Meet the Newmans
A Novel
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- $21.99
Publisher Description
From #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING author Jennifer Niven, a novel about America’s favorite TV family, whose perfect façade cracks
"I LOVED Meet the Newmans!" —Judy Blume, #1 New York Times bestselling author
"[A] WITTY AND MOVING novel." —People
"Fans of LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY will love Meet the Newmans." —Woman's World
For two decades, Del and Dinah Newman and their sons, Guy and Shep, have ruled television as America’s Favorite Family. Millions of viewers tune in every week to watch them play flawless, black-and-white versions of themselves. But now it’s 1964, and the Newmans’ idealized apple-pie perfection suddenly feels woefully out of touch. Ratings are in free fall, as are the Newmans themselves. Del is keeping an explosive secret from his wife, and Dinah is slowly going numb—literally. Steady, stable Guy is hiding the truth about his love life, and the charmed luck of rock ‘n roll idol Shep may have finally run out.
When Del—the creative motor behind the show—is in a mysterious car accident, Dinah decides to take matters into her own hands. She hires Juliet Dunne, an outspoken, impassioned young reporter, to help her write the final episode. But Dinah and Juliet have wildly different perspectives about what it means to be a woman, and a family, in 1964. Can the Newmans hold it together to change television history? Or will they be canceled before they ever have the chance?
Funny, big-hearted, and deeply moving, Meet the Newmans is a rich family story about the dual lives we lead. Because even when our lives aren’t televised weekly, we all have a behind-the-scenes.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This bighearted historical drama explores what happens when America’s most wholesome TV family collides with a rapidly changing world. It’s 1964, and for two decades, Del and Dinah Newman and their sons, Guy and Shep, have played spotless versions of themselves on a beloved television show. As ratings fall and pop culture shifts, a sudden accident puts Del out of commission, forcing Dinah—long constrained both on screen and off—to venture into creative territory she’s never been allowed to claim. But Guy is keeping a secret of his own, and Shep’s teenage rock ’n’ roll rebellion is edging toward real consequences. Author Jennifer Niven (All the Bright Places) captures the tension between public performance and private truth with warmth and clarity, grounding the sweeping changes of the 1960s in intimate family moments. Meet the Newmans is a rewarding family story about facing the risks of finally stepping away from your script.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A slice of mid-20th-century American life turns Technicolor in the uneven latest from Niven (after the YA novel When We Were Monsters). By 1964, the Newman family have been playing themselves for 20 years, first with a radio show and then with a half-hour sitcom called Meet the Newmans. The program offers conservative life lessons from writer, producer, and patriarch Del Newman, who stars alongside his wife, Dinah, and their two sons, Guy and Shep. The show was once hugely popular, but with the frenzy over Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique and other signs of cultural change, the ratings have slipped and the studio is threatening cancellation. When Dinah learns Del has been in a car accident and is recovering in the hospital, she seizes the chance to write the next episode. With help from a young female journalist, she weaves a kitchen sink's worth of feminist issues into the script, from abortion bans to restrictions against women serving on a jury or opening a credit account. Niven effectively develops the characters, especially Dinah, who at first appears to be a restless housewife lusting after a neighbor before she starts to break out of her prescribed gender role. But as the plot plods to its inevitable happy ending, the story grows tedious. It's a mixed bag.
