Meet the Newmans

 

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the early listening copy! Out Jan. 6. 

Set in the 1960s, right as the country is on the brink of major social change, Meet the Newmans pulls back the curtain on a wildly popular family sitcom and reveals the complicated lives behind the scenes. I grew up watching shows like the fictional one in this book, so the nostalgia was immediate, along with the sobering reminders of a time when women couldn’t access birth control on their own or even have a credit card in their own name.

Onscreen, the Newman family is perfection: Del works, Dinah is the ideal stay-at-home wife, and sons Guy and Shep charm America each week. Offscreen, everything is unraveling. Del is hiding serious financial trouble. Shep, a talented musician, is suffocating under his carefully managed image. Guy is in a secret relationship with Kelly, an up-and-coming actor and in an era when studios controlled everything, Guy’s refusal to sacrifice that relationship is quietly powerful. Kelly becomes a calm, grounding presence for Guy and for the entire family as they face Del’s sudden coma and the chaos surrounding the show.

At the center of it all is Dinah. Challenged by a young female reporter for reinforcing limiting stereotypes, she’s forced to reevaluate her role. When crisis hits, she steps up. Dinah secures a sponsor for the season finale, hires the reporter to help rewrite the script, and helps push both the show and her family into new territory. Guy finally directs the finale, Shep claims both love and his music, and Dinah emerges transformed.

Marin Ireland and Tim Campbell deliver excellent narration. A nostalgic, thoughtful story about identity, reinvention, and breaking free from the roles we’re handed. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Is there a TV show from your childhood that still feels nostalgic to you?

About the Author

Jennifer Niven is the #1 New York Times and internationally bestselling author of thirteen books, fiction and nonfiction, including the massive breakout All the Bright Places, which she also adapted for film. Her award-winning books have been translated into more than seventy-five languages and have sold upward of 3.5 million copies worldwide. Jennifer has loved television and film her whole life and has been lucky enough to develop projects with Netflix, Sony, ABC and Warner Bros. She divides her time between coastal Georgia and Los Angeles with her husband and literary cats.