A Visit from the Goon Squad in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Jul 18, 2010 Monica rated it really liked it

Shelves: genrex, 2010, 2011, pulitzerfiction

Critically lauded literary fiction that also happens to be entirely readable. And funny. And very, very smart.

Egan's interconnected stories jump back and forth through time, each narrowly focused on the absolute importance of a pivotal moment in the lives of its characters and the power of pop music. Really engrossing and thoroughly satisfying. ...more

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May 24, 2012 Jessica rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, book-club

This book made SO MUCH more sense to me when I got to the end and saw that many of the chapters had been previously published as standalone short stories. Egan's writing is fantastic, and reading this as a short story collection there are far more hits than misses. However, trying to fit it together as a novel just didn't work for me. The characters were interesting as short-story figures, but we never get to know any of them well enough to care about them very deeply. There are moments in the b ...more

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May 15, 2011 Leslie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: grownups

Wow. I loved the characters, their evolutions, and interweaving of their lives. Egan's technique is excellent, combining a different style for each story and bringing it all back around at the end. I connected with this book on so many levels, too. ...more

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Mar 14, 2011 Chinoiseries rated it it was ok

Shelves: literary-fiction, contemporary, 2011, library, short-stories, orange-prize, 1001-books

The title is a reference to Elvis Costello's 1979 song "Goon Squad", which is pretty fitting, because music is a recurrent theme in the novel. There is even a soundtrack (one song for every chapter), created by the author herself.
Chapter one features kleptomaniac Sasha on a disastrous date with Alex. There is something about her that makes you think she's very unhappy. Maybe the fact that she is convinced Alex won't remember her in a few years time? Ironically enough, her prophecy actually come The title is a reference to Elvis Costello's 1979 song "Goon Squad", which is pretty fitting, because music is a recurrent theme in the novel. There is even a soundtrack (one song for every chapter), created by the author herself.
Chapter one features kleptomaniac Sasha on a disastrous date with Alex. There is something about her that makes you think she's very unhappy. Maybe the fact that she is convinced Alex won't remember her in a few years time? Ironically enough, her prophecy actually comes true. Bennie follows in chapter two, feeling unwell himself, and on his way to give an unsuccessful band a second chance. His son tags along, and we learn that the music producer is divorced and quite nostalgic about the past.
What is curious about this book, is that names are not simply dropped and people don't just show up without a reason. They all have some part to play in the story, from Bennie's friend and mentor Lou to suicidal Rob, Sasha's best friend in university. Even in death, they are never very far from Sasha's and Bennie's mind.
Assume, for a moment, that we're talking about a movie here. You presume, after watching the first two scenes, that the lead actors are A and B. They are surrounded by friends, family and colleagues. You watched the camera zoom in on actress A, and follow her around. Then, the next scene focused on actor B, reminiscing the past. Now imagine the camera suddenly going back in time to follow C, who is a member of the band B used to play in... but in this scene, the past is the present again. And to make it even more confusing, the next scene fast-forwards a few years and switches narratives between E, F and G. Who are on holiday with D, the aforementioned friend and mentor of B.
Can you imagine how confused I felt after a few chapters? I actually used Post-It notes to separate the storylines, and would have been utterly lost without them.
Admittedly, Egan wrote a creative novel, consisting of pieces that fit together neatly. Nevertheless, I found the constant changing of first person narrative to and fro quite irritating. For me, the main storyline got lost in the cacophony of voices. The chapter that relived the catastrophic interview between Jules (former brother-in-law of Bennie) and rising star Kitty Jackson was teeth-grindingly annoying. And the Powerpoint chapter (cleverly put together by Sasha's daughter) sorely tested my patience.
My final critique is that some events in the book were just too coincidental. For example: quite early in the book, the reader is informed that Lulu (daughter of Bennie's ex-wife's former boss. Are you still with me?) will become Bennie's next assistant. And the whole episode in Naples... definitely not credible enough.
What can I say? There were a few chapters I enjoyed, but I do not think that the novel lived up to the hype surrounding it. Yes, A Visit from the Goon Squad beat Jonathan Franzen's Freedom for the 2010 National Book Critics Circle's prize for fiction and is longlisted for the Orange Prize. But to me, it was a bitter disappointment. Maybe Egan thought in the lines of an orchestra, using all the different storylines to create one coherent musical piece. If so, I may be reading a different score than the conductor is using. ...more

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Jul 11, 2011 Rachel rated it really liked it

Shelves: music

Second Read:
I remember enjoying this book when I first read it, over 10 years ago. Recently added The Candy House to my TBR list, but realized it's a sequel novel to this one. Hence the re-read. I still think it's very cool how everything weaves together, and love all the music references. This time I bought the kindle version and listened along with the audio at the same time. Much easier to follow. The theme of time, and how things change with age, was something I picked up more now that I'm o ...more

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Jul 17, 2011 mehg-hen rated it liked it · review of another edition

I think I read this with a chip on my shoulder because of the hype, seeing her at a reading, and a bunch of other things. My expectations were "this will divide my life into before this book and after." I also read it in one day, which is possibly not the healthiest thing in the world.

She takes individual characters making a choice which makes you pass judgement, totally sure of how they are, how their lives will turn out, how one choice will domino into the other and they'll be dead, homeless, ...more

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Aug 01, 2011 gwen g rated it did not like it

Shelves: books-i-put-down

Second Jennifer Egan book I've tried, second one I couldn't finish. I even liked the conceit, the way she switches voices between characters every chapter... but something about the way Egan describes these rich, young, drugged-out kids is just too fawning for me. It's like cool-kid syndrome in print, and, I don't know, I just can't do it. ...more

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Dec 13, 2012 Shayla rated it liked it

This came across to me as the music version of Let the Great World Spin. The only issue for me is that the stories weren't as moving and I didn't find myself too connected to any of the characters. It was late in the novel and I still had to flip through earlier sections of the book to remember characters.

Also, i just didn't believe the future Manhattan that she presents or that communication via T will be as she imagines. ...more

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