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A Visit from the Goon Squad

Jennifer Egan

Start date: September 15, 2012

Finish date: September 15, 2012

Discussion: Reading List

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What Members Thought

Sep 20, 2010 tee rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: i-own, oriana-is-my-book-muse

This will be the only review on goodreads that doesn't mention the book's powerpoint chapter. Aw man, I already blew it. Well, I didn't like the powerpoint part and I didn't care much for the book either. I seem to have that kind of reaction when a book is super hyped though. I may have liked it a fraction more if I had discovered it on my own and it hadn't been raved about.

I just didn't give a shit about anyone. I started reading and thought, okay this is excellent. I loved the first chapter, This will be the only review on goodreads that doesn't mention the book's powerpoint chapter. Aw man, I already blew it. Well, I didn't like the powerpoint part and I didn't care much for the book either. I seem to have that kind of reaction when a book is super hyped though. I may have liked it a fraction more if I had discovered it on my own and it hadn't been raved about.

I just didn't give a shit about anyone. I started reading and thought, okay this is excellent. I loved the first chapter, Sasha seemed interesting. Then we were torn away from Sasha and suddenly I was reading about someone who wasn't as interesting; mostly because they had interfered with me getting to know somebody else. I hate it when that happens. Then I settled down and was like, okay, let's see what your story is and what you have to say and then it happened again. Except we weren't returned to Sasha's story, we were straight into another disconnected story. Except that was the ~quirky~ thing, right, all the stories are interrelated somehow. They jump from one era to another and bounce from one person's life to another. Everyone sort of knows each other but everyone is pretty boring. On the flip side, the General's publicist story wasn't boring but seemed too far fetched to be feasible and I spend too much time wondering whatthefuck.

I do prefer hearing a story from one or two perspectives in a linear fashion ... or maybe I'm just used to it because I loosened up a little and ended up liking what Egan did. I really love short stories so really, it was like a collection of short stories with a twist. She uses different styles; first person, a journalistic piece, even a second person piece (and like most second person pieces, I found it disconcerting and awkward, though Egan almost pulls it off). She also does an entire chapter in Powerpoint .. what, you haven't heard?! It's true!

I liked the jumps between eras and although she does so much shifting between styles, protagonists, settings and eras .. it never really felt erratic, it always felt grounded and I felt each piece had a lot of depth. I liked how it's all about getting old and becoming decrepit; it's something that I am becoming very familiar with. I spend a lot of time reminiscing and writing about reminiscing and wondering if I've spelt reminiscing correctly. In fact I liked the themes of this book way more than I did the actual book. If I'd been more interested in the characters and/or their stories, I probably would have loved the shit out of this book. But I didn't. I just didn't click with it. Probably through no fault of the author, it's likely all on me.

The book, itself, was a really nice size. I was excited to read it at first because it was like a perfect little brick of pages. The right size physically but also the right length (LOL LIKE A GOOD PENIS I KNOW RIGHT).

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This:

captures what I liked about good squad. Image from here.

...more

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Jun 30, 2025 Roy rated it really liked it

