What do you think?
Rate this book
Colored Television
A brilliant dark comedy about second acts, creative appropriation, and the racial identity–industrial complex Jane has high hopes her life is about to turn around. After years of living precariously, she, her painter husband, Lenny, and their two kids have landed a stint as house sitters in a friend’s luxurious home high in the hills above Los Angeles, a gig that coincides magically with Jane’s sabbatical. If she can just finish her latest novel, Nusu Nusu, the centuries-spanning epic Lenny refers to as her “mulatto War and Peace,” she’ll have tenure and some semblance of stability and success within her grasp. But things don’t work out quite as hoped. In search of a plan B, like countless writers before her Jane turns her desperate gaze to Hollywood. When she finagles a meeting with a hot young producer with a seven-figure deal to create “diverse content” for a streaming network, he seems excited to work with a “real writer” to create what he envisions as the greatest biracial comedy ever to hit the small screen. Things finally seem to be going right for Jane—until they go terribly wrong. Funny, piercing, and page-turning, this is Senna’s most on-the-money novel yet.
288 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication September 3, 2024
About the author
Danzy Senna
11 books559 followersDanzy Senna is an American novelist, born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts in 1970. Her parents, Carl Senna, an Afro-Mexican poet and author, and Fanny Howe, who is Irish-American writer, were also civil rights activists.
She attended Stanford University and received an MFA from the University of California at Irvine. There, she received several creative writing awards.
Her debut novel, Caucasia (later republished as From Caucasia With Love), was well received and won several awards including the Book-Of-The-Month Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction, and the Alex Award from the American Library Association.
Her second novel, Symptomatic, was also well received. Both books feature a biracial protagonist and offer a unique view on life from their perspective.
Senna has also contributed to anthologies such as Gumbo.
In 2002, Senna received the Whiting Writers Award and in 2004 was named a Fellow for the New York Public Library's Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers.
Danzy Senna is married to fellow writer Percival Everett and they have a son, Henry together. Their residences have included Los Angeles and New York City.
She attended Stanford University and received an MFA from the University of California at Irvine. There, she received several creative writing awards.
Her debut novel, Caucasia (later republished as From Caucasia With Love), was well received and won several awards including the Book-Of-The-Month Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction, and the Alex Award from the American Library Association.
Her second novel, Symptomatic, was also well received. Both books feature a biracial protagonist and offer a unique view on life from their perspective.
Senna has also contributed to anthologies such as Gumbo.
In 2002, Senna received the Whiting Writers Award and in 2004 was named a Fellow for the New York Public Library's Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers.
Danzy Senna is married to fellow writer Percival Everett and they have a son, Henry together. Their residences have included Los Angeles and New York City.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
January 18, 2024
Danzy Senna keeps getting better. This book is a total joy and a wild ride. Senna captures the limits of reality before it tips into fully wild unbelievable chaos. She gets understated but also zany perfectly. She builds tension for her characters and her readers (almost like a thriller) and make the mundanity of life feel so high stakes. She doesn't get the credit deserves for her skill. Not to mention the ways she talks the world of mixed people seriously, she is unmatched.
May 12, 2024
A really enjoyable dark comedy with a particularly sharp satire of the perils of Hollywood. Jane is the perfect lead, someone with an actually pretty charmed life who is not content with her lot and makes a regular string of bad decisions that consistently make everything more complicated and difficult. Yes, you will want to shake her constantly, but that's part of the fun.
It takes a while to get to the television stuff, but it's a short novel and that's when it really kicks into high gear. I would love to read a bunch more books like this, that have a fully developed world and a sharp observing eye. Jane and her family feel like real people, the kids never feel like they are just there for show. As usual, Senna has a very keen eye on issues of race and the particular conundrums of being biracial.
It takes a while to get to the television stuff, but it's a short novel and that's when it really kicks into high gear. I would love to read a bunch more books like this, that have a fully developed world and a sharp observing eye. Jane and her family feel like real people, the kids never feel like they are just there for show. As usual, Senna has a very keen eye on issues of race and the particular conundrums of being biracial.
