Playing with Rats
Suggestive Games1
Suggestive Games2
Good Stress
Travel With Rats
Literature
Literature
A brief synopsis: Young Montague Mad-Rat lives an odd and
sheltered existence with his wacky family in the sewers under New York City.
A chance meeting one day changes Montague’s life forever.
Ostensibly a children’s book, A Rat’s Tale provides a good read for
rat-obsessed adults too. Seidler includes classic literary stereotypes, the
fool, in this case the constantly drunk Uncle Montague Mad-rat, for whom
everything goes right, although it shouldn’t; his shifty business associate
and liquor supplier, Pem the pack-rat, always on the lookout for his own
gain, who ends up having a heart after all (reminiscent of the ‘hooker with
a heart of gold” stereotype;) the “helpless
female” in the form of the lovely Isabel, and the classic image of the
politician--Isabel’s father. And of course, poor hapless Montague the
Second, the “unlikely hero” for whom the entire experience of the book is a
coming of age story, where he encounters the great wide world and discovers
that ‘anyrat’ can make a difference if they want to.
Although a lot of the images of the characters are no longer considered
Politically Correct, such as Isabel Moberly-Rat, the “helpless female,” the
gamut of societal stereotypes are covered, and Seidler manages to expose the
concept of stereotyping people for what it is, a shallow generalization;
“helpless” sheltered Isabel turns out to have a deep inner strength, that
even she didn’t realize she possessed, and learns to take matters into her
own paws. All the characters show more depth than the “typical“ characters
they are representing, and provide a very subtle lesson for children on the
pitfalls of judging people on their appearances.
People, or rather humankind, are given short shrift in the story, for the
most part, as rats are in our world. (Except some of us know better, don’t
we?) The position of humans and rats are juxtaposed here, and the humans are
the dangerous pests who must somehow be managed or controlled by the rats,
so as not to interfere with the rats’ quality of life. Seidler puts us in
the rats’ shoes, giving pause for thought, and hopefully teaching the lesson
that all creatures are entitled to live a free happy life, and that we
should consider seriously what we do to other creatures in our own quest for
such a life
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