A Visit From the Goon Squad

Paperback

English language

Published April 16, 2011 by Constable & Robinson, imusti.

ISBN:
978-1-78033-096-9
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4 stars (91 reviews)

Jennifer Egan's spellbinding interlocking narratives circle the lives of Bennie Salazar, an aging former punk rocker and record executive, and Sasha, the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Although Bennie and Sasha never discover each other's pasts, the reader does, in intimate detail, along with the secret lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs, over many years, in locales as varied as New York, San Francisco, Naples, and Africa.

We first meet Sasha in her mid-thirties, on her therapist's couch in New York City, confronting her long-standing compulsion to steal. Later, we learn the genesis of her turmoil when we see her as the child of a violent marriage, then as a runaway living in Naples, then as a college student trying to avert the suicidal impulses of her best friend. We plunge into the hidden yearnings and disappointments of her uncle, an art historian …

13 editions

Underwhelming

3 stars

Not completely sure how I feel about this novel. I only finished it today so perhaps a few days thinking it over will help cement my opinion. The novel is told from several standpoints, each character interacting with some of the others at a point in their lives, some more fleetingly than others. Progressing through the novel, we jump forwards and backwards in time, understanding how future events were the result of earlier ones and how the characters' relationships develop or are lost. Unfortunately, although I was impressed by individual chapters, I didn't particularly like or identify with any of the characters who, I felt, came across as shallow people.

Review of 'A Visit from the Goon Squad' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

The most modern book I've ever read, even newer fiction feels old compared to this.

Jennifer Egan really nailed the thoughts and motivations of her characters well. I could identify with every character, male and female alike, young and old, as though I had already been involved in similar conversations and situations and would have come up with the same outcomes. This felt comfortable and yet the stories were imaginatively fresh.

The multiple characters and perspectives did manage to relate loosely to one another in a way that felt natural and real, not forced or classic like a band of adventurers on a quest to destroy a ring or a group stuck together on one side against a group on the other side who are led by the smiling man. The good versus evil or black and whiteness or us and them is not present in the story as there …

Review of 'A visit from the Goon Squad' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Time.

Midway through the book, I've realized what the seemingly esoteric title was for. "Time is a goon" said the fat, obsolete rocker. His misery is not only his. It is shared by a multitude of characters who are all victims of time, and what's equally marvelous is the fact that they share in an industry where time is, indeed, the most cruel goon of all. Music.

Keeping with Jennifer Egan's writing is not as difficult as I anticipated. The story was easy to follow. The structure, however, is a complete gem. Her creative shifts of POV in between chapters, and the within the chapters themselves create an atmosphere of modernity. It kept me in dumbfounded attention to both her style and story.

Goon Squad is a story told in impeccable style that doesn't forego understanding. For me who usually associates with the classics of literature by virtue of both …

Review of 'A visit from the Goon Squad' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

The characters were interesting and likeable, I loved the way their stories were told, and the nonlinear style made it all fascinating. The way people's lives came together at certain points reminded me a little of a Quentin Tarantino movie, and there were also times when the writing put me in mind of David Foster Wallace.

Good read!

Review of 'A Visit from the Goon Squad' on 'Storygraph'

2 stars

This was quite the rollercoaster book, as the Americans might put it; yes, in the sense that it throughout the first 20% was quite dull and linear, the later 30% made me go on from some elegant sentences - structure, punchline - and the following 50% bored me completely. Bar the graphical chapter. You'll know what I mean. That was good.

Too bad Egan's introductory quote from Marcel Proust was so self-condemning without her knowing it:

"Poets claim that we recapture for a moment the self that we were long ago when we enter some house or garden in which we used to live in our youth. But these are most hazardous pilgrimages, which end as often in disappointment as in success."



There are some funny, Sam Lipsyte-ish moments in the book, bar the puns. Example:

His son took a fat pinch of gold flakes and put them on …

Review of 'A Visit from the Goon Squad' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

This was quite the rollercoaster book, as the Americans might put it; yes, in the sense that it throughout the first 20% was quite dull and linear, the later 30% made me go on from some elegant sentences - structure, punchline - and the following 50% bored me completely. Bar the graphical chapter. You'll know what I mean. That was good.

Too bad Egan's introductory quote from Marcel Proust was so self-condemning without her knowing it:

"Poets claim that we recapture for a moment the self that we were long ago when we enter some house or garden in which we used to live in our youth. But these are most hazardous pilgrimages, which end as often in disappointment as in success."



There are some funny, Sam Lipsyte-ish moments in the book, bar the puns. Example:

His son took a fat pinch of gold flakes and put them on …

Review of 'A Visit from the Goon Squad' on 'LibraryThing'

2 stars

This was quite the rollercoaster book, as the Americans might put it; yes, in the sense that it throughout the first 20% was quite dull and linear, the later 30% made me go on from some elegant sentences - structure, punchline - and the following 50% bored me completely. Bar the graphical chapter. You'll know what I mean. That was good.

Too bad Egan's introductory quote from Marcel Proust was so self-condemning without her knowing it:

"Poets claim that we recapture for a moment the self that we were long ago when we enter some house or garden in which we used to live in our youth. But these are most hazardous pilgrimages, which end as often in disappointment as in success."



There are some funny, Sam Lipsyte-ish moments in the book, bar the puns. Example:

His son took a fat pinch of gold flakes and put them on …
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