January 15, 2024
Enjoyed reading and thinking about this novel. It’s going to be a hit.
July 31, 2024
Senna delivers, as always!
July 25, 2024
Colored Television is a sharp satire of “making it” in Hollywood.
Centered around a biracial woman, Jane, who is close to completing her second novel, after almost a decade of working on it. She believes that finishing it will change everything for her and her family, forever.
When things don’t go as planned, she turns to television. What she doesn’t realize is that this isn’t the big break she had been hoping for, either.
Darkly funny, and absolutely cutting in its commentary. I enjoyed reading and considering the many layers to this story, and think others will feel the same!
Thank you to the publisher for the early copy, in exchange for a review!
Centered around a biracial woman, Jane, who is close to completing her second novel, after almost a decade of working on it. She believes that finishing it will change everything for her and her family, forever.
When things don’t go as planned, she turns to television. What she doesn’t realize is that this isn’t the big break she had been hoping for, either.
Darkly funny, and absolutely cutting in its commentary. I enjoyed reading and considering the many layers to this story, and think others will feel the same!
Thank you to the publisher for the early copy, in exchange for a review!
Want to read
May 20, 2024SO EXCITED THAT I GET TO READ A NEW DANZY SENNA NOVEL IN 2024!
Want to read
January 5, 2024my most anticipated 2024 release!
June 17, 2024
COLORED TELEVISION |
Thank you so much @riverheadbooks
This comes out 7/30!
Jane is going on sabbatical, hopefully to finish her sophomore novel which she's been working on for the past 9 years, a near 500 page novel about mulattos through the past few centuries. For the past half year or so she and her family have been housesitting at a rich friend's house, enjoying his expensive wine and the huge amounts of space, her husband to work on his painting, she to complete her novel, and room for their two kids to sprawl out.
This turns into quite a wild ride but some of the best parts are in the intricacies of the characters in the subplots. The story of how Jane met her husband, the couples therapy sessions, and the storylines about the kids, all reel you in and make you feel for the family. Quite unlike the manufactured picture perfect family that she compares herself to in the magazine. What she has is a very good life that she's fought hard to get to.
We see the fact that as a biracial Black and white person, she has had to fight and work every step of the way to have her talent recognized and supported, because really the expectations of her success must fit within the mold of what the outside world expects success should look like for her.
What was so interesting to me as someone who has done my own DNA test and is 99% one ethnic group, is the common way in which those who are obviously unidentifiably mixed gather a sense of common identity from those with completely different makeups because of the ambiguous mixed race presentation. One way in which Jane deals with this is by mirroring the behavior of whoever she's speaking with. But this knee jerk reaction means she usually doesn't trust herself to be right. Within the story, this takes her down many a wrong path.
The novel is so addictive. I read this in two sittings unable to tear myself away.
Thank you so much @riverheadbooks
This comes out 7/30!
Jane is going on sabbatical, hopefully to finish her sophomore novel which she's been working on for the past 9 years, a near 500 page novel about mulattos through the past few centuries. For the past half year or so she and her family have been housesitting at a rich friend's house, enjoying his expensive wine and the huge amounts of space, her husband to work on his painting, she to complete her novel, and room for their two kids to sprawl out.
This turns into quite a wild ride but some of the best parts are in the intricacies of the characters in the subplots. The story of how Jane met her husband, the couples therapy sessions, and the storylines about the kids, all reel you in and make you feel for the family. Quite unlike the manufactured picture perfect family that she compares herself to in the magazine. What she has is a very good life that she's fought hard to get to.
We see the fact that as a biracial Black and white person, she has had to fight and work every step of the way to have her talent recognized and supported, because really the expectations of her success must fit within the mold of what the outside world expects success should look like for her.
What was so interesting to me as someone who has done my own DNA test and is 99% one ethnic group, is the common way in which those who are obviously unidentifiably mixed gather a sense of common identity from those with completely different makeups because of the ambiguous mixed race presentation. One way in which Jane deals with this is by mirroring the behavior of whoever she's speaking with. But this knee jerk reaction means she usually doesn't trust herself to be right. Within the story, this takes her down many a wrong path.
