68 pages • 2 hours read
Shari LapenaNot a Happy Family
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Literary Context: Domestic Noir
Not a Happy Family is an example of a literary genre that has emerged in the new millennium: domestic noir. The rise of domestic noir coincided with the increased popularity of reality television, which gives audiences a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the dysfunctions of real families; both mediums build on an increased understanding that most families are, in one way or another, not what they appear to the outside world. Domestic noir novels similarly explore drama within the household, with conflicts driven either by intemperate passion or unapologetic greed—sometimes both. These novels offer relatable characters drawn from believable circumstances handling unexpected events in which their own fate (or reputation) is suddenly at risk, thus compelling otherwise ordinary people to pursue extreme, often criminal, actions. Many have been adapted into major theatrical releases or developed into limited run television series.
Not A Happy Family focuses on familial drama, specifically amongst parents, children, and siblings. The plot kicks off with a dispute over the family home, and suspense heightens when the parents, Fred and Sheila, are mysteriously found dead. The prime suspects are Fred and Sheila’s children, who all have varying, realistic motives—financial strain, personal grudges, and so on. The short chapters of the book keep the story fast-paced, and the alternating third person point of view allows the reader to examine the plot from various angles, so that they may search for clues to solve the mystery.
One of the most well-known domestic noirs is Gillian Flynn’s 2012 international bestseller Gone Girl, adapted into an Oscar-nominated film with Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike. Flynn’s novel chronicles the desperate efforts of a wronged wife, heir to a tidy family fortune, as she stages her own murder and arranges the crime scene so that her cheating husband emerges as the prime suspect. As with other domestic noirs, the plot is compelled by deft twists while focusing on the dilemmas of recognizable people—parents, friends, spouses, lovers—caught up in the confusion of all-too-plausible events around a grisly murder. Other practitioners of the genre, which is almost entirely dominated by women writers, include Kaira Rouda, Kelly Masterson, Paula Hawkins, Jess Kitching, Samantha Downing, and Kathleen Willett.
Cultural Context: Contemporary Understanding of Psychopathy
Not a Happy Family explores a growing understanding of the link between psychopathic tendencies and genetics; some studies have suggested that extreme anti-social behavior—the inability to feel emotions, the need for absolute control, the propensity for violence, and the complete lack of empathy—is inherited, passed along bloodlines much as right-handedness or blue eyes.
Audrey acknowledges that her brother, Fred Merton, was a “cold-blooded killer” (221), that his execution of their father when Fred was 13 did not reflect any heroic inclinations to save his mother and sister from their abusive father, but rather manifested a “taint of psychopathy” (222)—violence for violence’s sake. Audrey is certain that the only way to explain her brother and his three oddball children—four counting Rose Cutter—is psychopathy. That genetic predisposition to anti-social behavior would account for the Merton children and their unsettling anti-social tendencies, which range from Dan’s brooding thoughts to Jenna’s violence.
Psychopathic behavior manifests in the novel through Jenna’s murder of Fred and Sheila, as well as the actions of the Merton siblings that put others in jeopardy, cause harm, and inflict emotional trauma. Jenna describes the murder as a “blur,” which is one manifestation of psychopathy. Lapena implies that Catherine’s heartless theft of the earrings off her dead mother, Dan’s tendency to drive about town late at night and stare into homes, and Rose’s calculated use of others to get rich are also signs of psychopathic behavior, as they involve an extreme lack of empathy. The novel raises the question of whether psychopathic behavior comes from circumstance or genetics. The question of “nature versus nurture” is a longstanding debate in psychology; Lapena’s novel does not attempt to resolve this issue, instead positing multiple possibilities.
Notably, Catherine Merton discovers just days after her parents’ brutal murders that she is pregnant. With the questions Lapena raises about psychopathy and genetics, and the primary plotline revolving around inheritance, Lapena hints that Catherine’s baby may grow up to exhibit psychopathic tendencies.
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