Another notch in my Pulitzer Prize winner for Fiction belt. Like the previous one I read, Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, the format of this book feels more like a short story collection than a novel. Rearranging the chapters would make little difference since we’re not following a narrative from beginning to end. From a marketing standpoint, novels are usually better sellers than short story collections or anthologies. So, even if A Visit from the Goon Squad and Olive Kitteridge were both Another notch in my Pulitzer Prize winner for Fiction belt. Like the previous one I read, Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, the format of this book feels more like a short story collection than a novel. Rearranging the chapters would make little difference since we’re not following a narrative from beginning to end. From a marketing standpoint, novels are usually better sellers than short story collections or anthologies. So, even if A Visit from the Goon Squad and Olive Kitteridge were both conceived by their authors as story collections, they have figured out or been advised that it would be monetarily advantageous to categorize their books as novels. Even though Olive barely makes an appearance in some of the chapters/stories that comprise Strout’s book, I feel that the linking of them was a little stronger than was done by Jennifer Egan in her Pulitzer winner. That’s probably because Strout doesn’t experiment much with her prose, but rather, presents a series of events in the fictional town where Olive lives that are each written in the same literary style. Egan on the other hand jumps around from first person to second person to third person point of view. One notable chapter is written as a set of PowerPoint slides. I almost skipped that section, but decided not to and was glad I read it. Olive Kitteridge is largely, even if not completely, about a woman named Olive. The primary characters of A Visit from the Goon Squad are a former punk rocker turned record executive named Bennie Salazar, and a woman he employs named Sasha. But plenty of other characters are visited throughout the narrative, to the point where I lost track at times of whether I was revisiting a character who was at a different stage of their life than where they were at in the previous visit, or being introduced to a brand new character making an appearance because they are connected to Bennie and/or Sasha in some way. A Visit from the Goon Squad is mostly about the process of aging, and the music that helps shape our lives as we go through a variety of stages. Struggling or professionally successful, single or married or remarried, satisfied with one's lot in life or barely holding on to sanity as the bastards beat you down. Individually, each chapter is absorbing. It doesn't matter who is centered in it because each character's situation is as wonderfully displayed by Egan's steady hand as the others. Egan succeeds at an author’s primary job which is to make you care about what’s going on and who it’s happening to. But she refuses to stay in any one place. The setting of the current chapter will be a different time and place than where the preceding chapter left off, abandoning one story that reads as a strong standalone piece, presenting a new one to cast its spell before moving on to something else. Some chapters will be more compelling to you than others, per your taste. The one featuring a dictator had me briefly wondering if I had wandered into a different book and genre entirely, not that I didn't enjoy it. As for the previously mentioned PowerPoint section, it reads like…well, a PowerPoint presentation. Yet it manages to reveal a considerable amount of detail about the characters featured in the slides. A Visit from the Goon Squad is not as wildly experimental as a book such as House of Leaves, so no need for you to pull any hair out or to pour yourself a stiff drink while reading Egan’s prose. But she takes risks for sure and mostly pulls them off. I’m not a big re-reader of novels, but this is one I may come back to at some point down the line. I’m pretty sure that I missed out on some stuff because I was not paying sufficiently close attention. Some novels allow you to follow along effortlessly while others demand greater focus in order to notice character arcs to the full extent. A Visit from the Goon Squad falls into the latter category, and a second read would probably be beneficial to my full comprehension. Then again, an author’s job is to get it right the first time because many readers will leisurely visit a book just once. The Pulitzer Prize committee felt that Egan succeeded in a big way. As for me, overall, I enjoyed this book. But if I was to rank the Pulitzer winners that I’ve read so far, quite a few others would be placed above this one. Not meant as a slight, since the lower end of the best of the best is still a pretty sweet spot to be. When I choose to reread a novel, I prefer that it’s because I was so overwhelmed by its beauty the first time that I want a second helping, rather than rereading to confirm that I kept proper track of everyone and everything going on. In general, I like short story collections that feel like a collection of great short stories, and novels that feel, regardless of how many characters it contains, like a single great story. But I'm not the one handing out Pulitzer Prizes. ...more

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Sep 24, 2011 Dree rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2011-reads, the-northeast, 1001-read, pulitzer-all-winner-short

I love books like this. The multiple narrators and points of view, the jumps across time and space, the finding out what happened to characters (even minor characters). What really happens in the book? I can't exactly explain it--we just learn about a variety of characters and the ways their lives interact, whether they know it or not. Much of it is a little bit funny, some crazy, some sad. But it is just points in the lives of some people. And it's great.

I was leaning toward 5 stars, but I got ...more

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Mar 24, 2011 Abbey rated it really liked it

some stories i absolutely loved, some were just fine, none were bad. at first i was cranky that this book ended up being a collection of interrelated short stories (why does it say novel on the cover?!) but i really appreciated the nice wrap up in the final story.

oh, and, the power point chapter was freaking awesome.

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Apr 02, 2020 William rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2020

Wonderful and unique. Imagine a large cast of characters, each of whom have interacted with most of the others in space or time, directly or indirectly. Then imagine a series of chapters, each somewhat independent of the others, each told in the first, third or in one case the second person or even as a power point presentation. The chapters are not chronological. As story after story unfolds, a bigger picture emerges. ‘Time is a goon’ as two characters say in different chapters. That is the the ...more

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Jul 03, 2011 Jessica rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: modern-lit, new-york-city

I enjoy the way that Egan weaves her threads together, but a part of me feels as if I'm somewhat too dumb to recognize and appreciate her overall themes. She clearly has a way with prose, but on some level it just leaves me cold. ...more

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Jun 22, 2011 Cynthia rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Fantastic read.

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Feb 09, 2012 Victoria rated it really liked it

Shelves: new-york-stories

So many different stories and lives expertly woven together. Each chapter could seemingly work on its own as a short story. Really enjoyed this book, a concept unlike anything I've read before. It makes you realize that the world is much smaller than you think. ...more

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