From the Bookshelf of Tackling the Pulitzer Prize Winners!…

A Visit from the Goon Squad

Jennifer Egan

Start date: May 1, 2011

Finish date: May 31, 2011

Discussion: The Tackled Pulitzers

Why we're reading this: This book was the 2010 Winner. See our discussion group on it for more about our responses.
[close] This book was the 2010 Winner. See our discussion group on it for more about our responses.

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The Tackled Pulitzers

Wednesday's Child (Yiyun Li, 2024 finalist)
By Bookslut · 1 post · 15 views

last updated Dec 08, 2024 05:48AM

The Able McLaughlins (Margaret Wilson, 1924 winner)
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last updated Nov 20, 2024 07:49AM

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What Members Thought

Oct 09, 2011 Joe Davoust rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: pulitzer

I went into this book thinking the worst. There were lots of bad reviews by readers and great reviews by critics. Normally, this
to me means the writing is pretentious and the plot boring. I read it anyway because I'm trying to get to all of the Pulitzer winners.

I actually enjoyed reading this book despite the format being odd and sometime hard to grasp. It's really a collection of tenuously connected short stories that jump back and forth in the timeline interrupted by a lengthy PowerPoint prese ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Apr 01, 2013 Jody rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I have a lot of thoughts about AVFTGS -- a lot of good ones, a lot of mixed ones, some flat-out headscratchers. Egan's digressions on and nimble shaping of time work wonders that would blow the minds of any potheads. A lot of novels that play with structure do so in a way that brings attention to itself; Egan's book works because it reads like wildly cyclical short stories, where people ebb and flow into and out of each other's lives. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jun 26, 2013 Danyellemastro rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1001, the-youthful-heart-aches

Took me forever to read this as my head space has been all fucky. Thanks Ms. Egan for keeping me enthralled, even though your book was read in small doses over three months. If you can keep me captive and keep the narrative fresh in my mind with that at play, you've achieved something! ...more

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Jul 22, 2011 Melissa Namba rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1-001-books-you-must-read-before-yo, pulitzer-prize

This was a good book, but I am not sure that it was Pulitzer worthy. I appreciated the little vignettes and how all of the characters were connected to each other. I didn't mind how they stories were not in chronological order and at times you were forced to recall something about a character that you thought was minor before, but is now major. However, after a while some of the characters no longer resonate with you and you really don't care much about them.

I also think that the person who wrot ...more

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Jul 02, 2013 Tara rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: novels-set-in-new-york-city, pulitzer-prize-winning-fiction

I loved this one. So much. Granted, it has everything going for it to appeal to me. Set (partly) in New York, check. Does interesting things with time, check. Sort of about the music business, check.

I particularly enjoyed the structure of Egan's novel; each chapter is a story on its own, but the chapter following will be about or told from the point of view of a person introduced (usually as a minor character) in a previous chapter. The entire novel takes place over years and years, beginning a I loved this one. So much. Granted, it has everything going for it to appeal to me. Set (partly) in New York, check. Does interesting things with time, check. Sort of about the music business, check.

I particularly enjoyed the structure of Egan's novel; each chapter is a story on its own, but the chapter following will be about or told from the point of view of a person introduced (usually as a minor character) in a previous chapter. The entire novel takes place over years and years, beginning at some point in the 1980's and spanning time until the future (2020's or so, I think), and jumping among times and places from chapter to chapter, reading this is an extraordinary journey and, in my opinion, a fantastic ride. It is kind of like David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, which I also absolutely loved.

"Let's document every fucking humiliation. This is reality, right? You don't look good anymore twenty years later, especially when you've had half your guts removed. 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'?'"
"Would you disagree?" Bosco said, a little challengingly.
There was a pause. "No," Jules said.

Some reviewers hated these characters and thought they were trivial or whatever, but, simply, those people are wrong. So wrong. I found something to sympathize with or relate to about each and every character, and I liked their grit and humanity. The "PowerPoint chapter" everyone is talking about is wonderful. Oh, I could gush and gush. This novel is right up my alley and I'm thrilled that it won the Pulitzer. Sure, no novel is for everyone, and some people I've talked to about it hated it, but I still think even they would admit it is ambitious, remarkably so.

I will say that I thought the final chapter, set in future New York, was a bit flawed and disconnected from the rest, but not enough to spoil the experience.

Related, Egan's Twitter project story, "Black Box," recently published in The New Yorker, also gave me chills. Gimmicky to publish a short story bit by bit using Twitter, the most powerful medium of this day? Sure. Also brilliant. ...more

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