That Adults, the new work by Marie Aubert, has been awarded the Young Critics Award and nominated for the Norwegian Booksellers Award is no coincidence. It is a funny and unexpectedly devastating story with which more than one reader will be able to feel identified. A story that approaches a dysfunctional modern family and that focuses on Ida, an architect who is in her best professional moment but who, for the first time in her life, considers the possibility of being a mother, so she decides freeze eggs.
The protagonist has been compared on numerous occasions to the role played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge in the Fleabag series, which for the author is "a great compliment", as she herself has recognized to La Vanguardia. "They are both interesting and down-to-earth women struggling to find their way in life."
Aubert explains that his idea was to "portray a forty-year-old single, childless woman without turning her into a heroine or a victim, but into someone with whom the reader could feel committed, feeling their desires and their shortcomings, without necessarily approve of the things she does". However, Ida is not the author's alter ego since, she admits, "I don't usually write anything autobiographical although, like any writer, it is true that I am inspired by the people around me. ”.
What really led the Norwegian to enter this story is her “special interest in sibling relationships. Perhaps it was because I was an only child until I was nineteen and I have always been interested in the conflicts that exist between siblings, which often never heal. Fraternal relationships are the longest we have throughout our lives but, nevertheless, it is something that is not in our hands to choose. In this sense, she points out that she "wanted to write about people who think well of themselves but end up hurting the people they care about." For this reason, from the beginning she portrayed two sisters "with very different life situations, divided by having or not having a family, both fighting for their identity as adults."
Aubert acknowledges that there is often sibling competition, but notes that ”Ida's strained relationship with her little sister Marthe goes beyond the question of having a family of her own. The sisters are trapped in the roles they have played since they were children. Roles that arise because their mother has treated them very differently. Ida has always been rewarded for being older, intelligent and responsible, so she has felt superior in the sisterly relationship, while Marthe has been the one who has truly acted as the daughter of the family. When Ida is confronted that she is now falling behind her sister in the fertility race, this power dynamic is reversed and her entire identity is threatened [...] Her behavior throughout the novel is not just about from longing for a child, but from a failed attempt to maintain the advantage within the family.”
The reflection on motherhood, therefore, has an important space in the novel. "Not having children is somewhat less taboo now than it was fifty years ago. Still, the idea of having children is so deeply ingrained in our culture that it's easy to feel excluded if you don't follow the established rules." On the other hand, Aubert specifies that ”although fertility technology makes dreams possible for many people, for others it can be overwhelming since it allows the final decision to be postponed indefinitely, since eggs can be frozen, something quite normal in most Western countries However, he concludes, "there are many misconceptions about it, such as the idea that women freeze eggs to prioritize their career. The main reason is the lack of a partner."
Despite the fact that she is fully immersed in the promotion of Adults, Marie Aubert tells La Vanguardia that she has already got down to work with her next novel. That yes, she clarifies she, "it will not affect again the subject of motherhood, although I will return to resort to relationships between brothers. As I said before, it is something that really interests me".
4
