Would life be easier as a rat? Emily Austin's latest character thinks yes
The Ottawa writer discussed We Could Be Rats on Bookends with Mattea Roach
In Emily Austin's latest novel We Could Be Rats, her main character Sigrid is having a hard time.
She hates her job at the Dollar Pal, never graduated high school and has a fraught relationship with her family, which leads her to wonder if life would be easier if she was a rat, void of societal expectations.
Even though they grew up in the same household, her older sister Margit seems to thrive in what's expected of her — she always knows what to do and what to say — and finally made it out of their small town by going to college.
We Could Be Rats follows these two sisters as they transition to adulthood, grapple with some dark realities and test the bonds of their relationship.
Austin is a writer based in Ottawa who studied English literature and library science at Western University. She is also the author of the novels Interesting Facts About Space and Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead and the poetry collection Gay Girl Prayers.
She joined Mattea Roach to discuss the search for community and connection at the heart of We Could Be Rats.
Mattea Roach: What is it, do you think, specifically about becoming a rat that appeals to Sigrid, one of the characters in this novel?
Emily Austin: I think rats are such endearing creatures because anyone who has rats — I don't because they don't have a very long lifespan and I don't have the heart for that — but anyone who has them always says that they're a lot like dogs and can learn tricks. They have big personalities.
They are thought of negatively and have a gross connotation to them. But they're just little creatures and they're living for themselves and they're scrappy. That feels very apt for Sigrid, the character who's talking about rats and ratness in this novel.
MR: Sigrid has this belief that she espouses throughout the novel that life gets worse as you get older and that your most joyful days happen when you're a kid. Why does she feel this way?
EA: I was trying to write about someone who, as a kid, didn't want to become a teenager. She was the type of kid who played with her toys longer than the other kids, who wasn't interested in talking about boys, for example.
Then she had a similar sort of crisis when going from a teenager to adult. With her, I was trying to show that her authentic self is someone who, I think she says something in the book like, "I feel like a happy person caged."
I wanted to write her as someone who has this position that is positive and who wants to be happy, but who is affected by the society and restrictions imposed on her. As someone who is a queer person living in a small conservative town who people find rude and annoying because she doesn't understand social graces very well.
Because of the world she's living in, she's not able to be her true self.- Emily Austin
I wanted to show how stifling that is for someone whose natural state, had she been born as a rat, she would have been a happy rat even as an adult rat, she would have been someone who was living for herself and happy.
But because of the world she's living in, she's not able to be her true self. And even when she does, it doesn't feel happy. She doesn't get that rat girl energy. She feels depressed.
MR: One thing we learn in this book about Sigrid is that she has this profound shame around her best friend Greta, who we learn is dealing with an opioid addiction. Why does she feel this sense of responsibility for her friend who's dealing with addiction?
EA: One thing I was exploring in this book is the importance of connection and community.
One difference between Sigrid and her sister Margit is that Sigrid is pretty isolated. She didn't graduate high school. She's in her small, conservative town. She has conflict with her family and her one close friend, Greta, has an opioid addiction and they're no longer friends.
Margit, on the other hand, has moved away to college. She has friends. She has a school community. Her teachers notice when she starts to struggle in class, she has people around her who notice her — and Sigrid doesn't.
That was part of what I was trying to convey in this story is to show what it's like to be someone who cannot connect with the people around them because they are, for example, queer in a community where they cannot connect with other people.
One thing I was exploring in this book is the importance of connection and community.- Emily Austin
With Greta, the reality of small towns is that there is an opioid epidemic. Sigrid and her friend both tried drugs together and Greta fell into this opioid addiction. If you're from a community like that or if you have any experience with someone who has an addiction problem, you know that people can behave the exact same way.
People can make the same choices and one person will be an addict and then they have to suffer this social stigma. Their life disintegrates and while they struggle with this horrible illness, they're sort of seen as someone who is this rotten person.
But the reality is that so many people around them did the exact same things. And they are not, they don't have the gene or something. They're not addicts. So I also wanted to explore that a little bit, for the sake of understanding what it's like to be someone like Greta in this book.
MR: Do you feel that you've gained anything personally in reimagining some of your experiences, including some experiences that were perhaps painful or difficult, through a fictional lens?
EA: Definitely. That's one perk to writing for me. I feel like I can make something positive out of things that I found negative. Writing is great for that. I think art in general is great for that. It's nice to be able to make a bad experience into something good.
It's nice to be able to make a bad experience into something good.- Emily Austin
I've really found, especially with the poetry and that first novel, that I have been connected to people who had similar experiences. I was just talking about how community and connection matter so much.
It's nice to be able to turn that into something that you can connect with other people over.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. It was produced by Liv Pasquarelli with thanks to Ailey Yamamoto.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, here's where to look for help:
- Government of Canada list of resources and services.
- Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868. Text 686868. Live chat counselling on the website.
