MEET THE NEWMANS

JENNIFER NIVEN

Writer Jennifer Niven has achieved a difficult task and done so with wild success. She, of the YA genre, has written a book that encapsulates a generation many baby boomers will relate to with pleasure and some antipathy. Meet The Newmans takes place in the 1960s and is a TV show reminiscent of Ozzie and Harriet, Father Knows Best, and Leave It to Beaver. It exemplifies the ideal life and lifestyle that Americans strove for, yet, in their hearts, knew they could never achieve. The protagonist of Meet the Newmans is Diana. It is interesting that on screen, Diana plays the ideal mother, yet off screen, she yearns for her own life that does not dovetail with the values portrayed on the television show, and of course, each member of the cast has their own secrets and problems that could bring down the success of the show. For those readers familiar with the entertainment industry, the book will remind them of how television shows are put together and what goes into a production seemingly as straightforward as Meet the Newmans. The book sits on the precipice of the 1960s, with its innocence and naivete, and the upcoming 60s, which brought civil unrest, racial equality, and women's rights. Meet the Newmans is a rarity because it raises serious questions while offering readers plenty of entertainment amid societal upheaval in the late 50s and the 1960s.