The novel is so addictive. I read this in two sittings unable to tear myself away.
July 6, 2024
Got some reading out of Covid at least.
Senna is smart and dry and really funny. I could feel LA in this book.
Jane’s particular hungers and Lenny’s resistance to them—only possible bc of his class background—both infuriated me.
There were quite a few scenes that I know will really stay with me. Jane in front of the tv at the retirement home….. Fucking Hampton! She and Lenny alone, together, each in their stew.
I really liked this one. I hope it does well
Senna is smart and dry and really funny. I could feel LA in this book.
Jane’s particular hungers and Lenny’s resistance to them—only possible bc of his class background—both infuriated me.
There were quite a few scenes that I know will really stay with me. Jane in front of the tv at the retirement home….. Fucking Hampton! She and Lenny alone, together, each in their stew.
I really liked this one. I hope it does well
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 17, 2024
This was super sharp and observant and really, just so effortlessly smart. Jane, the biracial protaganist, and her husband and kids, live in LA. They are both artists, just trying to create art while also just trying to live. Jane's pivot to tv, when her epic novel doesn't get picked up (and really, I would totally read that), leads her to make questionable choices, while her commentary will cause many cringes for how on point they are. This book contains multitudes, not just a commentary on writing for books or for tv, but also about being biracial in a black and white world.
I received an arc from the publisher but all opinions are my own.
I received an arc from the publisher but all opinions are my own.
July 19, 2024
Jane is biracial and has long known the frustrations and racial tension of having one leg on the Black side and the other leg on the White side of the fence. She and her husband and two kids have been bouncing from apartment to apartment for awhile and now have an opportunity to housesit for a year in a posh L.A. neighborhood. They are living the good life with a studio for her husband to get ready for his big art show and for Jane to finish her second huge novel. She is unprepared for the less than optimistic response from her agent on her opus and takes a chance meeting with a Hollywood bigwig producer looking to create a hit romcom about "being mulatto". Jane feels she is halfway accepted by this group, halfway committed to her marriage and halfway committed to her dream of becoming a respected novelist. This is a heartfelt look at hanging on to your dented reality while faced with all the shiny possibilities and false hope of Hollywood. Readers of THE VANISHING HALF and LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND will find much to like here. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.
May 29, 2024
It is Jane's last chance at making tenure at her university. Her teaching load has been tenure track and she's taking her sabbatical to finish her second novel that will guarantee her that job for life. She has been working on this book, a fictional history of mulattos, for almost ten years, but finally has a quiet study area in which to complete it. Unfortunately her living arrangement is only temporary, as it has been all during her married life. Mimicking her white mom and black father who disdained wealth over intellectual freedom, Jane and her husband, an unsuccessful artist, don't have enough money to buy a house for themselves and their two children. They are presently babysitting a scriptwriter friend's LA house for the year, as he and his family work overseas, but time is running out.
Jane is thrilled when she finally finishes her novel, a few months before her friend is due to return. She happily submits it to her agent who gives it a thumbs up and passes it on to her publisher. But Jane is suspicious-did her agent really read the book-after all, it was a dense 500 page tome. She soon gets her answer-the publisher rejected it and basically told her to burn it. Distraught, she finds a card belonging to her scriptwriter friend's agent and steals his idea of a comedy tv show about mixed race adults. She pitches his agent who connects Jane with a black Hollywood producer who is very interested in "her" idea...and so the book begins.
Senna takes her readers on a wild ride through development hell as we watch her heroine run fast to make the best of a bad situation. By covering financial problems, family stress, race relations, and competition in higher education, the author has given herself a gigantic assignment. I would certainly grant her tenure for this one.
