Book Summary and Reviews of Meet the Newmans by Jennifer Niven

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labmom55

Throws too many issues into the pot
Meet the Newmans is a trip down memory lane to the feel good tv of the late 50s and early 60s. Think Ozzie and Harriet, Leave It to Beaver, The Andy Griffith Show. The Newmans have been a real life/ tv family for 12 years. But now, their style of tv show isn’t selling. Ratings are falling and sponsors are bailing.

As one would expect, their real life looks nothing like the tv version. Their marriage is in trouble with Del and Dinah both hiding secrets from the other. Their two teenaged sons are both struggling to find their own way. The book details the beginning of the Women’s Movement as Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique had just come out in 1963. When Del is in a car accident and Dinah takes the reins, she has an opportunity to decide what message she wants to send.

There’s a bit of a soap opera quality to the book. At times I felt Niven was throwing too many issues into the story - feminism, misogyny, the lavender scare, racism, divorce, drugs, contraception and unwanted pregnancy. But at the center were characters trying to find their own identity and meaning in their lives. I did appreciate how she portrays Dinah and Juliet’s developing friendship, the contrast between the expectations of the two generations. The sheer number of issues tackled means the book moves at a brisk pace, moving from one aspect and character to another. The characters mostly felt real and fully fleshed out.

Niven does a good job of putting the reader in the time and place other than minor mistakes like including Post It Notes (not sold until 1980). Also, having grown up in those times, words like gay and feminism weren’t really part of the lexicon.
I listened to this and Marin Ireland did her normal great job as the narrator.

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