Whitcoulls Recommends: Meet The Newmans and The Winner

Meet The Newmans by Jennifer Niven. Del and Dinah Newman and their two sons have been the stars of a reality TV series about their family life for two decades, but in 1964 it feels as though the world is changing and America is falling out of love with them. Their on-screen lives portray a perfect family, but in reality their world is imploding and they all have secrets they’re hiding from one another. As the show limps towards its final episode, Dinah hires a young woman to help write the perfect ending, but it turns out they have diametrically opposed views as to what that should look like. This is a real slice of ‘60s life - nostalgic, still relevant, and very entertaining.

The Winner by David Baldacci. This was first published back in 1979 and has been reissued and is as good as it ever was. LuAnn Tyler is a young, 20 year old mother, with a life which promises nothing when she’s contacted by someone who tells her that he can rig the national lottery and she can win $100m. There are strings attached of course, but the opportunity is too good to turn down and afterwards she leaves the US for a decade, enjoying her newfound wealth. Ten years on though, its time to come home but an enterprising journalist working on a story about the lottery tracks her down and the FBI are on her trail. Baldacci writes terrific thrillers and this is no exception.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News talks'b and from What Girls.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Joe McKenzie, Good morning, Good morning. So we're going to
talk about, well, he's the best seller. He's got a
string of books to his name. He's American. His name
is David de Baldacci. Yeah, and the book is called
The Winner.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Yeah, and it's terrific. It was actually first published in
nineteen seventy nine, so it was one of the first
ones that he ever wrote, but the publishers pulled it
out to give it a second airing, and I think
it shows just how good a writer he was right
from the beginning. There's a few things in it which
show its age, like they use fax machines, don't remember
what they were like, and airport security is nonexistent because,

(00:48):
as I said, this was nineteen seventy nine, well before
nine to eleven, so didn't have airport security back then.
But it holds up really well, and he's written a
really good introduction to it, explaining why he decided to
write a book about a woman who's offered the chance
to win the US National Lottery, which was at that
time worth one hundred millision dollars, which was a lot
back then from a bad guy who can rig the numbers.

(01:11):
And I've always said that Baldacci's on the right side
of things. I think he's got a really good moral
compass and that comes through in most of the stories
and the characters that he writes. And he says in
this introduction that he was moved to write it because
he feels that the lottery in America is the one
he's referring to, is attacks on the poor, and that
it does disproportionately well in the poorest areas and in

(01:33):
the richer areas. Of course, people don't necessarily need to
buy tickets, and I'm sure that's not confined just to America.
But anyway, the story is about Luanne Tyler, who's twenty
years old and she doesn't have much going for her
apart from her lovely little baby daughter. And so when
this crook comes along and says I can rig the
lottery and you can win one hundred million dollars and

(01:54):
there will be strings attached, the offer is just far
too good to turn down. So she agrees to take part.
In one of the conditions is that when she wins it,
which she does. She will leave America and live overseas,
and she does that for about a decade, and then
the lure of home is too much, so she comes back,
I think, to Virginia, buys a big house and settles down.
But the crook who organized her win finds out that

(02:17):
she's back, as does an enterprising reporter who's writing a
story about the lotteries and figures out that the one
that she won was rigged, and the FBI are onto us.
So you get this convergence of the bad guys and
the FBI coming after her. And it's a really good
classic thriller and a really good classic by.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
Dutch, and a morality play. Indeed, it's very much like
that age old deal you do with the devil. Will
you go and rob the pharmacy to get the life
saving drugs for your children?

Speaker 3 (02:43):
That's right?

Speaker 2 (02:44):
And you go, yes, I will, because I've got the
moral high ground, but then you realize you don't. Yeah, fascinating.
We've got another book as well, and it's by Jennifer
Nivin and it's called Meat The Newman's.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
Yeah, which is a lovely, slightly nostalgic book which I
think will appeal to anybody who loved Lessons in Chemistry
by Bonnie Garmus, which is a book that had a
moment a couple of years ago, and I'm certain that
a lot of listeners will have come across it. This
new one, Meet the Newman's set in nineteen sixty four,
and it's about the Newman family who've been stars of

(03:14):
their own reality TV series for a couple of decades.
But in the sixties, the world's changing, you know, society
went in a different direction, and suddenly America's most beloved
family is out of kilter with the times and the
ratings are tanking. Dell and his wife Dinah are the parents,
and they've got two boys. And Dell, the dad, has

(03:35):
always been the guiding light with this series. He's called
all the shots, managed everything. So when he's in a
car accident and he's forced off the set for a while,
his wife Dinah steps up. And of course, on the show,
they've been portraying this all American, wholesome world, you know,
the white picket fence and the American apple pie. But
it turns out that actually this family are all humans

(03:55):
like the rest of us, and they've all got problems
and they've all got secrets, which always makes for a
good book. And with Dell off the scene, his wife
hires a young Hollywood report to help her write what
will become the finale of the series. But it turns
out that these two women have diametrically opposed vision of
what that final in the series should look like, just

(04:17):
as Dad Dell comes back onto the scene, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
To throw his weight around.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
Indeed, indeed, but it's got a lot of that lovely
nineteen sixties nostalgic thing going on. It really is kind
of a moment in time.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
It's a bit like the Bunkers, isn't it actually an Yeah,
it was a while ago. Yeah, I know. Well they're
coming back into favor now as well because the Conservatives
go now, Archie Bunker, that was a good American Joan
mackenzie from Wickers lovely to see you again and thank
you so much for coming in today.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin. Listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.