A Visit From The Goon Squad

A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD
by Jennifer Egan

 Awards: LA Times Winner 2010, National Book Critics Circle Winner 2010, Pulitzer Winner 2011

 Nominations: Dublin Finalist 2012, Orange Prize Longlist 2011, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 2011

 Date Read: April 16, 2011

 I absolutely loved A Visit from the Goon Squad, although it almost reads like a collection of short stories. Set in the past, present and future, these stories cover a wide range of characters, all connected to Bennie Salazar, a record company executive and his assistant Sasha.

 In this novel, "goon squad" serves as a metaphor for time and how time robs each of the main characters of their youth, innocence and success. Each story relates in some way to the music industry, an industry that notoriously celebrates youth culture, which only serves to illustrate how the present becomes the past so very quickly. In Egan's own words, "There's no way to avoid becoming part of the past."

 Egan fluidly adopts various points of view and narrative voice to express the individuality of each of these characters and while many readers have panned the PowerPoint chapter, I found it genius. I loved this so much, in fact, I made my husband read it and he then loaned it to a friend and then... You get the idea.

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