Un/Happy Narratives: Re-Orienting the Romantic Imperative in Rebecca K Reilly’s Greta & Valdin

Abstract

This article explores Maori Rebecca K Reilly's debut novel Greta & Valdin (2021). It tells the story of the Vladisavljevics, of Russian-Maori descent, focusing on the romantic conflicts of their two youngest siblings, Greta and Valdin, as they struggle with professional frustrations and negotiate intersecting identity issues and family dramas. Drawing on Sara Ahmed’s exploration on happiness (2010) and on her articulations of the feminist killjoy figure, the article argues that it is possible to narrate hopeful stories envisioning optimistic endings while rethinking happiness articulated in conventional romantic narratives. I read Reilly’s novel as an un/happy text that critically reorients normative constructions of happiness and as a decolonial, queer and killjoy intervention opening a space for the unhappy family stories to emerge, while granting its protagonists with a happy ending. The novel vindicates the reparative value of love, presenting the family as a source of joy and protection.