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Editorial Reviews
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
National Book Critics Circle Award Winner
PEN/Faulkner Award Finalist
A New York Times Book Review Best Book
One of the Best Books of the Year: Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, The Daily Beast, The Miami Herald, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Newsday, NPR's On Point, O, the Oprah Magazine, People, Publishers Weekly, Salon, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times, Slate, Time, The Washington Post, and Village Voice
Bennie is an aging former punk rocker and record executive. Sasha is the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Here Jennifer Egan brilliantly reveals their pasts, along with the inner lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs. With music pulsing on every page, A Visit from the Goon Squad is a startling, exhilarating novel of self-destruction and redemption.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Related Reviews
Although the book, itself, was thought provoking and cleverly structured, I would warn anyone who elects to read the book digitally that the "powerpoint" chapters are extremely difficult to read on the Kindle. The print is so small and the back grounds so dark that even a magnifying glass was little help. The font size selection feature on the Kindle did not work on the "slides" for those chapters.
Just because it won awards doesn't mean it's a book you'll love
I'm finally an aware enough reader-and from reading the reviews so are many others who have contributed-to know that even when a book has gotten great reviews and even won awards, that does not necessarily translate to a book I personally love. I wanted to like this book and gave it a good shot. The writing was great and it was not too hard to follow. I normally love the back and forth- in- time narrative. I just didn't like the characters and it didn't make me feel good reading it. Many of you, and we're all probably middle-aged, will not find this an enjoyable, enlightening, or life-affirming novel. Don't keep reading a book that doesn't soar for you-life is too short.
The best novel I have read in years...
I'm a formerly voracious reader that goes through phases of disenchantment with the state of the novel today. But this book just takes off in a direction that just makes me believe again in limitless human creativity. As a book it defies genre, weaving together a series of short stories. At the beginning, it seems a little shallow, as characters are seemingly left behind just as they appear to be coming into their own. But Ms. Egan keeps picking the key ones up, and by the end of the book you have characters that have grown and endeared themselves as much as in any novel you love. This one will stay with me a long time...unfortunately it sets a high bar for the next one on my list.
A remarkable work - seemingly at the outer edges of "post modern" but without the knowing and self-congratulating irony. This author manages to sneak up on the reader somewhere near the base of the skull and invade the whole nervous system. One of very few novels I've read more than once.
Time's winged chariot hurrying near
I greatly enjoyed "A Visit From the Goon Squad." The interlocking stories that form the narrative are expertly plotted, and turning the page to the next chapter always produces a surprise, as you can't predict which character will next take his or her position as the center of attention. For the most part these are tales of the cities (New York, Los Angeles), but Egan's fine eye for detail is equally good in side trips to places like Naples, Westchester, or Palm Springs. This is a book you can curl up with in order to shudder sympathetically at the unstoppable depredations of "the goon" (time).
I did find the end of the book a bit disappointing in its turn toward a future dystopia in which everyone, even children, reserves eye contact for handheld electronic devices rather than other human beings. The PowerPoint "diary" chapter (ironically, it does not come out well on a Kindle) is likewise interesting but not compelling. This stuff is in no way as complicated as the human relationships in the rest of the book---and perhaps that's the point--but the power of Egan's stories seems to dissipate here. Don't let this criticism put you off the novel; it is well worth reading.
M. Feldman
I did find the end of the book a bit disappointing in its turn toward a future dystopia in which everyone, even children, reserves eye contact for handheld electronic devices rather than other human beings. The PowerPoint "diary" chapter (ironically, it does not come out well on a Kindle) is likewise interesting but not compelling. This stuff is in no way as complicated as the human relationships in the rest of the book---and perhaps that's the point--but the power of Egan's stories seems to dissipate here. Don't let this criticism put you off the novel; it is well worth reading.
M. Feldman
How did this get so many great reviews?
This is a fine novel, but certainly not, to this reader, deserving of all the praise being heaped upon it. The integration of the various storylines is done well, but the character development - especially important when you have this many - is lacking. If you took the names off each chapter, you would not be able to tell who was speaking at any one time, save for maybe one or two of the perhaps two dozen characters in this book. To me, this is the difference between an ordinary book and a great one - being able to write distinctive, memorable characters. The writing is nice, and clearly reaching for insightfulness, but never really manages to get there.
For those who love characters this book is a treasure.
This is a different type of story, not a traditional novel more than a series of short stories, centered on a group of characters loosely connected to the music business. Their lives are played out over time, not necessarily in linear order and we are treated to viewing the effects of the passage of time - the goon - on their lives, values and relationships.
The story is told over a 50 year time span that begins in the San Francisco punk rock scene in the 1970s and ends in a slightly dystopian future in 2020. We meet Bennie when he is a teenage musician in SF, then in his prime as a successful music producer, see him again when he is a washed up 40 year old trying to connect with his young son and finally as a 70 something having one last hurrah producing a show starring his teenage band mate Scotty.
Sasha the other main character has worked as Bennie's assistant. We meet her as a 30 year old with psychological issues that include kleptomania, then learn her back-story as a child of a violent relationship, see her in Naples as a lost teenager, then as a college student trying to talk her best friend out of suicide, and finally as middle aged mom with two young children.
Egan introduces other memorable characters, giving them their own chapters and then polishing their stories with short references in other chapters. The characters are the strength of this story and they are memorable. Lou, the successful record producer who does cocaine and chases teenage girls around SF. Dolly the PR executive who loses her business after a devastating fire and returns to rehabilitate the image of a genocidal African dictator. Ted, Sasha's uncle caught in a loveless marriage who travels to Naples ostensibly to find her but is obsessed with the art there. Jules, Bennie's brother-in-law, a journalist who during an interview with a starlet inexplicitly attacks her, goes to prison for his crime, rehabilitates and ends up writing stories about Bennie's washed up protégé. Egan uses modern technology to tell her story, including a PowerPoint presentation from Sasha's daughter and texting.
This plot summary makes this story sound disjointed and one dimensional and the book is anything but that. Her prose is simple and well structured, a pleasure to read. These characters walk off the page into your mind if not exactly into your heart. For those of us who read and love characters this book is a treasure. Told in an unconventional way Egan has a talent for developing characters that are deeply and fully realized. The overarching theme of the novel, the effects of time on people, relationships and values is captured wonderfully. While none of the characters are particularly inspiring and most come to unremarkable ends, the brilliant prose prevents this story from being depressing.
I listened to this novel on audio CDs and I was worried that I would not be able to flip back and reread a section to keep everyone straight in this complex story but that wasn't the case, it really flowed well. The story was read by the talented Roxena Ortega. She was able to differentiate these characters well and reliably reproduce their voices over all of the chapters. I believe this book would be just as enjoyable read as listened to.
The story is told over a 50 year time span that begins in the San Francisco punk rock scene in the 1970s and ends in a slightly dystopian future in 2020. We meet Bennie when he is a teenage musician in SF, then in his prime as a successful music producer, see him again when he is a washed up 40 year old trying to connect with his young son and finally as a 70 something having one last hurrah producing a show starring his teenage band mate Scotty.
Sasha the other main character has worked as Bennie's assistant. We meet her as a 30 year old with psychological issues that include kleptomania, then learn her back-story as a child of a violent relationship, see her in Naples as a lost teenager, then as a college student trying to talk her best friend out of suicide, and finally as middle aged mom with two young children.