Jane is thrilled when she finally finishes her novel, a few months before her friend is due to return. She happily submits it to her agent who gives it a thumbs up and passes it on to her publisher. But Jane is suspicious-did her agent really read the book-after all, it was a dense 500 page tome. She soon gets her answer-the publisher rejected it and basically told her to burn it. Distraught, she finds a card belonging to her scriptwriter friend's agent and steals his idea of a comedy tv show about mixed race adults. She pitches his agent who connects Jane with a black Hollywood producer who is very interested in "her" idea...and so the book begins.
Senna takes her readers on a wild ride through development hell as we watch her heroine run fast to make the best of a bad situation. By covering financial problems, family stress, race relations, and competition in higher education, the author has given herself a gigantic assignment. I would certainly grant her tenure for this one.
June 16, 2024
I enjoyed this novel as, first and foremost, a character study of a woman seeking success as a "second-time" novelist. The look at the lengths a person will go to in order to achieve that elusive dream come true was riveting. Jane's journey leads her to lie to various people, including her husband, and her path spirals down from there. The behind-the-scenes look at the Hollywood machine was also well-written. Jane gets sucked into that world, and the author delights in a critique of the virtue-signaling that is the current state of Hollywood politics.
The theme of race I found too pervasive and all-encompassing. It infuses every single page, in Jane's actions and thoughts about things she does, things other people do and say, things her husband does and says. It's absolutely everywhere, in nearly every paragraph. Jane early on thinks about the fact that people she knows think Americans have an obsession with race, and as a result, become "obsessed with not being obsessed with race." This kind of describes this novel as well, and it distracts from the excellent and excellently told story.
The theme of race I found too pervasive and all-encompassing. It infuses every single page, in Jane's actions and thoughts about things she does, things other people do and say, things her husband does and says. It's absolutely everywhere, in nearly every paragraph. Jane early on thinks about the fact that people she knows think Americans have an obsession with race, and as a result, become "obsessed with not being obsessed with race." This kind of describes this novel as well, and it distracts from the excellent and excellently told story.
July 17, 2024
Jane has been working on her second novel for a decade, and a sabbatical and a stint househunting at a fancy friend's LA house is the perfect place to finish. She has grand ambitions about what her new novel will bring: success, acclaim, financial stability, a permanent spot in her coveted neighborhood. Except the finished product is met with a not very enthusiastic response by her agent and editor. Her novel was a sprawling epic about what it means to be biracial in America. Jane then turns to her friend's television agent and pins her hopes on a possible collaboration with a producer who is the "next big thing", to produce the "great mulatto comedy" -- an untapped audience ready to explode.
Like her career, Jane's marriage to her artist husband has also seen better days. Stimied by her circumstances, Jane makes some questionable choices. You can feel the reckoning coming, even as you root for Jane to get out of the hole she's dug for herself. This was sharp and sometimes funny. There were a couple of developments at the end that seemed underdeveloped and out of place, but I enjoyed it overall.
Like her career, Jane's marriage to her artist husband has also seen better days. Stimied by her circumstances, Jane makes some questionable choices. You can feel the reckoning coming, even as you root for Jane to get out of the hole she's dug for herself. This was sharp and sometimes funny. There were a couple of developments at the end that seemed underdeveloped and out of place, but I enjoyed it overall.
February 1, 2024
I loved this book, mostly.
I am a huge reader of fiction and I cannot imagine how hard it must be to write a novel; this novel was fascinating insight into the novel-writing process. The academic fear felt real too.
The novel felt like the TV show Jane was pitching, and I loved that about the book. It felt genuine - as if I’d been dropped into Jane & Lenny’s lives, in LA, in Tokyo, in Brooklyn. I also wondered how much of it Danzy made up & how much was based on her own life as a novelist.
I didn’t like all the lying in the middle of the book - I always cringed when Brett sent a text or called. The denouement of that storyline was, ultimately, not much (which was fine, but maybe not realistic? Except for the statement about how friendships change).
I read this right after finishing The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois, and felt that this was related to the Love Songs in a way. Mostly because I could picture the provenance of the biracial characters.
Grateful to the publisher and to Edelweiss for providing this ARC.
Highly recommended.
