Can love transcend time and space? Myriam Lacroix imagines one relationship in multiple realities in new book
Montreal-born writer spoke about her first short story collection, How It Works Out on The Next Chapter
In relationships we often question what would have happened if we had chosen a slightly different path. What if we said yes to that job or moved to that city or never met that person?
Myriam Lacroix takes these hypotheticals to the next level – what if you were a power hungry CEO and them, your employee or you were a reptile and they were a dog? In How It Works Out, one couple ventures into multiple odd and vulnerable realties.
Lacroix is a Montreal-born and Vancouver-based writer of Québécois and Moroccan heritage. She has an MFA from Syracuse University and is the founder of Out-Front, a 2SLGBTQ+ writing collective. How It Works Out is her first book.
Lacroix spoke to Christa Couture about how she came to write about love and relationship hypotheticals on the summer edition of The Next Chapter.
How did you come up with the idea of exploring the lives of this one couple across different realities?
So I think in the case of How It Works Out, the style preceded the content, if that makes sense.
I started writing this kind of surreal auto-fiction style when I was in my early twenties, which was about the time that Instagram was blowing up. Suddenly I realized everyone was really good at talking about themselves and creating these personas for the world to consume — and I realized I was really not good at that.
Out of this frustration I started writing about a character named Myriam in this satirical, self-aggrandizing way; writing these self mythologies. At first it was meant as satire but what ended up happening was that it became kind of resonant; there was something about it that was better than anything I had done and I didn't quite know what that was … I had up until that point seen myself as purely a fiction writer.
I looked at these fictional characters from a distance, from the point of view of a serious author — or so I believed at 22 — and it was the first time that I actually wrote about myself. It was uncomfortable and vulnerable and of course, that's such a juicy place for art to happen.
It was uncomfortable and vulnerable and of course, that's such a juicy place for art to happen.- Myriam Lacroix
Cut to, I'm writing in this style and I enter my first queer relationship, my first big love, and I start writing about the relationship in that way.
I start writing these lists of hypothetical outcomes to the relationship: initially they're these dreamy rose-tinted hypothetical outcomes that are very representative of a big love and early love.
As those things go the relationship doesn't end up being quite so rosy in the end and I am confronted with a lot of things about myself that as a young person I hadn't needed to confront yet and that brings on a lot of anxiety.
All the stories are different, but in each one Myriam and Allison are really connected to one another every time. What brings them together?
I do think that both characters are young artists and have a similar hunger for life and for connection. We meet Myriam and Allison when they're quite young and they're aspiring writers, aspiring musicians. I think it kind of could be anyone if when you're at that right place in your life and you're in an early formative queer relationship — which feels like such a high too when you haven't been out for very long and you finally get to experience that.
I think you get to project all of your deepest, most intense desires on another person in a way that feels uninhibited because you're young and you really haven't been hurt too much yet.
I think we've all been there and obviously the characters learn lessons about that kind of intense passions without proper boundaries.
Both characters are young artists and have a similar hunger for life and for connection.- Myriam Lacroix
Why was it important to you to portray this queer relationship in all its messiness, beauty, humour and complexity?
I do think that was an intentional choice, but at the same time, it was very natural to just write about queer relationships the way that I experience them: as complex complete relationships. If anything, I think I was just intentional about not giving in to the pressures of writing my coming out story or trying to defend my love life to a potential reader. I just find that can be so oppressive.
When I started writing the book it was a long time ago; there weren't that many queer authors showing all their messiness and all their colour. So it did feel like a scary thing to do.
I'm not gonna play into any kind of narrative for anyone because actually I'm an artist — I need to make art that feels true and resonant and exciting to me and that's how I can respect myself.
I think the book is definitely coming out at a good time where that doesn't feel as controversial now; I didn't have trouble publishing it the way I might have when I started writing it.
I'm not gonna play into any kind of narrative for anyone.- Myriam Lacroix
The title, How It Works Out, feels like a hopeful title, it implies that things do work out in the end. How does hope prevail through the ups and downs of the different versions of Myriam and Allison's relationship as they try to get it right?
That's interesting that you find it hopeful. To me, it feels kind of neutral, like how is it going to work out, you know? Maybe good, maybe not good, but most likely both. A lot of us have been through relationships that end up not working out. Even though it feels like the end of the world at the time, we remain human beings through it and well after it; we learn things about the world and about ourselves.
I think that's hopeful, that we can learn and grow.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