Egan introduces other memorable characters, giving them their own chapters and then polishing their stories with short references in other chapters. The characters are the strength of this story and they are memorable. Lou, the successful record producer who does cocaine and chases teenage girls around SF. Dolly the PR executive who loses her business after a devastating fire and returns to rehabilitate the image of a genocidal African dictator. Ted, Sasha's uncle caught in a loveless marriage who travels to Naples ostensibly to find her but is obsessed with the art there. Jules, Bennie's brother-in-law, a journalist who during an interview with a starlet inexplicitly attacks her, goes to prison for his crime, rehabilitates and ends up writing stories about Bennie's washed up protégé. Egan uses modern technology to tell her story, including a PowerPoint presentation from Sasha's daughter and texting.
This plot summary makes this story sound disjointed and one dimensional and the book is anything but that. Her prose is simple and well structured, a pleasure to read. These characters walk off the page into your mind if not exactly into your heart. For those of us who read and love characters this book is a treasure. Told in an unconventional way Egan has a talent for developing characters that are deeply and fully realized. The overarching theme of the novel, the effects of time on people, relationships and values is captured wonderfully. While none of the characters are particularly inspiring and most come to unremarkable ends, the brilliant prose prevents this story from being depressing.
I listened to this novel on audio CDs and I was worried that I would not be able to flip back and reread a section to keep everyone straight in this complex story but that wasn't the case, it really flowed well. The story was read by the talented Roxena Ortega. She was able to differentiate these characters well and reliably reproduce their voices over all of the chapters. I believe this book would be just as enjoyable read as listened to.
Great author and creative idea but.....
I love Jennifer Egan's work. She is so talented and many writers can not hold a candle to her talent. As always I enjoy her narrative and style of expression. She's a great story teller, the problem is by jumping around so much, in terms of plot, it was unfulfilling in some ways. I wanted to know what happens with certain characters. Some chapters would be so entertaining and then they just stop and end and that's it. It's because she writes so well that she's getting a reduction in stars from me with this rating. Had she only just developed more completely the plot of a few of the characters she introduced us to, who were already so interesting, she'd have five stars. Also one chapter includes a power point presentation and although, creative, it just doesn't work for a whole chapter in my opinion especially b/c it's dealing with the character she's given the most attention to.
This book is entertaining and not a waste of time at all. It's gets you thinking about getting older, redemption, taking charge of your life, the struggle of life in a larger sense of the word. No one has it easy or perfect, and this introspection is a result of her writing so effectively. It is worth dealing with the imperfections of this novel.
This book is entertaining and not a waste of time at all. It's gets you thinking about getting older, redemption, taking charge of your life, the struggle of life in a larger sense of the word. No one has it easy or perfect, and this introspection is a result of her writing so effectively. It is worth dealing with the imperfections of this novel.
While this is a great little book, it was irresponsible for Amazon to just throw a Kindle version out there without doing some graphic cleanup first. In one of the last chapters, tiny print and low-contrast grayscale type made some words completely unreadable even with a magnifying glass.
This book is not as bad as some of the reviewers suggest though it is not Pulitzer quality either. There are some genuinely moving sections--especially the ones which focus on the character Sasha's younger life. But there are some other sections which simply don't work at all--including an almost 75 pages section told in power point and a very ill-advised snippet invoving a genocidal dictator and a Lindsay Lohan like celebrity acress. I am glad I read it and some of it will stick with me but the author should have reined in her ambitions a bit.
Excellent, but graphic issues dissapoint.
Beautifully written story of the intertwined lives of some not so perfect people. The introspective nature of the dialogue was done so well that I personally identified with some of the conflicts within certain characters. The only real disappoitment for me were the problems regarding the graphic components of the novel that were not rendered readable on the Kindle. Other readers have I identified this problem. Should Kindle resolve this, I would hope Amazon would send another copy to me.
Not a book for the "average" reader
I give this three stars for its inventiveness, though I did not enjoy it. I love William Faulkner's books, so I am no coward. However, this one tried to go Faulkner one better, and failed badly. I should say up front that it has appeared on several lists as one of the best books of the year, so maybe I missed something. I agree with the reader who said the so-called power point pages, 75 of them, are not really that but words inserted into circles, triangles, squares, rectangles, etc. In my humble opinion these can be skipped. The author uses text-message-ese too much. Readers who do not "text" will invest a lot of time trying to figure them out. Then there are the time changes in each chapter. The same characters appear at different ages, and there are too many characters to keep straight. One chapter ends, and you turn to the next without knowing where the hell you'll be in the scheme of things. Faulkner does this well, Egan doesn't. I wish I hadn't bought this book, and I have a doctorate which should have assisted. My wife, a compulsive reader, would not have enjoyed this book. I am not saying that this story should have been told in a linear time fashion--Faulkner rarely does. But if you don't love Faulkner, you won't like this book.
Edgy, Interesting, Sad, Inventive
Reading this book was a bit like reading a big Rolling Stone article. It has interesting characters, interesting structure and is a bit of pop culture chronicle from the era of punk until present day. The characters move in and out of cultural relevance.
It moves quickly, cuts back and forth between different times and places and switches characters rapidly. It's a bit like a music video in that regard. The characters are troubled and shallow yet Egan allows us into their deepest thoughts.
Several reviewers have mentioned the 70 page Powerpoint section of the book. It's written by a young girl in present day and is a very interesting way to present her version of the story.
The novel is not so much a coherent story as it is a series of soundbites from certain points in the lives of the characters. The music/cultural scene of the points in time told about are key parts of each story.
If you have nostalgia for the punk era of music then I think you'll be more likely to like this book. If you're an older reader then you might not relate so much to the scene.
I found the rapid cuts to be reasonable but some people found this awkward and confusing.
I liked the book but suspect that it's not for everyone.
It moves quickly, cuts back and forth between different times and places and switches characters rapidly. It's a bit like a music video in that regard. The characters are troubled and shallow yet Egan allows us into their deepest thoughts.
Several reviewers have mentioned the 70 page Powerpoint section of the book. It's written by a young girl in present day and is a very interesting way to present her version of the story.
The novel is not so much a coherent story as it is a series of soundbites from certain points in the lives of the characters. The music/cultural scene of the points in time told about are key parts of each story.
If you have nostalgia for the punk era of music then I think you'll be more likely to like this book. If you're an older reader then you might not relate so much to the scene.
I found the rapid cuts to be reasonable but some people found this awkward and confusing.
I liked the book but suspect that it's not for everyone.
Mediocre at best, can't believe it won the Pulitzer
This book is mediocre at best, but I actually hated it. I really cannot believe it won the Pulitzer Prize. I checked it out at the library after it was on nearly every recommended summer reading list in 2010. I read a little more than half and decided life was too short to waste my time finishing it. This reeks of the all-too-common situation in which critics and book industry insiders feed off of each other to propel a book/author to the top, with or without merit. I didn't care about any of the characters or the ridiculous story lines in this book. I am in my 30s and interested in the music scene, but there was nothing to maintain my interest in this book.
I have read Jennifer Egan and enjoyed her work. This book had been on my amazon wishlist for months so when it showed up on no fewer than three "best books of 2010" lists I immediately downloaded it to my Kindle. It is supposed to read like a collection of short stories that relate to each other. By the time you figure out how they relate to each other, you just don't care. Some characters are drawn out in full detail; others are so hazily sketched that you can't wait to be done reading about them. It bounces around from past to present to future, but the future is incredibly contrived. Ms. Egan needed to get something to link up her stories and end this dreary book and she did so with this inconceivable last chapter that just keeps reintroducing characters as well as throwing a few more in. The characters for the most part are extremely repulsive and they know they are. Every character borders on tragic. Every character is miserable (exept maybe Lulu who just really wouldn't exist except on the pages of a book) What may have been the most interesting chapter is the 'power point' chapter which is almost completely unreadable on the Kindle. It introduced Sasha's daughter and gives some insight into what became of her from her daughter's point of view. Why we needed a power point presentation (even relevant in the year 2020?) to tell the story is beyond me. And since it can't be read on the Kindle, even in a bigger font, even with great lighting, I gave up after about 30 minutes and moved on. Reading the reviews I can see I am not the only one. Some didn't even bother with it in hardcopy. This isn't a great novel. It is a collection of short stories about sad people.
