Meet the Newmans by Jennifer Niven is a warm and engaging fiction novel that blends family drama, emotional honesty, belonging, and identity.
At the center of the story is the Newman family. There’s Del, Dinah, and their sons Guy and Shep, who have spent years playing idealized versions of themselves on their hit show The Newmans. They have been in the spotlight for two decades as America’s favourite TV family, but now it is 1964, as the world is changing…and so is television.
As their show becomes outdated, their audience shrinks, and the network pressures them to modernise. But, behind the scenes, the family is imploding. Each family member carries a secret that contradicts the wholesome image the public expects. Will they be able to keep their long-buried truths hidden and bring themselves into the modern times, or will the show be cancelled forever?
The novel’s structure mirrors the chaos of their lives which is a nice touch. Chapters are intercut with press clippings, interviews, and fragments of media coverage, creating a collage of perspectives that reminds you how little control the Newmans have over their own narrative.
Niven’s greatest strength is her character work. She gives each Newman a distinct emotional landscape, allowing the reader to understand not just what they hide, but why they hide it. Each member is given enough depth to feel both real and memorable. Their interactions create lively, at times chaotic scenes that balance the quieter emotional moments.
Del is the driving force behind the family’s fame. His attempts to maintain the illusion of the perfect husband and father weigh on him as he holds a heavy secret. Dinah plays the glamorous, perfect wife and mother, the on-screen image of domestic bliss. But she is emotionally detached, lonely, and hollow inside. Guy is the golden boy of the show, but in real life, he is struggling with his own identity. Shep is the rebel, the one who tries to escape the family brand by becoming a musician, but the instability of fame unravels.
I enjoyed how the story dealt with so many prominent issues, from the Civil Rights movement to feminism to gay rights. It had many truly funny moments that had me laughing while being heartwarming and gut-wrenching all at the same time.
The novel marks Jennifer Niven’s adult fiction debut, expanding beyond her well-known YA work into a sweeping, character-driven family saga offering a refined and resonant story that demonstrates her continued skill in portraying the intricacies of human connection.
Meet the Newmans is a thoughtful, emotionally layered family drama that examines the gap between who we are and who we are expected to be. It is nostalgic, sharp, and tender. Readers who enjoy historical fiction, behind-the-scenes Hollywood stories, or multilayered family sagas will find much to admire. I highly recommend.
A selection of our Beauty and Lace Club members are reading Meet the Newmans by Jennifer Niven. You can read their comments below, or add your own review.
My love of books started at a very young age. My mum has always been a reader and encouraged me to read, buying me endless book from classic fairy tales advancing to the world of Enid Blyton, CS Lewis, Louisa May Alcott, Kathryn Kenny, Carolyn Keene, Francine Pascal. In my adult years the list of authors is endless and every room in my house is filled with books.
One of my favourite novels is Narnia which has always has a special place in my heart. I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in 1978 and when I was given this book to read it let me escape to another world where I felt like I was in the book with all the characters, it wasfun and exciting to escape from reality and eased the ups and downs of the disease at such a young age.
In books nothing is impossible and there is endless potential and hundreds of places to explore or being taken to places that are only made up from the authors’ great minds, the past and future to navigate, characters lives you step into taking you on an emotional rollercoaster ride or being scared out of your wits. I can experience things that I can’t in real life because they’re not possible or real. It challenges my perspective and mindset expanding my worldview.
I find joy, comfort and peace with books, many people may not get it, but I know bookworms like me truly understand. Reading makes my heart happy.
Thank you Beauty and Lace for the opportunity to read Jennifer Niven”s Meet the Newmans – I have never read anything by Jennifer and I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
Del and Dinah Newman and their two sons Guy and Shep are the stars of a 1960″s reality television show and the times they are a changing – Del has an accident one night and the television show has already started to date and sponsors are not taking up the renewal of the show and Del is laying in a coma in a hospital away from where they live – so why is he in that area – Dinah needs to organise the writing of the finale episode so she enlists the help of a female journalist and they try to write an episode that sees Dinah come out from behind her kitchen appliances and her pearls – meanwhile Guy lives with his roommate in the guest house and Shep has got a girl pregnant and is in love with the love interest of Guy in the show – none of this is appropriate for America’s favourite family and then Del wakes up from his coma – all in all I found this a great read – 4 stars from me
Thankyou Beauty and Lace and Panmacmillan for the opportunity to review ‘Meet the Newmans’ by Jennifer Niven
The Newman’s are the perfect TV family and followed by many fans in the two decades of their episodes.
The public love Dinah the housewife who runs her house perfectly and the way she conjures up delicious recipes because she’s a wonderful and capable cook.
She’s just part of the family, there’s her husband, handsome Del and sons the older one Guy and seventeen year old musician, Shep.
It’s the 60’s and women aren’t expected to be over educated or to do much outside the home. Times and attitudes are changing!
The show is failing in ratings and after Del experiences an accident Dinah and her sons find themselves having to consider a final episode. She enlists the help of reporter Juliet Dunne a young woman with a modern outlook.
The chapters in the book are all dated from before Del’s accident and then after the accident, with newspaper and magazine articles scattered before some.
Easy to read and light-hearted, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Very interesting to see behind the scenes of what on the surface appears to be the perfect family!
Definitely a 5 star read.
A nostalgic and charming read, Meet the Newmans by Jennifer Niven (PanMacMillan) is an interesting glimpse into the 50’s and 60’s – a time of immense social change when, for a long time, the everyday happenings of a wholesome TV family had offered a welcome escape.
Del and Dinah Newman and their sons, Guy and Shep, have been America’s Favourite Family ( both onscreen and off) since their TV show began in the 50’s. But as they head into the swinging 60’s it is clear that behind the scenes this picture perfect family is starting to fall apart, and, their TV show is increasingly being seen as out of touch…
A well written story, which manages to capture some of the feeling and sentiment of the times in relation to homosexuality, sexism, and most particularly women’s rights and female empowerment.