I am a huge reader of fiction and I cannot imagine how hard it must be to write a novel; this novel was fascinating insight into the novel-writing process. The academic fear felt real too.
The novel felt like the TV show Jane was pitching, and I loved that about the book. It felt genuine - as if I’d been dropped into Jane & Lenny’s lives, in LA, in Tokyo, in Brooklyn. I also wondered how much of it Danzy made up & how much was based on her own life as a novelist.
I didn’t like all the lying in the middle of the book - I always cringed when Brett sent a text or called. The denouement of that storyline was, ultimately, not much (which was fine, but maybe not realistic? Except for the statement about how friendships change).
I read this right after finishing The Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois, and felt that this was related to the Love Songs in a way. Mostly because I could picture the provenance of the biracial characters.
Grateful to the publisher and to Edelweiss for providing this ARC.
Highly recommended.
June 2, 2024
a novelist finds herself in on the outskirts of hollywood, more specifically television writing, and all the nasty structures that keep the rich and white inside their politically neutral world. there is so much to unpack here: what it means to be a non-white creative and how "representation" comes into play, ownership of abstract intellectual property, the mulatto experience, and more. i loved how observant senna is in her writing, especially in jane's tangents about the various characters in her life, and can personally relate to getting the rug pulled under myself for ideas i put forward but were then taken and claimed by someone else as a bipoc academic. it's easy to get swept up when the rewards of these structures feel in reach for once which is the brilliance and downfall of hoping.
June 28, 2024
This book really captures the mixed-in-America experience. Although my own mixed background is different than the main character's, meaning some of the specifics are different, there's a lot here that I found to be broadly relatable.
This novel is so unbelievably clever. There are tons of layers to dig into, and you can choose to unpack it all and spend forever contemplating, or you can just enjoy the really great plot. I love that we got a main character who's dimensional and imperfect, but still likable. The humor is so sharp and dry, which matched the tone of the story and setting perfectly.
There was something unsatisfying about the story, but I think that's how it had to be, so I don't mean that as a criticism.
This novel is so unbelievably clever. There are tons of layers to dig into, and you can choose to unpack it all and spend forever contemplating, or you can just enjoy the really great plot. I love that we got a main character who's dimensional and imperfect, but still likable. The humor is so sharp and dry, which matched the tone of the story and setting perfectly.
There was something unsatisfying about the story, but I think that's how it had to be, so I don't mean that as a criticism.
July 13, 2024
This book shows both the thrilling and mundane sides of life as a creative through the perspective of Jane, a writer who makes most of her living as a professor. The book is beautifully written and touches on a lot of complex subjects: professional envy, shame, creative exploitation, marital unrest, and multiracial identity. You want to root for Jane, and also tell her to get it together at the same time. Perfect.
"Every so often, a student would turn up in one of her classes, instincts fully formed, vision so urgent and necessary that it startled her awake. They would remind her of why she'd done it, why any of them did it, what they were after: a story as dark and clear as a mirror."
June 14, 2024
A biracial novelist dreams of writing a groundbreaking book but realises it won't sell. To support her family, she turns to Hollywood for financial stability. Disheartened by her publisher's rejection of her manuscript, unsure if they even read it, she finds hope when a Hollywood producer expresses keen interest in her ideas. Amidst financial struggles to support her young family and maintain her marriage, she's drawn in by his promises, striving to provide her children with every opportunity. I read Caucasia a month ago and I really like Senna's writing style and voice. Despite Jane's flawed nature and questionable decisions, her character development captivated me, making the book very enjoyable. Thank you, Net Galley and Dialogue books, for this advanced reading copy.
July 9, 2024
(2.5) — I thought this book was a fun ride and entertaining, but ultimately the story itself wasn’t really spectacular. There are so many contemporary novels these days that I have this exact sentiment for, easy and fun reads, but ultimately very mediocre books. And, that’s okay. I definitely want to try reading New People and Caucasia.