This was my second time around with Jennifer Egan, and the results were the same both times. When I tried "Emerald City" ten years ago, I could barely get past the first ten pages before I had to put it down. Wary of "Goon Squad" but seduced by reviewers, I decided to give her another go. Unfortunately, her skills have not improved. Her problem is not that she's a bad writer--it's that she's an uninspired one. Her writing is methodical; it has no spark, no flair. Egan put all of her energy into constructing an elaborate postmodern vehicle. This novelty act gets all the attention, but it isn't why the novel fails. It fails because the experimentation did nothing to invigorate her prose. Her sentences lie there flat on the page, inert. And because her language never takes off, neither does her story.
For Kindle Users - the PowerPoint Chapter appears to now work fine
I haven't actually read the book yet - just downloaded it on the Kindle. I debated whether to get the Kindle version because I have heard there is a full chapter done in "PowerPoint" which was almost impossible to read on the Kindle. I decided to risk downloading it because I found that that full chapter is also available on the author's website, so I figured I'd just read it there if needed. I skipped ahead immediately to chapter 12 on the Kindle to see how bad it is, and it's actually completely fine. It's not even the slightest bit difficult to read. Maybe this was a recent change made my the publisher -- I'm not sure. So, if you were scared off by the bad reviews of the Kindle version, it appears to no longer be a problem.
I think this is a case of the Emperor's New Clothes -- the critics' praise raises expectations too high. What others consider an innovative approach to novel writing I consider a bunch of related short stories (and didn't Salinger kind of do that already with the Glass family?). To be fair, I prefer novels to short stories, so maybe it's just me. But between the damaged characters and disjointed flow, this just wasn't an enjoyable read.
The "chapter" I liked most was "Selling the General", with a tone that was a bit breezier than the rest of the book. The part told in PowerPoint was just plain irritating: wouldn't want to sit through a 70+ slide presentation in real life, certainly don't want one as part of my entertainment pursuits. And while I realize a teenager journaling in PowerPoint wouldn't care about cohesiveness, as a reader it's reeeaaalllllllly annoying that each slide is a different format. I had to force myself to finish; it made me want to put the book aside and spend time at GraphJam.com, which while also multi-formatted, is at least clever and amusing.
Overall, a tad too affected for me, but if you're a fan of the short story genre it may be worth a look.
The "chapter" I liked most was "Selling the General", with a tone that was a bit breezier than the rest of the book. The part told in PowerPoint was just plain irritating: wouldn't want to sit through a 70+ slide presentation in real life, certainly don't want one as part of my entertainment pursuits. And while I realize a teenager journaling in PowerPoint wouldn't care about cohesiveness, as a reader it's reeeaaalllllllly annoying that each slide is a different format. I had to force myself to finish; it made me want to put the book aside and spend time at GraphJam.com, which while also multi-formatted, is at least clever and amusing.
Overall, a tad too affected for me, but if you're a fan of the short story genre it may be worth a look.
Bromfield, what a great American writer!
...or how's about that La Farge or Margaret Barnes? Read Martin Flavin lately? These are all Pulitzer winners of yesteryear--yet they are barely known today.
These unknowns landed the Pulitzer over writers like James M. Cain, Faulkner and even Fitzgerald. Yes. That Fitzgerald--who never won a Pulitzer, (although Faulkner eventually did).
But then Henry Miller, Philip K. Dick, Pynchon and Capote were all passed over for the Pulitzer. Yet these writers have endured the test of time. They are the real deal. And each one of them is brilliant. (I'd also add Russell Banks to this list). Consistently, Fitzgerald's GREAT GATSBY is ranked as the best American novel of the 20th Century--a writer who never got the Pulitzer.
So why am I going into this?
This overly praised mess got the big prize--so most people are going to order it on the faith that it merits such esteemed recognition.
But the fact is, Pulitzers have often been awarded to some forgettable reads-- novels that have not stood the test of time.
I read this book a couple of months ago, as I kept seeing it displayed in my local bookshop. I finally caved in and after a week of reading, I was unmoved and rather bored. Ok--so it's clever and kind of cute in a shallow kind of way, but the characters were not at all engaging or well developed. The story--though a nice try at making a stab at contemporary culture both now and then--a la-'80's music scene--is a chain link of short stories that we are supposed to be highly amused by as they traverse through time. But there is no originality or vivid prose--nor is there strong character development, or connectivity. The characters themselves are pretty despicable, but a more gifted writer would have us bear with it all by rendering some heft and complexity to their development. That never happens here, because the author lacks the talent and the ability to do so. It's that simple. You'd never know this with all the rave from critics,however.
Some of the best novels I've read have been word-of-mouth recommendations from good friends. Some of these reads were not reviewed or promoted. I think of THE KITE RUNNER--which I read in hardcover in 2003--which had no quotes from other writers or reviewers, yet this novel became a huge bestseller--strictly by word of mouth. Last year's AWAIT YOUR REPLY had a few nice blurbs, but no big splash from the industry yet it's a compelling read that's truly prize-worthy.
Then there's the vastly under-acknowledged,small-press release, SIM0N LAZARUS: a rich, hilarious and entertaining story that puts this Pulitzer on the fast track to the "Bromfield" bin.
These unknowns landed the Pulitzer over writers like James M. Cain, Faulkner and even Fitzgerald. Yes. That Fitzgerald--who never won a Pulitzer, (although Faulkner eventually did).
But then Henry Miller, Philip K. Dick, Pynchon and Capote were all passed over for the Pulitzer. Yet these writers have endured the test of time. They are the real deal. And each one of them is brilliant. (I'd also add Russell Banks to this list). Consistently, Fitzgerald's GREAT GATSBY is ranked as the best American novel of the 20th Century--a writer who never got the Pulitzer.
So why am I going into this?
This overly praised mess got the big prize--so most people are going to order it on the faith that it merits such esteemed recognition.
But the fact is, Pulitzers have often been awarded to some forgettable reads-- novels that have not stood the test of time.
I read this book a couple of months ago, as I kept seeing it displayed in my local bookshop. I finally caved in and after a week of reading, I was unmoved and rather bored. Ok--so it's clever and kind of cute in a shallow kind of way, but the characters were not at all engaging or well developed. The story--though a nice try at making a stab at contemporary culture both now and then--a la-'80's music scene--is a chain link of short stories that we are supposed to be highly amused by as they traverse through time. But there is no originality or vivid prose--nor is there strong character development, or connectivity. The characters themselves are pretty despicable, but a more gifted writer would have us bear with it all by rendering some heft and complexity to their development. That never happens here, because the author lacks the talent and the ability to do so. It's that simple. You'd never know this with all the rave from critics,however.
Some of the best novels I've read have been word-of-mouth recommendations from good friends. Some of these reads were not reviewed or promoted. I think of THE KITE RUNNER--which I read in hardcover in 2003--which had no quotes from other writers or reviewers, yet this novel became a huge bestseller--strictly by word of mouth. Last year's AWAIT YOUR REPLY had a few nice blurbs, but no big splash from the industry yet it's a compelling read that's truly prize-worthy.
Then there's the vastly under-acknowledged,small-press release, SIM0N LAZARUS: a rich, hilarious and entertaining story that puts this Pulitzer on the fast track to the "Bromfield" bin.
