Because I am dragging myself through a list, The 2011 Tournament of Books, in order to impose a challenge and to experience some other tastes in literature, I didn't abandon this book as I would have done.

It's enough like The Imperfectionists that I couldn't stop comparing it unfavorably as I slogged through. As a collection of short stories, few of the entries would hold up as well on their own as The Imperfectionists'. As a novel, the thread that binds these vignettes together is woven of too thin a fiber. Some of these short pieces are interminable with characters that can be punishing to encounter.

There is a rescue, partially, with the last entry - a future that is not quite implausible but written well enough to settle into. And one that offers some closure and sympathy. I hope that doesn't count as a spoiler; I only want to encourage readers on the verge of abandoning the Goons two-thirds in to stick it out.

TOB 2011: The Imperfectionists is on your long list. You should have dropped the Good Squad and gone with that one instead.