I'd suggest to use
xsd.exe tool[
^] which can generate proper class(es) definition from xml.
Follow these steps:
Auto generating Entity classes with xsd.exe for XML Serialization and De-Serialization[
^]
[EDIT]
I'd suggest to change your XML structure:
<something id="234">
<items>
<item name="Obj1">
<a>1</a>
<k>1</k>
to:
<something id="234">
<items>
<item name="Obj1">
<property name="a">1</a>
<property name="k">1</k>
It should help you while XML normalization.
[/EDIT]