There were funny parts to the book, but the humor about being mulatto and Hollywood felt overwrought. I look for stories that change and expand the way I see the world or stories beautiful sentences that make me want to be a better writer, this didn’t do that for me.
I’m trying to figure out my rating system here, but I think 2.5 means I had fun reading it but wouldn’t recommend to a friend.
There were funny parts to the book, but the humor about being mulatto and Hollywood felt overwrought. I look for stories that change and expand the way I see the world or stories beautiful sentences that make me want to be a better writer, this didn’t do that for me.
I’m trying to figure out my rating system here, but I think 2.5 means I had fun reading it but wouldn’t recommend to a friend.
April 7, 2024
This novel will be very, very funny to any writer who has worked in Hollywood. It feels like it's on the cusp of satire but so does Los Angeles, a place sometimes so absurd it doesn't seem real. But this is also, in its way, a love letter to Los Angeles and trying to live a life out of making art, and loving a partner in times both fecund and fallow and raising children and making a home. The humor is dry and bitter at the perfect pitch and Jane, the protagonist is just... infuriating in a way that is painfully recognizable.
May 9, 2024
I mostly liked this book. it absolutely resonated on a personal level because I too dream of a craftsman in Pasadena aka Multicultural Mulberry. Jane was living in delusion for basically 300 pages and sometimes that’s just what you need to do? Also, the husband was annoying af but it was a fun, character driven tale.
May 19, 2024
Highly enjoyable read, even though I found the characters to be deeply unlikable, especially Jane with her entitlement and striving.
(minor spoiler)
Sorry, but the idea of people staying in a friend's house for free for a year and drinking all of their expensive wine from a wine cellar is insane!
(minor spoiler)
Sorry, but the idea of people staying in a friend's house for free for a year and drinking all of their expensive wine from a wine cellar is insane!
May 7, 2024
I won a copy of this book in a giveaway and absolutely loved it. The behind-the-scenes aspects of television making were funny and interesting, and I thought it was safe and ultimately very moving on the process of making art.
April 17, 2024
Really enjoyed this book about life in LA as a writer, and will be reading more by Danzy Senna!
April 26, 2024
Absolutely masterful. Hilarious and horrifying simultaneously, a delicious read
May 22, 2024
(3.5/5)
Solid, if not outright great. I thought it would be a fair amount nastier and I wish it was.
Solid, if not outright great. I thought it would be a fair amount nastier and I wish it was.
June 1, 2024
3.5, and hilarious in most parts.
Thank you #netgalley.
Thank you #netgalley.
May 26, 2024
An intriguing, if imperfect, study of how Hollywood (television, specifically) exploits trends and virtue signaling to the detriment of those who are tasked with being the representative "voice" of their people. In this case Jane, a novelist struggling to complete her sophomore work (in part to guarantee tenure at her teaching position) about the history and treatment of mixed-race Americans of African descent, gets pulled into the world of premiere television so that she can write the first series that focuses on a mixed-race family and their interactions with daily life - frequently excluded from both white and Black cultures.
Whether by accident or because of the cultural zeitgeist, "Colored Television", could pick up where "American Fiction" (Danzy Senna's husband's filmic adaptation of his 2011 novel "Erasure") ends - with the awards-bait adaptation firmly in production. The producer of that film could easily be the rising star producer who is behind Jane's quest to make their show a reality.
Taking on the Hollywood system virtually no one is left unscathed, though because Jane is the representation of the mixed-race family incarnate, she is continually unable to escape the sluice falling from above. Which is, in part, what "Colored Television" is commenting on.
Whether by accident or because of the cultural zeitgeist, "Colored Television", could pick up where "American Fiction" (Danzy Senna's husband's filmic adaptation of his 2011 novel "Erasure") ends - with the awards-bait adaptation firmly in production. The producer of that film could easily be the rising star producer who is behind Jane's quest to make their show a reality.
Taking on the Hollywood system virtually no one is left unscathed, though because Jane is the representation of the mixed-race family incarnate, she is continually unable to escape the sluice falling from above. Which is, in part, what "Colored Television" is commenting on.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews