If you’re a bookworm and follow which books are being talked about at any given time, you’ll surely have heard about the brilliance of this novel already.
Taylor Jenkins Reid has a catalog made up of one incredible novel after the other. Following the incredible previous works that included masterpieces such as The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, in 2019 Reid gifted the world another novel. This time in Daisy Jones & The Six, Reid took inspiration from Fleetwood Mac and intertwined flawlessly the rise of a fictional music band with drama and romance. It seems like most of those who read this novel already sing praises to it to no end. Let’s take a closer look at why that is the case.
The Story of Daisy Jones (and The Six)
Daisy Jones is a breathtakingly beautiful and musically talented young woman growing up during the late 60s and throughout the 70s. We follow her from a very young age trying to find her path in life while figuring things out. The Six, on the other hand, is a music band in the early 70s trying to make some noise. They are recording their first-ever album and thus busting into the rock scene with original and catchy tunes. After a producer decides that what the band needs is a hit song, the best way to bring that forth is to add Daisy Jones into the mix. Their first duet slowly but surely becomes a hit. As such, events unfold in a way that the name Daisy Jones will forever be written next to The Six.
This is a story that’s so intricately developed, that only someone who understands the art of writing this deep-a-level could possibly do it justice. Some details resemble real life during the 70s, and others are made up. A lot of musical jargon that’s not hard to comprehend, a lot of 70s nostalgia, and naturally a lot of touching moments that will leave you crying by the end. Though Reid had been writing for six years by the time this novel was released, her already-perfected craft took another step forward here.
What Makes Daisy Jones Great?
This is an easily digestible book that will leave you hungry for the next page, and then the next, and then the next… You’d be hard-pressed to find a novel that’s so simple in presentation yet so complex in meaning. Truly an achievement of other-worldly proportions to have one all-time great book after another constantly. Not sure how Taylor Jenkins Reid handles the mountain-top expectations that she sets up with every novel, but, if she is indeed internally phased it sure doesn’t show in the writing.
Metrics as to whether a piece of art was successful in some areas certainly do exist. Both through monetary gain and/or responses by professional critics. However, what’s often times ignored is the response of the everyday consumer. A book can sell many copies but that doesn’t make it good by default. When positive word-of-mouth spreads even years after a novel has come out that’s how you know you got something special here.
Daisy Jones & The Six is an example of unblemished art. It’s an extraordinary book that encapsulates itself in ordinary wording. It doesn’t need to use ten-dollar words to make its point. The sheer mastery in being able to guide a 400-page book of fictional interviews by weaving them with hints of comedy, romance, lyricism, etc., and personalities of all sorts is plain preeminence in the display.
A writer that knows how to keep the attention of the reader without flash is a writer who has figured out how to control emotion. And reading this book, an emotion you will certainly feel.
Photo: Dean Drobot/Shutterstock
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