I agree with many reviewers here that Jennifer Egan's, "A Visit From the Goon Squad", wasn't Pulitzer-worthy (the last time I agreed with the Pulitzer for Fiction was when Richard Russo got it for "Empire Falls") and I agree that the Power Point chapter was lame, but I didn't loath the novel as much as many did.
I enjoy the structure of related short stories or vignettes and the time-shifting. It's worked well in many books and movies ("Crash" comes to mind). It gives us insight into characters from various points of view; through other characters and at different times in their lives.
But it was the last chapter, set in the near future, that really intrigued me. Egan's future was believable, thought-provoking and defensible based on present trends. Loved the concept of babies being "pointers", and I was also very amused at the list of words that would be archaic.
While it wasn't my favorite book of the year, I'm glad I read it and it was certainly worth the price of the paperback.
I enjoy the structure of related short stories or vignettes and the time-shifting. It's worked well in many books and movies ("Crash" comes to mind). It gives us insight into characters from various points of view; through other characters and at different times in their lives.
But it was the last chapter, set in the near future, that really intrigued me. Egan's future was believable, thought-provoking and defensible based on present trends. Loved the concept of babies being "pointers", and I was also very amused at the list of words that would be archaic.
While it wasn't my favorite book of the year, I'm glad I read it and it was certainly worth the price of the paperback.
I can see why Jennifer Egan's latest book's been racking up the prizes, most recently the National Book Critics Circle Award. It's beautifully crafted at a sentence by sentence level, expansive in scope - spanning the continent and over 50 years' of our recent history, and wildly various in its exploration of the inner worlds of many diverse characters.
Summing it up feels nearly impossible, because this novel's about what all great novels are about: nothing short of the nature of human beings, our choices, our challenges, our idiosyncrasies, our failings, and our occasional moments of grace. Egan takes it all on, and we cruise or drift or hurtle along with her as one character after another takes the stage. She adeptly shifts perspective among these loosely connected people, exploring who they are as their paths briefly cross, weaving a web of connection that anchors the book. Ultimately, though, it's more like that famous abstract Pollock painting hanging in the Metropolitan than a roller-coaster ride: equally thrilling, but in a single panel rather than a flow. Or perhaps it's more like a symphony heard live at Avery Fischer Hall: each instrument, each character cleanly addressing your ear while their combined forward movement creates an ineffable impression replete with drama, beauty, and pathos.
I was reminded often of Colum McCann's Let The Great World Spin, another polyphonic novel set mainly in NYC. Egan's book spans more time (about half a century) and more places (SF as well, and even Italy and Africa, briefly) but offers a similar building-up of a world and a social network so richly conveyed that you feel you're right there breathing the atmosphere of these settings alongside the characters. And not only does Egan employ a variety of viewpoints, she also bends form a bit: My favorite chapter offered a series of PowerPoint slides created as a visual-verbal diary by a young girl who is the child of one of the central characters. It provides a unique reading experience while offering humor and subtlety and social commentary all at once. And, in fact, the whole PowerPoint is available on Ms. Egan's website: [...]
In my view, this novel - or series of interwoven short fictions, as some describe it - deserves all the accolades it's getting. I recommend it to you with confidence.
Summing it up feels nearly impossible, because this novel's about what all great novels are about: nothing short of the nature of human beings, our choices, our challenges, our idiosyncrasies, our failings, and our occasional moments of grace. Egan takes it all on, and we cruise or drift or hurtle along with her as one character after another takes the stage. She adeptly shifts perspective among these loosely connected people, exploring who they are as their paths briefly cross, weaving a web of connection that anchors the book. Ultimately, though, it's more like that famous abstract Pollock painting hanging in the Metropolitan than a roller-coaster ride: equally thrilling, but in a single panel rather than a flow. Or perhaps it's more like a symphony heard live at Avery Fischer Hall: each instrument, each character cleanly addressing your ear while their combined forward movement creates an ineffable impression replete with drama, beauty, and pathos.
I was reminded often of Colum McCann's Let The Great World Spin, another polyphonic novel set mainly in NYC. Egan's book spans more time (about half a century) and more places (SF as well, and even Italy and Africa, briefly) but offers a similar building-up of a world and a social network so richly conveyed that you feel you're right there breathing the atmosphere of these settings alongside the characters. And not only does Egan employ a variety of viewpoints, she also bends form a bit: My favorite chapter offered a series of PowerPoint slides created as a visual-verbal diary by a young girl who is the child of one of the central characters. It provides a unique reading experience while offering humor and subtlety and social commentary all at once. And, in fact, the whole PowerPoint is available on Ms. Egan's website: [...]
In my view, this novel - or series of interwoven short fictions, as some describe it - deserves all the accolades it's getting. I recommend it to you with confidence.
This is by far the best, most beautifully written book I've read in a long time. If you like human stories, do not miss this book. It's a masterpiece.
Ghosts, Goons and the Grateful Dead
Jennifer Egan never ceases to surprise me with her vivid characters and beautiful prose. What makes this book verge on revolutionary is the style in which she chose to write it.
Loosely based on a Proustian theory that we all revisit certain places in the hopes of recapturing a precious memory, Egan proves that the beauty in those rare fleeting moments can never truly be anything but wistful nostalgia.
True to her nature, she writes from every different perspective, switching narratives and jumping between past, present and future so rapidly, you begin to lose track of which characters are supposed to be central, which timeline is the present.
It's the kind of book that you wish had a soundtrack, too, snippets of songs dancing through the scenes with a mention here, a longing there.
It makes you laugh, cry, remember your favorite songs, all those perfect moments when everything was right in the world, untainted by future devastation or loss, and above all, A Visit From the Goon Squad makes you dread the last page.
Just another treasured memory in a long winding life.
Loosely based on a Proustian theory that we all revisit certain places in the hopes of recapturing a precious memory, Egan proves that the beauty in those rare fleeting moments can never truly be anything but wistful nostalgia.
True to her nature, she writes from every different perspective, switching narratives and jumping between past, present and future so rapidly, you begin to lose track of which characters are supposed to be central, which timeline is the present.
It's the kind of book that you wish had a soundtrack, too, snippets of songs dancing through the scenes with a mention here, a longing there.
It makes you laugh, cry, remember your favorite songs, all those perfect moments when everything was right in the world, untainted by future devastation or loss, and above all, A Visit From the Goon Squad makes you dread the last page.
Just another treasured memory in a long winding life.
I have tried to read this novel twice (I did, after all, pay for it) and just can't seem to slog through it. The reason is that I just don't care about the characters. Maybe I'm a bozo, but the writing is just not good enough to overcome the shallowness of the characters. I don't have to like the characters to care about them. In the case of this novel, there just didn't seem to be enough there there.
An exceptional novel with characters and situations unlike those I've ever encountered. Gives true to life portrayals of disturbed but talented individuals attempting to find peace in their turbulent and interconnected lives. Without question, this author has the unique ability to describe motives and feelings that anyone else would have difficulty putting into words. As such, this is a novel to be savored--it's not a page turner. It reads a bit slowly but generates very high rewards.
Tremendous, clever, entertaining book
I loved this book from A to B. The author does an amazing job of telling several stories that revolve in spokes around a central hub, a woman called Sasha. Sasha is the very damaged assistant to a record producer who has lived several lives by the time she is 35. In doing so, she has touched the lives of many others, and these stories are told in the book.
I was worried at first by some of the book descriptions, which seemed to indicate that the book might be more of a collection of short stories than a novel (not that there is anything wrong with that, I just don't particularly care for that type of book). But this is not the case. The characters are introduced and then you keep learning about them in very clever ways throughout the rest of the book, which spans from the 1970's through roughly 2020 as it follows the characters through life.
