Anchor, March 2011 (paperback)
A Visit from the Goon Squad is an utterly unique work of fiction - simultaneously a novel and a series of linked stories - in which Jennifer Egan extracts episodes from the lives of a colorful array of characters to weave an atemporal tapestry of narrative that stretches into both past and future.
It all begins with Sasha, an arresting, raven-haired kleptomaniac, who at the novel's opening is 35-years-old and living in New York, though in future chapters we find Sasha as both a teenage streetrat in Naples, Italy, and a California suburban mother. Sasha is central to A Visit from the Goon Squad, as is Bennie Salazar, a successful A and R guy and founder of the Sow's Ear record label. Bennie's story similarly unfolds episodically through Egan's novel - from his "green-haired and safety-pinned" youth to later years, in which we find Bennie filled with regrets and shame.
A Visit from the Goon Squad is an utterly unique work of fiction - simultaneously a novel and a series of linked stories - in which Jennifer Egan extracts episodes from the lives of a colorful array of characters to weave an atemporal tapestry of narrative that stretches into both past and future.
It all begins with Sasha, an arresting, raven-haired kleptomaniac, who at the novel's opening is 35-years-old and living in New York, though in future chapters we find Sasha as both a teenage streetrat in Naples, Italy, and a California suburban mother. Sasha is central to A Visit from the Goon Squad, as is Bennie Salazar, a successful A and R guy and founder of the Sow's Ear record label. Bennie's story similarly unfolds episodically through Egan's novel - from his "green-haired and safety-pinned" youth to later years, in which we find Bennie filled with regrets and shame.
Egan's eclectic cast of characters ranges from 1970s punk-rockers and record industry professionals to Kenyan tribesman and a single genocidal dictator from an unnamed country. With each chapter, perspective shifts to another character, usually a character from the periphery of a prior chapter. And with this shift in voice and perspective come radical changes in format - from straight-forward narrative to a convict's apologetic epistle to, in one instance, a powerpoint presentation created by a teenager. Each of these chapters is distinct from its siblings and each is able to stand independently as an engaging piece of short fiction.
Egan's writing is masterful throughout these temporal and persona shifts. As a narrative montage, A Visit from the Goon Squad tells a wonderfully complex layered-composition about the passage and ravages of time like no linear narrative could. This is without a doubt one of 2010's best novels and a must-read.
Egan's writing is masterful throughout these temporal and persona shifts. As a narrative montage, A Visit from the Goon Squad tells a wonderfully complex layered-composition about the passage and ravages of time like no linear narrative could. This is without a doubt one of 2010's best novels and a must-read.
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