THE ULTIMATE BEACH REID
Author's latest a fiery mix of celebrity culture and family drama
Malibu Rising
Taylor Jenkins Reid
Ballantine
Malibu keeps catching fire. Sections burn to the ground then get rebuilt with the certainty of the crest and fall of waves off Point Dume. There's an impeccable sense of balance in Taylor Jenkins Reid's Malibu Rising, a natural order in which every action meets its equal and opposite reaction.
So when Mick Riva and June Costas lock eyes on a beach in 1956, you know the heartbreak has already been set in motion. Mick is a touch too charming — he's an aspiring musician whose colossal fame is a foregone conclusion.
The naive 17-year-old June is smitten. When Mick gets down on one knee months after their first date, June doesn't just say yes, she says, “I think I was put here on this earth to say yes to you.”
It doesn't take June long to realize Mick's prediction about their future — “I'll never leave you Junie. And you'll never leave me” — was only half-right. June is cradling four-month-old Jay with 17-month-old Nina at her heels when a Hollywood ingenue knocks on the door of the Rivas' Malibu home and hands over a newborn.
“I cannot keep him,” she explains with all the emotion of a bank transaction.
June's pain and rage are combustible, but the moment also reveals this mother's boundless capacity for love. The baby, Hudson, wails as if he knows he's been deserted, but when June coos in his ear, he stills. “This boy needed someone to love him,” she understands. “That would be a very easy thing for her to do.” And just like that, he becomes her son. No caveats.
Don't get too comfortable with those warm fuzzies. Shortly after the arrival of Kit, the fourth Riva offspring, Mick leaves for good, and June self-destructs. Penniless, she goes to work for her parents. Soon, vodka becomes her entire food pyramid, and even tiny Kit knows something is amiss.
“She made less and less sense as the day went on,” the kids realize. “Jay once whispered to Hud, after June told him to `go bath and shower,' that `Mom starts acting nuts after dinner.'”
The only thing more devastating than the abrupt disappearance of one parent is watching another dematerialize in slow motion. The situation is terrible, but also wonderful in one specific way: The four siblings form an unsinkable bond built not only on their communal suffering but their shared love of surfing. We know things will work out to some extent, because chapters from the 1950s, '60s and '70s alternate with episodes that unfold on Aug. 27, 1983, when Nina, now a famous model, will throw a massive soiree at her Malibu mansion on a cliff above the coast.
It's not a spoiler to say that this will all end in a blaze. No high — whether it be drug-fuelled or geographic, at a party on a cliff above Point Dume — can last forever.