Egan's stories are nothing short of captivating and each character is equally interesting in their own way. The author's writing is crisp, fun, introspective, and very current. This is the best book I've read in quite some time. A strong recommend for anyone and everyone on this one.
I was worried at first by some of the book descriptions, which seemed to indicate that the book might be more of a collection of short stories than a novel (not that there is anything wrong with that, I just don't particularly care for that type of book). But this is not the case. The characters are introduced and then you keep learning about them in very clever ways throughout the rest of the book, which spans from the 1970's through roughly 2020 as it follows the characters through life.
Egan's stories are nothing short of captivating and each character is equally interesting in their own way. The author's writing is crisp, fun, introspective, and very current. This is the best book I've read in quite some time. A strong recommend for anyone and everyone on this one.
A perfect mix of pun rock, music and broken people
"Time's a goon right? Isn't that the expression?" Jules had drifted over from across the room. "I've never heard that... time is a goon?"
A Visit from the Goon Squad
Apparently so. Which makes Time and the passing of it the very loose theme that loosely weaves this quirky, rock n roll laden book into coherency. Listed time and time again on numerous reviewers' and authors Top Reads for 2010 (many of them found on the very necessary Book Site The Millions - like here and here ), usually incorporating the words; punk rock, drugs and rock and roll, 1970s music and washed up punk rockers - and the attraction was instant.
Unlike many books that try to set themselves against a backdrop of a nostalgic musical era, The Goon Squad was a compelling, quirky, sometimes uncomfortable read. Structured as a series of short stories, the central characters each have the voice of protagonist, as the story zig zags through time, the speaker's identity not always immediately clear, clues as to the existence or age of children, state of marriage or mind the indicative clues.
At the centre of this time shifted story is Bennie Salazar, once a 1970s Punk Rocker, in the present, a washed up producer struggling on both the musical and matrimonial front. From there the stories spiral outwards, taking in Sasha - his kleptomaniac assistant, Scotty - the once musically talented, now virtually homeless trash collector, Dolly the tortured publicist, Kitty the B grade celebrity... and the list goes on.
As time lurches backwards and forwards, from the early hay days of playing punk rock and slam dancing, through turbulent twenties and thirties of broken love and friendships, drug and mental abuse through to the misery and acceptance of middle age, we follow and slowly warm to these broken characters as they fight off the tyranny of the inevitable Goon Squad that is time.
With an ending that will please any true music fan, this should get a look in for your top reads of 2011. And if you're accused of being late to the party - just blame it on the Goon Squad.
"Time's a Goon right? You gonna let that Goon push you around?" Scotty shook his head "The Goon won"
Robot Rating: 9/10 (and yet another contender for Top 5 Books of the Year)
A Visit from the Goon Squad
Apparently so. Which makes Time and the passing of it the very loose theme that loosely weaves this quirky, rock n roll laden book into coherency. Listed time and time again on numerous reviewers' and authors Top Reads for 2010 (many of them found on the very necessary Book Site The Millions - like here and here ), usually incorporating the words; punk rock, drugs and rock and roll, 1970s music and washed up punk rockers - and the attraction was instant.
Unlike many books that try to set themselves against a backdrop of a nostalgic musical era, The Goon Squad was a compelling, quirky, sometimes uncomfortable read. Structured as a series of short stories, the central characters each have the voice of protagonist, as the story zig zags through time, the speaker's identity not always immediately clear, clues as to the existence or age of children, state of marriage or mind the indicative clues.
At the centre of this time shifted story is Bennie Salazar, once a 1970s Punk Rocker, in the present, a washed up producer struggling on both the musical and matrimonial front. From there the stories spiral outwards, taking in Sasha - his kleptomaniac assistant, Scotty - the once musically talented, now virtually homeless trash collector, Dolly the tortured publicist, Kitty the B grade celebrity... and the list goes on.
As time lurches backwards and forwards, from the early hay days of playing punk rock and slam dancing, through turbulent twenties and thirties of broken love and friendships, drug and mental abuse through to the misery and acceptance of middle age, we follow and slowly warm to these broken characters as they fight off the tyranny of the inevitable Goon Squad that is time.
With an ending that will please any true music fan, this should get a look in for your top reads of 2011. And if you're accused of being late to the party - just blame it on the Goon Squad.
"Time's a Goon right? You gonna let that Goon push you around?" Scotty shook his head "The Goon won"
Robot Rating: 9/10 (and yet another contender for Top 5 Books of the Year)
If I didn't know better, I'd say Jennifer Egan and Jonathan Frazen had chatted a bit before embarking on their most recent novels. Though the outcomes are entirely different, there is a similarity in structure that is striking. In both novels, there is a periodic switch in narrative voice, where different characters tell the story from their perspective. Also, both novels move around in time, going forward and back as the narrative voices change. It is a powerful strategy that can be difficult to pull off. I first appreciated it in a Thomas Wolfe short story called "The Lost Boy" which remains one of my favorites. Both Frazen and Egan pull it off spectacularly and, though I've liked Egan's previous novels well enough, this is an entirely new order of success for her.
This is a difficult novel to summarize. Each chapter tells a unique story that can essentially stand alone, as there is no real interlocking narrative thread. (In fact, I read two of the chapters as independent pieces in magazines before reading the book.) And the movement back and forth in time makes it even more difficult to describe. What holds the stories together are the characters, who we often see at different ages and in different perspectives as different narrators take over in different chapters. A child mentioned in one chapter becomes the adult narrator of another chapter. Various high school friends each get their chance to describe a moment of life. And, as these stories get told, we get a fuller picture of everyone.
Egan takes some other stylistic risks as well. She pushes it a bit with the Power Point presentation and the glimpse of the future in the final chapter; however, she wisely saves these stretches for the end of the book. By then, it's easier to accept, having already been caught up in the earlier stories. And even the PPT makes sense in its context.
Of course, all of this wonderful stylistic expression would be useless without good stories to tell, and Egan does not disappoint. We get to look inside the music industry with its art, relationships, and bad behavior. We get to take an African safari. We get to search for a lost girl on the streets of Florence, Italy. We get to try to scrub the image of a murderous dictator. We get to live in a suburb on the edge of the desert. All said, we get to have a lot of dirty fun with a lot of interesting people trying to get by.
Ultimately, this is a book that, though easy to breeze through, deserves close reading and even rereading. It is not easy to keep track of all the characters as they appear at different ages and through different eyes. It's easy to miss vital pieces of information without full attention. And yet, the pleasures to be gained from the effort are enormous. It's worth it.
This is a difficult novel to summarize. Each chapter tells a unique story that can essentially stand alone, as there is no real interlocking narrative thread. (In fact, I read two of the chapters as independent pieces in magazines before reading the book.) And the movement back and forth in time makes it even more difficult to describe. What holds the stories together are the characters, who we often see at different ages and in different perspectives as different narrators take over in different chapters. A child mentioned in one chapter becomes the adult narrator of another chapter. Various high school friends each get their chance to describe a moment of life. And, as these stories get told, we get a fuller picture of everyone.
Egan takes some other stylistic risks as well. She pushes it a bit with the Power Point presentation and the glimpse of the future in the final chapter; however, she wisely saves these stretches for the end of the book. By then, it's easier to accept, having already been caught up in the earlier stories. And even the PPT makes sense in its context.
