Link :Amazon, Goodreads. Price: £7.37
Daisy Jones and the Six were icons of the 1970s, a rock band that transcended the genre to become an icon for their generation. Then, on the 12 July 1979, the band dramatically split, offering no reason why. Now, in a collection of interviews with the surviving members of the band, the truth is revealed.
This is quite a book. I have a fair amount of experience transcribing and reproducing interviews as part of qualitive research before during my PhD and, even though I knew the band were fictional, even though I knew that the text was too well written to be a transcription on a real interview, I still find myself checking Wikipedia, because Taylor Jenkins Reid has created characters who feel so real, so rounded, so true, that I couldn’t help but believe in them.
You may hit a couple of points, particularly during a slightly saggy middle, that you think this is yet another version of A Star is Born. Stick with it – this book is far more interesting. This isn’t just a love story – it is many different stories of love, experiences of love, forbidden love and marital love and brotherly love, love of music, love that breaks you and loves that saves you. The interview format lets you see the same story from many different (often contradictory) perspectives, which is a delight.
Best of all, not only does this have one of the best presentations of married love (a subject that doesn’t get nearly enough attention) that I have seen in fiction, but the end will utterly defy your expectations. I was blown at the beginning of the book by the ambition and complexity of its format – but the emotional impact of its ending is what will stay with me. This is a fantastic, unique book, the deserves a place on your shelf.
