Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid– 256 pages
ARC courtesy of Netgalley and Ballantine Books
Book Blurb:
In 1979, Daisy Jones and The Six split up. Together, they had redefined the 70’s music scene, creating an iconic sound that rocked the world. Apart, they baffled a world that had hung on their every verse.
This book is an attempt to piece together a clear portrait of the band’s rise to fame and their abrupt and infamous split. The following oral history is a compilation of interviews, emails, transcripts, and lyrics, all pertaining to the personal and professional lives of the members of the band The Six and singer Daisy Jones. While I have aimed for a comprehensive and exhaustive approach, I must acknowledge that full and complete accounts from all parties involved has proved impossible. Some people were easier to track down than others, some were more willing to talk than others, and some, unfortunately, have passed on.
All of which is to say that while this is the first and only authorised account from all represented perspectives, it should be noted that, in matters both big and small, reasonable people disagree.
The truth often lies, unclaimed, in the middle.
My Review: 5 stars
Daisy Jones and The Six is one of those books that I dare you stop reading unless you absolutely must! I did have to eventually fall asleep but I picked it up the next day and dragged it everywhere I went; who says you can’t get reading done when you’re stopped at traffic lights?
This is only the third book I’ve read by this author and each one has been better than the last. I just adored Evelyn in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and got way more than I expected from it. I think the title threw me and led me to assume it would be much lighter than it was. Daisy Jones and The Six did not let me go. It took me captive with a front row seat into this 70s rock and roll band that survived on sex, drugs, love and music.
How original for a fictional story to be told completely in an interview format? It worked so well as each of the band members remembered their own version of the same situation from several decades earlier. This book does not disappoint on the drama scale; much of it surrounding a love triangle that involved stability versus passion.
Reese Witherspoon has already bought the rights and is making it into a television series. This means the music – with lyrics that weep with heartbreak, speak to your soul, and promise you love – will come to life. I cannot wait! I dog-eared so much of this book so if you’re someone who reads the quotes I note, you’ve got a lot to go through.
Quotes I liked:
Men often think they deserve a sticker for treating women like people.”
– “I always say I don’t care if you’re a man, woman, white , black, gay, straight, or anything in between – if you play well, you play well. Music is a great equalizer in that way.”
– “Let me put it this way. I’ve seen a lot of marriages where everyone is faithful and no one is happy.”
– “I think you have to have faith in people before they earn it. Otherwise it’s not faith, right?”
– “It’s not my responsibility to not turn them on. It’s their responsibility to not be an asshole.”
– “Billy saw me the way I wanted to be seen. There is nothing more powerful than that.”
– “Acceptance is powerful drug. And I should know because I’ve done ‘em all.”
– “But the only reason people thought I had everything is because I had all the things you can see.“
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