Of course, all of this wonderful stylistic expression would be useless without good stories to tell, and Egan does not disappoint. We get to look inside the music industry with its art, relationships, and bad behavior. We get to take an African safari. We get to search for a lost girl on the streets of Florence, Italy. We get to try to scrub the image of a murderous dictator. We get to live in a suburb on the edge of the desert. All said, we get to have a lot of dirty fun with a lot of interesting people trying to get by.
Ultimately, this is a book that, though easy to breeze through, deserves close reading and even rereading. It is not easy to keep track of all the characters as they appear at different ages and through different eyes. It's easy to miss vital pieces of information without full attention. And yet, the pleasures to be gained from the effort are enormous. It's worth it.
Time is a goon, and this novel astounds
As Proust explored the vagaries of memory, so Jenifer Egan examines time and its effects in her brilliant, Gordian knot of a novel, //A Visit From the Goon Squad//. Egan, an able writer with a history of pushing boundaries, weaves a glittering inescapable web with a shifting point of view and format, moving backwards and forwards in time. Clever, meaningful chapter titles ground her readers, even as they seek to follow the web of relationships that bind her labyrinthine novel together.
Thus in Chapter 1 -- "Found Objects" - Sasha, a seductive mess's attention shifts between the date she's on and the therapist with whom she explores her kleptomania, all around a wallet she steals in a hotel bathroom. Egan blends scene, emotion, and action in perfect elixir. "Sasha...noticed a bag on the floor beside the sink that must have belonged to the woman whose peeing she could faintly hear through the vault like door of the toilet stall...It was easy for Sasha to recognize, looking back, that the peeing woman's blind trust had provoked her..." Then Chapter 2 - "The Gold Cure" - swings us over to Bernie, a recording executive (and we learn later is Sasha's boss), a divorcee struggling with malaise and sexual dysfunction that he treats by sprinkling gold flakes into his coffee. And Chapter 3 - "Ask Me If I Care" - spikes us through time and space to a group of teen rockers in San Francisco eagerly awaiting the arrival of 1980.
In a lesser writer's hands, such shifts would surely inflict whiplash, but not so with Egan who settles us into her novel's rhythm, thoughtfully arming us with the tools we need to revel in the ride. Nor does it feel like she's showing off - at least not much - when we come to a chapter done as a magazine article or even the one presented as a power point presentation! The entire futures of two African brothers unfurls before us in a single, concise, elegant paragraph (only, of course, to come around again later).
Egan's virtuosity extends well beyond the confidence with which she handles her reader, extending into her luminous sardonic wit and her gift for a range of pitch perfect characters, each of which we accept completely. The once titanic PR exec, now laid low and rehabilitating a genocidal dictator's reputation to make ends meet? A washed up actress formerly famous and martyred in the tabloids following a violent attack? A homeless musical genius? Just a few of the fascinating characters you'll get to know in Egan's sparkling romp of a novel. Dive in! The water's fine and a the Goon Squad awaits us all.
Reviewed by Jordan Magill
Thus in Chapter 1 -- "Found Objects" - Sasha, a seductive mess's attention shifts between the date she's on and the therapist with whom she explores her kleptomania, all around a wallet she steals in a hotel bathroom. Egan blends scene, emotion, and action in perfect elixir. "Sasha...noticed a bag on the floor beside the sink that must have belonged to the woman whose peeing she could faintly hear through the vault like door of the toilet stall...It was easy for Sasha to recognize, looking back, that the peeing woman's blind trust had provoked her..." Then Chapter 2 - "The Gold Cure" - swings us over to Bernie, a recording executive (and we learn later is Sasha's boss), a divorcee struggling with malaise and sexual dysfunction that he treats by sprinkling gold flakes into his coffee. And Chapter 3 - "Ask Me If I Care" - spikes us through time and space to a group of teen rockers in San Francisco eagerly awaiting the arrival of 1980.
In a lesser writer's hands, such shifts would surely inflict whiplash, but not so with Egan who settles us into her novel's rhythm, thoughtfully arming us with the tools we need to revel in the ride. Nor does it feel like she's showing off - at least not much - when we come to a chapter done as a magazine article or even the one presented as a power point presentation! The entire futures of two African brothers unfurls before us in a single, concise, elegant paragraph (only, of course, to come around again later).
Egan's virtuosity extends well beyond the confidence with which she handles her reader, extending into her luminous sardonic wit and her gift for a range of pitch perfect characters, each of which we accept completely. The once titanic PR exec, now laid low and rehabilitating a genocidal dictator's reputation to make ends meet? A washed up actress formerly famous and martyred in the tabloids following a violent attack? A homeless musical genius? Just a few of the fascinating characters you'll get to know in Egan's sparkling romp of a novel. Dive in! The water's fine and a the Goon Squad awaits us all.
Reviewed by Jordan Magill
Filled with interesting and flawed characters, sympathetically portrayed, Goon Squad does not have the arc of a novel. This can't be considered a failure on Ms. Egan's part, but it left me a bit dissatisfied and feeling a little duped. This book is more a group of interconnected short stories than a novel. But of course, stories do not sell as well as novels, so it has been marketed as a novel.
In a few stories, closure is provided by quick summaries of what would happen to a character over the next 20 or so years. I presume the goal here is to satisfy the reader's need to know. But I found these truncations somewhat annoying, because they seemed too pat and easy. So at 28 he killed himself. Why? Did his father's dominant personality crush him? Perhaps he was a disappointment? How could that be? He seemed so wise at 13.
That said, the stories are for the most part elegantly constructed with surprising twists and sly wisdom. And the major characters are people who made the time I spent with them worthwhile.
In a few stories, closure is provided by quick summaries of what would happen to a character over the next 20 or so years. I presume the goal here is to satisfy the reader's need to know. But I found these truncations somewhat annoying, because they seemed too pat and easy. So at 28 he killed himself. Why? Did his father's dominant personality crush him? Perhaps he was a disappointment? How could that be? He seemed so wise at 13.
That said, the stories are for the most part elegantly constructed with surprising twists and sly wisdom. And the major characters are people who made the time I spent with them worthwhile.
Although I got caught up in some of the individual stories ( loved Safari in Best Short Stories of 2010), I just cannot understand why this was chosen to merits the recognition it is receiving. The form is not an innovation. It has been used before and, I believe, better executed in "Cloud Atlas" by Mitchell and "Let the Great World Spin" by McCann. The latter book is one of "redemption and beauty" as described by
Frank McCourt.
The characters here are lost souls, unredeemed and frequently ugly, but I guess that was the point.
This book left me cold and empty.
Very difficult to read on a Kindle due to the PowerPoint slides.
Frank McCourt.
The characters here are lost souls, unredeemed and frequently ugly, but I guess that was the point.
This book left me cold and empty.
Very difficult to read on a Kindle due to the PowerPoint slides.
Some nuggets of brilliance, but overall disappointing
Like most of the reviewers, I picked up this book because of many, many positive reviews. I tend to like literary fiction and am more likely than not to enjoy stories other readers find difficult. Egan writes well, and the characters in Goon Squad are compelling, but the movement between time periods and characters was too much here. I found myself frantically paging back and forth to remind myself who Lulu was, who Joe (the descendant of the tribal African) was, Alex, Drew, LaDoll/Dolly, etc. Most of the characters make very brief appearances, so it's difficult to keep track of the tangential characters who keep turning up, and one could argue that some of them could be eliminated. I had a hard time differentiating between Jocelyn and Rhea, for example, as they only appear in two chapters, and each has one chapter from her perspective. I typically appreciate this type of narrative, but I struggled with it in this novel.
