I think it’s important for anyone who considers him/herself to be a writer, whether you aspire to be one someday or are currently comfortable labeling yourself with that title, to read as voraciously as you write. Often times I’ll hear advice along the lines of “write every day” or “always be writing.” I think it’s just as important to always be reading; and not only reading, but reading as a writer. That means appreciate more than the characters or the endearing moments, understand the structure of a story and the tactics the author employs to create those moments of awe and enjoyment.

I can’t think of a better novel to examine than Jennifer Egan’s ode to rock ‘n roll, A Visit from the Good Squad. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and pretty much every other literary award in existence, I understood full well before sitting down to read it how universally applauded this novel was. And as I began to read the first few chapters I started to suspect that I had been tricked into purchasing a short story collection masquerading as a novel.

First off, no two chapters are the same. We are never given the perspective of any single character more than once. And the styles she uses vary from chapter to chapter, we experience first person perspective, second person, third person; there are chapters written as magazine articles, with numerical breaks within chapters, there’s even an entire chapter written as PowerPoint slides. And I have to be honest, at first I thought it was a bit gimmicky and started to resent the book for such an overt effort to stand apart, thinking that Jennifer Egan was sacrificing quality for the sake of uniqueness. Once I allowed myself to become completely absorbed in the work it became apparent how wrong I truly was.

Almost as soon as any character is introduced, we can be assured that they will be further examined and flushed out in the proceeding chapter. And in the end it appears that all the characters are linked together in a Kevin Baconesque manner, but the reality is that the characters are no more linked to one another than any group of friends or coworkers or family or neighbors. That is the strength of Jennifer’s choice to never spend too much time on any one person. Everyone gets their time in the sun. Everyone is allowed to tell their story. A person who was at one point the center of attention later exists tangentially, as a supporting cast member. Minor events to one person are later seen as groundbreaking moments to another. The point is, by never relying on the conventions and the stereotypes of fiction, Jennifer Egan has found a way to circumvent the system to create moments that transcend.

Maybe that’s the strength of this book. It’s a series of moments. A Visit from the Goon Squad exists outside of time, seeming to move swiftly along without ever establishing an progress forwards or backwards. It’s a prime example of the strengths of the literary art form that can only exist on paper. This  story couldn’t exist as anything else but a book.

I highly recommend it to writers. It’s a testament to the strength of fiction.