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The blurb tells you everything you need to know about the plot, anything I would add would definitely be counted as spoilers which I avoid, and it really does cover the key points and had me intrigued to read at any rate. Anuj, the youngest, is the golden boy. His quiet confidence and easy-going nature however, mask other insecurities that rise to the surface. We start out with a pregnant girl giving birth in a clinic, and leaving. We follow her baby to a foster family and later an adoptive family. We see things from her adoptive mother's point of view, who has lost her baby so recently that she is still producing milk. We see it from the point of view of the jealous adoptive father. And then we are shown the three month old baby's point of view, which was oddly cynical and a little bitchy for a newborn.
Happy Family Books - Goodreads Big Happy Family Books - Goodreads
We start off knowing that Fred and Sylvia Merton are dead. Who killed them and why is the central mystery. Well, pretty much everyone who was related to them had a reason to, as Fred was a first class jerk to his three children and Sylvia stood by and let it happen. The Mertons are uber-wealthy and each of the three children (as well as Fred's sister and another surprise person) are due to inherit a great deal of money from the estate. The police aren't buying that the brutal murders were a robbery gone wrong, yet they can't seem to come up with evidence as to who committed the crimes. Each of the children have motive and possible opportunity. Secrets upon secrets are revealed as they try to piece together the solution. Good thing about this book is that it is easy to read, so we all finished the book faster then we planned, excluding one girl who DNFed it. What a Happy Family" follows all of the members of the Joshi family. They're a South Asian family who lives in the suburbs of Atlanta. All of them are going through different things in their lives. The book follows each character as they navigate their own battles and investigates the question, "How do families hurt us, and how can they also heal us?" The author wanted to incorporate mental health in her book, so why not show that through the lens of different family members. It dives into that age-old difficulty we have with family and the question around: How do we keep our family members in specific roles? Instead of seeing them for who they are now, we keep them in the roles they've been in since we grew up. That can make it hard for us to empathize, understand, and connect as they grow and evolve. Sehr gut haben mir auch die Verknüpfungen mit zeitgeschichtlichen Ereignissen gefallen, die die inneren Strapazen der Familie quasi weltpolitisch widerspiegeln (Kubakrise in den früheren Kapiteln, drohender Irakkrieg in den späteren).No, she wasn't. We never are- there always chains in wait. A baby girl is born, her young mother is a beautiful mess and a high school boy is lost in an infatuation for that most interesting woman around, surely if he keeps her baby she will return for it and maybe into his arms as thanks? That is the lusty wishful thinking of Billy Beal who offers up his own family's nest to care for the infant. It is a loud family, but generous in their chaos. Just as the reader gets hooked by them, another mother faces a tragic loss, this whim of fate is in young Cheri's favor and she soon finds herself a Matzner. Beautiful and exotic Cici mesmerized Sol Matzner so much that his love for her cost him his family as well as his religious identity. Jewish or not, most families have their own sort of prejudice, that old "us" vs "them" mentality. Everyone likes to think their family is beyond those old world values, but experience tells me something is always going to be unacceptable. It's one thing to accept anything foreign ideally, but within one's own family- certainly not. Sol follows his feelings and through an enormous loss tries to fix his wife's broken heart with the young infant. It's too much to reveal what happens from there, but we understand how a child can be salvation and devastation, depending on whose prospective we're privy to. The truth is, they're all so much better off now that their parents have been murdered.The Mertons gather for Easter dinner, and it's a dreadful experience for almost everyone involved. The only one having fun is patriarch Fred Merton, who particularly enjoys bullying every member of his family, including his wife and his three grown children. So when Fred and his wife are gruesomely murdered later that night, no one is really surprised. Any of his children would gladly have done it, or was it someone else altogether who hates their father even more?
a Happy Family - Happy Families - Redbook How to Be a Happy Family - Happy Families - Redbook
They gather together for the Easter dinner from hell, where Fred makes an announcement that has all the children leaving hurriedly, angry and upset. Even Irena, the housekeeper who had been the children’s nanny, leaves. Audrey, Fred’s sister, missed the dinner, but she has a complicated history with her brother, and was my favorite character. Her loathing of the Merton children was visceral. Eldest daughter Sunhani, is following in her father's footsteps but an ex's return brings up secrets from her past and threatens her marriage. Matriarch, Bina's story was my favorite, where she organizes a chai and chat social for women in her community to discuss the problems that often go unspoken. She even ends up turning into a bit of a social media influencer.There are a few others who had a stake in the early demise of the Mertons, giving us plenty of suspects to choose from, and what was really unique was that almost ALL of them were women!
The Happy Family by Jackie Kabler | Goodreads
I listened to this one as an audiobook, and from the beginning, I just couldn't stop listening. It is divided into short sections, which made me compulsively keep listening as more clues were uncovered. The Merton family puts the word FUN in the word "dysfunctional"; making this "whodunnit" mystery challenging to solve. Other than Cheri always had a distant relationship with her father, Sol. She has a problem at work...( oh, but you'll love the lecture she gives in a university class - even though Cheri is more interested in research than teaching). She has challenges with her mother, with her husband Michael, many failed artificial inseminations, and struggles with the secrets she knows about her parents. However, ( for pure pleasure reading), Cheri's field of study is very cool - and the entire chapter explaining the project she is interested in is fascinating!
When your family agrees on its core values — and consistently lives by those standards — you'll build a stronger family identity and reduce conflict.
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