I didn't particularly care for any of the characters, but I found the main characters well drawn and interesting. The most gimmicky part of the novel - the PowerPoint presentation - was probably my favorite. In very few words, Egan creates a vivid picture of Sasha's family dynamic and the emotional struggles of each member. It seems silly to say that a PowerPoint presentation can be poignant, but that's how I'd describe it.
I can see why this novel got great reviews - there's much to respect here. At the same time, I didn't really enjoy reading A Visit from the Goon Squad. It's difficult to lose yourself in a story that requires so much effort.
I didn't particularly care for any of the characters, but I found the main characters well drawn and interesting. The most gimmicky part of the novel - the PowerPoint presentation - was probably my favorite. In very few words, Egan creates a vivid picture of Sasha's family dynamic and the emotional struggles of each member. It seems silly to say that a PowerPoint presentation can be poignant, but that's how I'd describe it.
I can see why this novel got great reviews - there's much to respect here. At the same time, I didn't really enjoy reading A Visit from the Goon Squad. It's difficult to lose yourself in a story that requires so much effort.
This is my truth tell me yours.
Suicide, drug addiction, overdoses, AIDS, strokes, relapses, psychosis, anorexia, infidelity, intergenerational sex, interracial sex, underage sex, heterosex, homosex, public sex, sexual dysfunction, terrorism, theft, prison time, cults, racism, homophobia, paranoia, drowning, genocidal dictators, Stockholm syndrome, lion attacks and online dating.
Oh, pardon me: spoiler warning.
So yeah, a lot happens in what amounts to a 200-page novel. It happens to a group of people interconnected by family, friendship and chance over the greater part of a century. The main problem I had with this novel is that these lives don't ring true because we mostly observe them only during these moments of extreme, and sometimes extremely implausible, experience.
The "Powerpoint" section of the book, comprising the other 70 pages (which you can read in just a few minutes) is the only portion that suggests the real truth - that life is won and lost in its small moments.
But too often everything is grandiose and unnecessarily dramatic. Drugs heighten the senses of the characters in almost every story here but they're just a shortcut for the writer to propel us into these moments where everything is momentous and life-changing. By the same token, New York is expanded (reduced) to a juvenile ideal of adventure and potential and magic that seems bloodless if you've ever listened to a Lou Reed album, let alone done drugs or clocked your 30th birthday. 9/11 is invoked several times to no real purpose other than to, once again, announce Serious Emotions.
All that said, this book is fairly well-written. Egan has some stylish turns of phrase and her various first-person voices are reasonably convincing (except the "Selling the General" section, which is silly and no good). The theme is that time makes fools of us all, and much more than that, as we each may live any number of different lives within our span of years. We'll all have some amazing and terrible things happen to us on the way (stuff you couldn't make up if you tried) but for the most part it won't be anything like the stock melodrama of Egan's characters.
Fictional characters obviously don't need to be "realistic" to resonate with a truth, but they need to be truthful to feel real instead of being just words on a page. These ones don't make it.
Oh, pardon me: spoiler warning.
So yeah, a lot happens in what amounts to a 200-page novel. It happens to a group of people interconnected by family, friendship and chance over the greater part of a century. The main problem I had with this novel is that these lives don't ring true because we mostly observe them only during these moments of extreme, and sometimes extremely implausible, experience.
The "Powerpoint" section of the book, comprising the other 70 pages (which you can read in just a few minutes) is the only portion that suggests the real truth - that life is won and lost in its small moments.
But too often everything is grandiose and unnecessarily dramatic. Drugs heighten the senses of the characters in almost every story here but they're just a shortcut for the writer to propel us into these moments where everything is momentous and life-changing. By the same token, New York is expanded (reduced) to a juvenile ideal of adventure and potential and magic that seems bloodless if you've ever listened to a Lou Reed album, let alone done drugs or clocked your 30th birthday. 9/11 is invoked several times to no real purpose other than to, once again, announce Serious Emotions.
All that said, this book is fairly well-written. Egan has some stylish turns of phrase and her various first-person voices are reasonably convincing (except the "Selling the General" section, which is silly and no good). The theme is that time makes fools of us all, and much more than that, as we each may live any number of different lives within our span of years. We'll all have some amazing and terrible things happen to us on the way (stuff you couldn't make up if you tried) but for the most part it won't be anything like the stock melodrama of Egan's characters.
Fictional characters obviously don't need to be "realistic" to resonate with a truth, but they need to be truthful to feel real instead of being just words on a page. These ones don't make it.
Wasn't thrilled with this book at all
I just don't understand all the positive reviews for this book. It is a series of short stories that are somewhat linked and it jumps around between time frames and characters while leaving a lot of questions unanswered. As a baby boomer, I did not find any of the characters to be anyone I could relate to from my life experiences, and there were no heroes, It wasn't a horrible book, it just left me cold, not sure what she was trying to accomplish with this book. Yes, we all get older and some of us learn from the mistakes we made earlier in life and some of us don't - not exactly a unique concept. I came close to not finishing it several times. The power point piece actually is unique, it just took up more pages in the book for the message it had to deliver. In fairness, this writer seems to have a good style-probably a very good writer- I just did not like the concept, the story is disjointed-hard to follow and piece together. Can't recommend- seems to be a Jonathan Franzen wantabe with a disjointed concept,
Great book from start to...near the finish.
I loved the first 3/4 of this book. It was quirky and well written and the characters were interesting and (mostly) relateable. I did think the switching of 1st person/2d/3d person could get confusing at times and while it was sometimes fun to figure out where a story fit in the overall book time-wise, it got tiresome after a while. It would probably have been better to give us a date up-front in the chapter. Still, I read this diligently, even when I got home from work (I usually only read during my subway commute)and my only real complaint is that it goes out like a lamb. The last few chapters, to me, were the weakest and the ending was rather unsatisfying.
Jennifer Egan's acclaimed A Visit From the Goon Squad releases in paperback on the 22nd of this month. It's a "Must Read" for any generation--but Boomers will especially be nostalgic.
Summary: Egan takes us on a thrill ride--not only back in time and forward into the future--from California to Africa to New York--but also inside our own hearts and minds. Do you remember the first time you heard edgy raw talent? Do remember how fresh it sounded and how alive it made you feel? Egan brings us back to that place and time of innocence and naiveté--yet, at the same time she treats us as smart, sophisticated readers. Through 16 loosely linked stories, we follow "friends of friends" (sort-of like FaceBook) and family of Bennie, a record producer, and his one-time assistant, Sasha, through their world of the music business, back to high-school and college, forward to families and kids. Although there is no traditional story arc, we accompany these unique and flawed characters through vignettes of their lives--with a speculative ending that is not too far removed from today's technology and social connections.
Characters: In addition to Bennie and Sasha, we meet Alex, Alison, Bosco, Dolly, Jocelyn, Jules, Lou, Rhea, Rob, Scotty, Stephanie, Ted and others. But rather than a harmonic blending of voices as some ensemble novels employ--they each take their individual turn as the solo star at the mic.
Structure: These imperfect and complicated characters not only have unique voices, but each tells his or her own story of angst and humor in a unique way--first, second (yes--that was not a typo) and third person--as a narrative, a celebrity interview, and even as a PowerPoint slide show. This latter is one of my favorites--written by Alison, Sasha's daughter, who tells her family story, "Great Rock and Roll Pauses." The staccato feeling that Allison describes in these musical pauses mirrors the energy and vibrancy that the author brings to her novel through the structure of these seemingly random stops and stops of the individual stories. But don't get me wrong--even with the sporadic rhythm--the stories hang together as a whole to result in a witty, sarcastic, and at times poignant novel that will haunt you long after you've read it.
