A Visit from the Goon Squad
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Random House, Inc.
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 … More »
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 … More »
Random House, Inc.
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 stuck in a dead marriage, who travels to Naples to extract Sasha from the city’s demimonde and experiences an epiphany of his own while staring at a sculpture of Orpheus and Eurydice in the Museo Nazionale. We meet Bennie Salazar at the melancholy nadir of his adult life—divorced, struggling to connect with his nine-year-old son, listening to a washed-up band in the basement of a suburban house—and then revisit him in 1979, at the height of his youth, shy and tender, reveling in San Francisco’s punk scene as he discovers his ardor for rock and roll and his gift for spotting talent. We learn what became of his high school gang—who thrived and who faltered—and we encounter Lou Kline, Bennie’s catastrophically careless mentor, along with the lovers and children left behind in the wake of Lou’s far-flung sexual conquests and meteoric rise and fall.
A Visit from the Goon Squad is a book about the interplay of time and music, about survival, about the stirrings and transformations set inexorably in motion by even the most passing conjunction of our fates. In a breathtaking array of styles and tones ranging from tragedy to satire to PowerPoint, Egan captures the undertow of self-destruction that we all must either master or succumb to; the basic human hunger for redemption; and the universal tendency to reach for both—and escape the merciless progress of time—in the transporting realms of art and music. Sly, startling, exhilarating work from one of our boldest writers.
Baker & Taylor
Working side-by-side for a record label, former punk rocker Bennie Salazar and the passionate Sasha hide illicit secrets from one another while interacting with a motley assortment of equally troubled people from 1970s San Francisco to the post-war future.
Baker
& Taylor
Working side-by-side for a record label, former punk rocker Bennie Salazar and the passionate Sasha hide illicit secrets from one another while interacting with a motley assortment of equally troubled people from 1970s San Francisco to the post-war future. By the National Book Award-nominated author ofLook at Me.
« Less
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 stuck in a dead marriage, who travels to Naples to extract Sasha from the city’s demimonde and experiences an epiphany of his own while staring at a sculpture of Orpheus and Eurydice in the Museo Nazionale. We meet Bennie Salazar at the melancholy nadir of his adult life—divorced, struggling to connect with his nine-year-old son, listening to a washed-up band in the basement of a suburban house—and then revisit him in 1979, at the height of his youth, shy and tender, reveling in San Francisco’s punk scene as he discovers his ardor for rock and roll and his gift for spotting talent. We learn what became of his high school gang—who thrived and who faltered—and we encounter Lou Kline, Bennie’s catastrophically careless mentor, along with the lovers and children left behind in the wake of Lou’s far-flung sexual conquests and meteoric rise and fall.
A Visit from the Goon Squad is a book about the interplay of time and music, about survival, about the stirrings and transformations set inexorably in motion by even the most passing conjunction of our fates. In a breathtaking array of styles and tones ranging from tragedy to satire to PowerPoint, Egan captures the undertow of self-destruction that we all must either master or succumb to; the basic human hunger for redemption; and the universal tendency to reach for both—and escape the merciless progress of time—in the transporting realms of art and music. Sly, startling, exhilarating work from one of our boldest writers.
Baker & Taylor
Working side-by-side for a record label, former punk rocker Bennie Salazar and the passionate Sasha hide illicit secrets from one another while interacting with a motley assortment of equally troubled people from 1970s San Francisco to the post-war future.
Baker
& Taylor
Working side-by-side for a record label, former punk rocker Bennie Salazar and the passionate Sasha hide illicit secrets from one another while interacting with a motley assortment of equally troubled people from 1970s San Francisco to the post-war future. By the National Book Award-nominated author of
Imprint:
New York - Alfred A Knopf
Pages:
273
Edition:
1st ed
ISBN:
9780307592835, 0307592839
Language:
English
Notes:
"This is a Borzoi book"--T.p. verso
Statement of responsibility:
Jennifer Egan
Characteristics:
273 p. :,ill. ;,25 cm.
Author (Original Script):
Egan, Jennifer
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Add a CommentNew rule: although the writing is nice, I will not spend additional time reading about charactors I do not like. Especially when I would spend even less time with them had they been living people talking to me in person.
Because it eschews a linear narrative and instead flashes backwards and forwards to a series of interconnected characters I suppose A Visit from the Goon Squad has a certain book-nerd appeal but the literary devices just felt like window dressing to me. The characters and situations were poorly fleshed out and I feel that the puzzle like structure of the book was just mis-direction, a way for the reader to focus on making the connections rather than how weak the individual parts actually were. Of course the most outrageous thing about this book isn't that it won the Pullitzer Prize (although that's certainly outrageous), it's that after setting the bar so impossibly low, the jury still decided not to award the prize the following year.
Reads like the Cliff Notes of larger, better book. The issues Egan is trying to tackle (addiction, degradation of the music industry, the complexity of relationships, autism) and the shift in NYC's zeitgeist over three decades requires more from the author. Less pushes the characters toward cliché and only allows the author to briefly touch upon issues that could consume an entire book on their own. By comparison, DeLillo takes over 800 pages to fully accomplish this in 'Underworld'. In those 800+ pages, DeLillo delves deeply into similar issues and spans a similarly broad time span. But the reader is left with an appreciation of the issues and the mysteries in 'Underworld'. 'A Visit from the Goon Squad' misses an opportunity to have a similar impact.
This book is such an enjoyable read. It really knocked my socks off. Egan shows such great heart as she draws her damaged, yet lovable characters. She is some writer. This book made me feel so grateful for my simple, uncomplicated post middle-aged life. I want to read more of Ms. Egan.
More of a short story collection than a novel. It's a bit on the overrated side, but there's enough charm in some of these stories to make it stick for a while, even if only in fragments. Rather like a temporary tattoo - the cursed thing never fully adheres to the flesh, the effect is nothing that'll last a lifetime, but you still can't help thinking it's awfully cool.
Disjointed, hard to follow all of the characters.
Kind of a highbred between a novel and a collection of short stories. If you like rock and roll and innovative narrative structure, check it out.
A novel of short chapters written from the perspective of interconnected characters, all connected in some way to music. The first two chapters almost put me off but the momentum of the work builds as you go and in the end I was surprised by how quickly I finished.
A couple of other people have mentioned 'Cloud Atlas', which I was also reminded of. I almost quite reading after the first few chapters, and am really, really glad that I finished - the power of the book is cumulative, as all the stories start to tie together. Funny and moving, about the power of music, and of unexpected redemption.
The cover of "A Visit From The Goon Squad" labels the book "a novel" and most critics have referred to it as such. However, if you wish to read a novel, look elsewhere because Egan has actually written a collection of linked stories. But forget categorization; Egan's work displays brash beauty as she delves into the power of shame, an emotion which makes one present in the moment as effectively as does fear or desire. The protagonist, Bennie, a famous music producer, catalogues his shame on the back of a parking ticket. His assistant, Sasha, deals with hers by compulsively shoplifting. The stories also follow the interlocking fates of compelling, tender and humourous characters: Bennie's high school crowd, Sasha's parents, her uncle and her suicidal friend. As well as shame, Egan's themes include immortality, redemption and a longing to master time. She proves a fearless writer and takes risks by employing different points of view and unconventional styles including a 75-page interlude in power point. These edgy techniques range from jarring to brilliant but, overall, they unite to form a well-crafted collection that ventures vitally into new territory.