:

• Intimacies
• A Separation
• Gone to the Forest
• Japanese for Travelers
• The Longshot

Also mentioned:

• Flannery O’Connor, “Revelation”
• Henry James, Portrait of a Lady
• Garth Greenwell, What Belongs to You
• Elena Ferrante, The Neapolitan Novels
• Elsa Morante, Lies and Sorcery
• Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
• John Steinbeck, East of Eden
• Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy

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