Themes: Although her stories are distinctly post-modern, Egan's themes are decidedly timeless and universal: Ageing, Life Changes, Hopes and Fears, Identity and Belonging; Balancing Success with your Moral Values--but the strongest theme throughout is Relationships.
Why Book Clubs Will Love it: There is much fodder for book club conversation: the characters, the structure, the themes...If your club doesn't mind a book that doesn't tie everything up in a neat little bow at the end--you will be glad you went along for the ride!
Pick up `Goon Squad' on the 22nd in paperback!
Cheers!
BCC
Summary: Egan takes us on a thrill ride--not only back in time and forward into the future--from California to Africa to New York--but also inside our own hearts and minds. Do you remember the first time you heard edgy raw talent? Do remember how fresh it sounded and how alive it made you feel? Egan brings us back to that place and time of innocence and naiveté--yet, at the same time she treats us as smart, sophisticated readers. Through 16 loosely linked stories, we follow "friends of friends" (sort-of like FaceBook) and family of Bennie, a record producer, and his one-time assistant, Sasha, through their world of the music business, back to high-school and college, forward to families and kids. Although there is no traditional story arc, we accompany these unique and flawed characters through vignettes of their lives--with a speculative ending that is not too far removed from today's technology and social connections.
Characters: In addition to Bennie and Sasha, we meet Alex, Alison, Bosco, Dolly, Jocelyn, Jules, Lou, Rhea, Rob, Scotty, Stephanie, Ted and others. But rather than a harmonic blending of voices as some ensemble novels employ--they each take their individual turn as the solo star at the mic.
Structure: These imperfect and complicated characters not only have unique voices, but each tells his or her own story of angst and humor in a unique way--first, second (yes--that was not a typo) and third person--as a narrative, a celebrity interview, and even as a PowerPoint slide show. This latter is one of my favorites--written by Alison, Sasha's daughter, who tells her family story, "Great Rock and Roll Pauses." The staccato feeling that Allison describes in these musical pauses mirrors the energy and vibrancy that the author brings to her novel through the structure of these seemingly random stops and stops of the individual stories. But don't get me wrong--even with the sporadic rhythm--the stories hang together as a whole to result in a witty, sarcastic, and at times poignant novel that will haunt you long after you've read it.
Themes: Although her stories are distinctly post-modern, Egan's themes are decidedly timeless and universal: Ageing, Life Changes, Hopes and Fears, Identity and Belonging; Balancing Success with your Moral Values--but the strongest theme throughout is Relationships.
Why Book Clubs Will Love it: There is much fodder for book club conversation: the characters, the structure, the themes...If your club doesn't mind a book that doesn't tie everything up in a neat little bow at the end--you will be glad you went along for the ride!
Pick up `Goon Squad' on the 22nd in paperback!
Cheers!
BCC
great contemporary fiction, a nice surprise
This is the first book I've read by Jennifer Egan. I had tried (and failed) to read Look at Me a few times so I was a little dubious when this book was chosen as my latest book club pick. The book centers around two characters Bennie Salazar, an aging record executive and Sasha, his assistant with a troubling past as well as a host of characters that cross their paths over the years.
Though a narrative, this is really a novel of short stories. We are given glimpses into each characters life, we learn their secrets, their connection to Bennie or Sasha and at the end of the chapter we leave them to live their lives. Like time, we must keep moving forward.
I'm not going to go into much more detail because I think this novel deserves to be discovered. Any description I offer would only diminish the overall effect of read. But I will say the most surprising chapter was the one told in powerpoint. I thought it wouldn't really add to the story, more of a gimmick, but I was wrong. I actually think this was my favorite chapter and one of the more memorable characters. For a somewhat sparse chapter it was extremely emotional and beautifully written.
At times sad, it is overall a beautiful and clever book.
Though a narrative, this is really a novel of short stories. We are given glimpses into each characters life, we learn their secrets, their connection to Bennie or Sasha and at the end of the chapter we leave them to live their lives. Like time, we must keep moving forward.
I'm not going to go into much more detail because I think this novel deserves to be discovered. Any description I offer would only diminish the overall effect of read. But I will say the most surprising chapter was the one told in powerpoint. I thought it wouldn't really add to the story, more of a gimmick, but I was wrong. I actually think this was my favorite chapter and one of the more memorable characters. For a somewhat sparse chapter it was extremely emotional and beautifully written.
At times sad, it is overall a beautiful and clever book.
The ending should have come first
The "Goon" in the title refers to time. The book, which is not identified as a novel or a collection, begins in the present, skips around through the past and ends up in the near future--and that near future world is so gracefully handled that I felt a bit of awe. This is character-based fiction. No apologies. But we get a glimpse of the deserts covered over with solar panels that even capture energy from the moon. Touch screens lead to a new marketing demographic--"pointers," meaning infants too young to speak. Parents try to protect their children, but end up giving in because it's just too hard to shut out the world, you know? And while everyone is connected, we're all still searching for a great "collective experience." (Think Woodstock.) I loved the last two stories. If I'd read each story in reverse order from back to front, ending up in the present, it may well have been perfect, because these characters' back stories only become interesting once you know the final outcome. It was a long slog for me to come to a point of interest, more than a third of the way through the book, and it really didn't come together until the very end. I'm not sure why I persisted, but I'm glad I did.
After really not seeing the attraction of Jennifer Egan's last novel, The Keep, I was skeptical about A Visit From the Good Squad. Luckily, I was won over by the fawning reviews - it would be a shame to miss this inventive work.
Good Squad, like most great fiction, works on more than one level. At the surface, it straddles a line... not quite a traditional narrative, but more than an overlapping set of stories. She hopscotches through about 40 years in the lives of a loosely connected group of New Yorkers and their caroming links to the music industry. Each of the six or 10 central characters are uniquely interesting and richly colored, and a much larger supporting cast provides lush backdrop. If there's a criticism of this cast, in fact, it's that Egan invented much deeper mines than she ultimately tapped - many of the characters were ripe for further exploration, and she would have to sacrifice her deft touch for approaching some of her most dramatic turning points solely through the aftermath. When her confidence catches up to the talent she showed here, we're in for some fireworks.
Egan has returned often to fiction as a scaffolding for biting criticism of modern life, particularly the dehumanizing impact of technology. In Good Squad, she manages to keep that theme through light but unmistakable brushstrokes... only in the closing chapter does she become heavy-handed. Her flirtation with obsequiousness is testament to her youth, and her quick recovery - the cleanest of landings, for the both the narrative and the commentary - marks her craftsmanship.
This is an author worth watching. Her evolution since just her last novel is remarkable. Count me in.
Good Squad, like most great fiction, works on more than one level. At the surface, it straddles a line... not quite a traditional narrative, but more than an overlapping set of stories. She hopscotches through about 40 years in the lives of a loosely connected group of New Yorkers and their caroming links to the music industry. Each of the six or 10 central characters are uniquely interesting and richly colored, and a much larger supporting cast provides lush backdrop. If there's a criticism of this cast, in fact, it's that Egan invented much deeper mines than she ultimately tapped - many of the characters were ripe for further exploration, and she would have to sacrifice her deft touch for approaching some of her most dramatic turning points solely through the aftermath. When her confidence catches up to the talent she showed here, we're in for some fireworks.
Egan has returned often to fiction as a scaffolding for biting criticism of modern life, particularly the dehumanizing impact of technology. In Good Squad, she manages to keep that theme through light but unmistakable brushstrokes... only in the closing chapter does she become heavy-handed. Her flirtation with obsequiousness is testament to her youth, and her quick recovery - the cleanest of landings, for the both the narrative and the commentary - marks her craftsmanship.
This is an author worth watching. Her evolution since just her last novel is remarkable. Count me in.
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