uA rainbow family called in search of a more authentic happinesslike many other families, is the central theme of With teeth, new novel by American author Kristen Arnett, known for her ability to fish in the depths of the human. The urgency to get to know each other, even before recognizing oneself in another, would in fact be central to Sammie and Monika, a homosexual couple consolidated by the presence of Samson, a desired child which, however, becomes the litmus test of their not understanding each other.
Kristen Arnett was born in Orlando, Florida. Her debut novel Mostly Dead Things (2019), entered the New York Times bestseller list. With teeth it was the best book of 2021 for The Washington Post, Vogue, Marie Claire. Credit: Eve Edelheit for The New York Times
But change scares more than pain and from here begins a search for compensation for roads that get lost and lead to new family tangles, in the mystery that is always another’s world, even when it is the person we feel closest to. The style is hopeless: it takes us inside the mechanisms of a trapped mind, and the images become visions that question each of us.
Telling a rainbow family
Where does the urgency of this theme come from?
I had been thinking about the theme of families for some time, and in particular about the fact that in a family nucleus each member is an unreliable narrator. While everyone shares the same story, everyone’s account is different. Everyone sees experiences from their own point of view. So I started imagining a novel about motherhood and how even being a mother doesn’t actually give an opening that can come out of one’s gaze.
“With Your Teeth” by Kristen Arnett, Stamped Boringhieri288 pages, €18
Can you introduce us to the major characters in the novel?
It is the story of a Florida family made up of three people: two mothers and their son Samson. Sammie (who named her son after himself) is the protagonist. She is a housewife and has many relationship difficulties with Samson. His wife Monika, a lawyer, is the one who brings home the salary. She is very absent and this causes problems for the couple. In the story we’ll see Samson grow up and Sammie’s worries about her too: she believes there’s something wrong with him, but I ask the reader if there isn’t instead something to fix in her.
So even new families have problems. What’s not working today?
Good question. When I started writing this book I thought that a same-sex couple would have different problems than a traditional couple, for example due to prejudice. Instead I realized that all families face the same problems. For example who does the housework, how to raise children, money decisions… I would say in general that, although we have never been easier to connect with technology than now, nobody is really communicating.
And the solutions seem worse than the problems, according to what he tells us in the book.
Yes, Sammie starts spying on a neighbor for a glimpse into what she considers a happy life. He drinks a lot, there is promiscuity of encounters… The fact is that people are afraid of changes, sometimes they choose known pain rather than the risk of the unknown. Sammie is such a character, she keeps making the same mistakes over and over. He prefers to stagnate and not make decisions.
Love, parenting, trust, how do they come out in this story?
They mean different things to the three main characters. And since in the novel I chose to sit in Sammie’s mind, she is unable to renew the profound meaning of these concepts, she remains imprisoned in her expectations of her.
At the beginning of the book we witness an attempted kidnapping of Samson. What does it mean?
I wanted to start the book with something strong, that shakes. And it is important that the kidnapping attempt fails and that Sammie saves Samson at the last minute. This immediately introduces us to his world. In fact, his reaction is not “Thank God you’re safe, I love you”, his first thought is “Why did you try to leave me?”: This is how his head works.
The happy ending seems more like the acceptance of a failure.
Precisely because I wanted the book to end without real change. Often people choose not to change at all. It’s frustrating, but also very human. And this interests me as a writer: we learn much more from our failures than from our successes.
The book is structured like a succession of seasons. What does it bring to the story?
It’s a way to describe what happens in the insides of the characters through the small gestures of life that flows. What is still, while time flows.
The style is very sensory.
That’s exactly what I’ve tried and tried and tried again: that the pages be read with hearing, touch, sight, smell, taste. Florida is also a very physical place actually.
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