Jenkins Reid’s new novel, Malibu Rising has the same evocative sense of period and place, combined with a fantastically flawed and relatable heroine, that made her 2019 novel, Daisy Jones & The Six a bestseller. Here, she chats about ‘80s music, her love for Malibu and the enigmatic Riva family.
Q. There’s a distinct sense of time and place with the setting of 1980s Malibu. What made you choose to set the story there?
A. With any story I write lately, the real germ of it begins with: Where do I want to go? Where do I want to lose myself for the next year and change?
And how could the answer not, at some point, be Malibu? I’m a water person. I feel instantly at ease standing in front of the ocean. And Malibu has long been one of my favourite places on the planet. The Pacific Coast Highway, the mountains, the waves. I remember the first time I ever drove through the Santa Monica Mountains, they took my breath away. I could not believe I was in the middle of a canyon that beautiful.
As for the time period, I had just finished Daisy Jones and the Six, which takes place in the late 70s, and I could feel the excess of the 80s looming ahead in the timeline. It felt like a fun idea to throw myself into that.
Q. Each of the Riva siblings feels so real and unique in their own way. Did you have a real-life inspiration for the Riva family, or how did the characters come to life on the page?
A. The Rivas came to life as I began to understand their parents, June and Mick. And then it became about how each of the siblings were shaped by the others.
Nina is the first-born dutiful daughter, Jay thinks he’s the man of the house, Hud is always trying to smooth things over for Jay, and Kit has this chip on her shoulder, the one always left out. All of that is based on what they’ve learned from one another.
And it speaks to just how entangled they are, too. The Rivas are sort of a house of cards in that way. If you took out one of them, the other three would fall. They wouldn’t make sense to themselves anymore.
Q. If you could create a soundtrack to the book, which songs or artists would it feature?
A. I mean, this is the fun stuff. ’80s music is a treasure trove of joy. I thought a lot about which characters would be listening to which bands. Jay and Hud and even Kit would probably love Van Halen. Nina loves Queen and Blondie, the Talking Heads. Everybody loves Depeche Mode and Prince. You have early hip-hop getting big, like Grandmaster Flash and Run DMC. But I have to say the one song that never fully appreciated until writing this is Pat Benetar’s “Shadows of the Night.” A true gem for the ages.
Q. What are Taylor's writing influences? Does she have any unusual habits when writing?
A. I take inspiration from a lot of places. Some of it is from other books I'm reading -- there are a lot of female authors right now doing incredible work that inspires me, every day, to be a more ambitious and thoughtful writer. And on top of that, I get a lot of new ideas and excitement to get to work from engrossing myself in TV, film, podcasts, articles, photographs, etc. I will say that a lot of my books come out of having read an interesting article in Vanity Fair.
Malibu Rising is out now.
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by Taylor Jenkins Reid
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by Taylor Jenkins Reid
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