Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Published by Random House ISBN 9781524798622
Hardcover, $27, 336 pages

Last year I read Taylor Jenkins Reid's wonderful novel, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and loved it. Her take on an Elizabeth Taylor-like character was so engrossing, I couldn't put it down. So when I heard that her new novel Daisy Jones & the Six was publishing, I put it on the top of my To Be Read list.

Daisy Jones & the Six is a take on a Fleetwood Mac-like band. It is written as a series of interviews with the band members, producers, friends and others, so you get everybody's point of view to the meteoric rise and fall of a rock band.

Daisy Jones wanted to be known as a singer-songwriter, and with her gorgeous look and voice, she quickly garnered attention of men. She also used and abused drugs and alcohol and looked for love in the wrong places.

Billy Dunne started a band called The Six with his brother Graham in their Pittsburgh hometown and build a solid following, eventually signing with a record company. He fell in love with Camilla, and even through the physical separations of him on tour and with his alcoholism, they managed to marry and start a family.

When the record company had Daisy sing a song with The Six, it was lightning in a bottle. Daisy joined the band and wanted to contribute her own songs to the band, something that the controlling Billy wanted no part of. But when their album becomes a monster hit and they have a sold-out arena tour, there is no going back, through the love affairs, breakups and band fights.

Writing the book as a series of interviews works very well here, and at the end of the book you discover why it was written that way. You see the ups and downs of being in the music business from a first-hand perspective.

Jenkins Reid also includes the lyrics  (that she wrote) to all of the songs from their breakout album and reading them feels like songs from the 1970s California rock scene. I wondered if someone will eventually put them to music.

We may find the answer to that- Reese Witherspoon has optioned the book to turn into a 13-part TV series on Amazon. This book is tailor-made for a TV series and I for one can't wait. If you had a worn put copy of Fleetwood Mac's album Rumours, Dais Jones & the Six is for you.