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Describe your latest book/project/work. Land of Milk and Honey is about the search for pleasure at the end of the world. A smog has descended and killed all food crops when an American chef is lured to a secret colony of the wealthy at the border of Italy. It’s the story of how one woman comes alive again to food, to her body, to her own source...
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A Visit from the Goon Squad

by Jennifer Egan
A Visit from the Goon Squad

  • Comment on this title
  • Synopses & Reviews
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  • Award Excerpt
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ISBN13: 9780307477477
ISBN10: 0307477479
Condition: Standard


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Awards

Staff Top 5s 2010 2010 Powell's Staff Top 5s

2011 Morning News Tournament of Books Winner

2010 National Book Critic's Circle Award for Fiction

Winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

Staff Pick

If you liked the TV show Lost, you might like this book. It features a host of interconnected characters, not always honorable, but definitely entertaining.  Recommended By Maya M., Powells.com

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

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.

Review

“It may be the smartest book you can get your hands on this summer.” The Los Angeles Times

Review

"Jennifer Egan is a rare bird: an experimental writer with a deep commitment to character, whose fiction is at once intellectually stimulating and moving....It’s a tricky book, but in the best way. When I got to the end, I wanted to start from the top again immediately, both to revisit the characters and to understand better how the pieces fit together. Like a masterful album, this one demands a replay.” The San Francisco Chronicle

Review

"For all its postmodern flourishes, Goon Squad is as traditional as a Dickens novel....Her aim is not so much to explode traditional storytelling as to explore how it responds to the pressures and opportunities of the digital age." Newsweek

Review

"Clever. Edgy. Groundbreaking....For all of its cool, languid, arched-eyebrow sophistication — that’s the part that will make you think ‘Didion’ — and for all of the glitteringly gorgeous sentences that flit through its pages like exotic fish — that’s the DeLillo part — the novel is actually a sturdy, robust, old-fashioned affair. It features characters about whom you come to care deeply as you watch them doing things they shouldn't, acting gloriously, infuriatingly human.” The Chicago Tribune

Review

"Well-defined characters and an engaging narrative....Readers will enjoy seeing the disparate elements of this novel come full circle.” Library Journal

Review

"Egan is a writer of cunning subtlety, embedding within the risky endeavors of seductively complicated characters a curious bending of time....a hilarious melancholy, enrapturing, unnerving, and piercingly beautiful mosaic of a novel.” Booklist

Review

"Poignant....A nice reminder that even in the age of Kindles and Facebook, ambitious fiction is still one of the best tools available to help us understand the rapidly changing world....Her startling, apocalyptic take on the near future is all the more chilling for its utter plausibility, and brings the realization that Egan was up to much more here than just trying to reinvent the novel's format. You’ll want to recommend it to all your Facebook friends." Associated Press

Synopsis

Bennie is an aging former punk rocker and record executive. Sasha is the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Here Jennifer Egan brilliantly reveals their pasts, along with the inner lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs. With music pulsing on every page, A Visit from the Goon Squad is a startling, exhilarating novel of self-destruction and redemption.

Synopsis

From one of today's boldest writers comes a sly, surprising, and exhilarating novel about time, survival, and the electrifying sparks ignited at the seams of our lives by colliding destinies.

About the Author

Jennifer Egan is the author of The Keep, Look at Me, The Invisible Circus, and the story collection Emerald City. Her stories have been published in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, GQ, Zoetrope, All-Story, and Ploughshares, and her nonfiction appears frequently in The New York Times Magazine. She lives with her husband and sons in Brooklyn.

Visit the Jennifer Egan’s official website: www.jenniferegan.com


Reading Group Guide

The questions, discussion topics, and suggestions for further reading that follow are designed to enhance your group's discussion of Jennifer Egan’s stunning new work, A Visit from the Goon Squad. In a satirical and oddly touching book, Egan brings to life the recent past, captures the confusions and ambiguities of the present, and speculates about the future of America.

1. A Visit from the Goon Squad shifts among various perspectives, voices, and time periods, and in one striking chapter (pp. 234–309), departs from conventional narrative entirely. What does the mixture of voices and narrative forms convey about the nature of experience and the creation of memories? Why has Egan arranged the stories out of chronological sequence?

2. In “A to B” Bosco unintentionally coins the phrase “Time’s a goon” (p. 127), used again by Bennie in “Pure Language” (p. 332). What does Bosco mean? What does Bennie mean? What does the author mean?

3. “Found Objects” and “The Gold Cure” include accounts of Sasha’s and Bennie’s therapy sessions. Sasha picks and chooses what she shares: “She did this for Coz’s protection and her own—they were writing a story of redemption, of fresh beginnings and second chances” (pp. 8–9). Bennie tries to adhere to a list of no-no’s his shrink has supplied (p. 24). What do the tone and the content of these sections suggest about the purpose and value of therapy? Do they provide a helpful perspective on the characters?

4. Lou makes his first appearance in “Ask Me If I Care” (pp. 39–58) as an unprincipled, highly successful businessman; “Safari” (pp. 59–83) provides an intimate, disturbing look at the way he treats his children and lover; and “You (Plural)” (pp. 84–91) presents him as a sick old man. What do his relationships with Rhea and Mindy have in common? To what extent do both women accept (and perhaps encourage) his abhorrent behavior, and why to they do so? Do the conversations between Lou and Rolph, and Rolph’s interactions with his sister and Mindy, prepare you for the tragedy that occurs almost twenty years later? What emotions does Lou’s afternoon in “You (Plural)” with Jocelyn and Rhea provoke? Is he basically the same person he was in the earlier chapters?

5. Why does Scotty decide to get in touch with Bennie? What strategies do each of them employ as they spar with each other? How does the past, including Scotty’s dominant role in the band and his marriage to Alice, the girl both men pursued, affect the balance of power? In what ways is Scotty’s belief that “one key ingredient of so-called experience is the delusional faith that it is unique and special, that those included in it are privileged and those excluded from it are missing out” (p. 98) confirmed at the meeting? Is their reunion in “Pure Language” a continuation of the pattern set when they were teenagers, or does it reflect changes in their fortunes as well as in the world around them?

6. Sasha’s troubled background comes to light in “Good-bye, My Love” (pp. 208–33). Do Ted’s recollections of her childhood explain Sasha’s behavior? To what extent is Sasha’s “catalog of woes” (p. 213) representative of her generation as a whole? How do Ted’s feelings about his career and wife color his reactions to Sasha? What does the flash-forward to “another day more than twenty years after this one” (p. 233) imply about the transitory moments in our lives?

7. Musicians, groupies, and entertainment executives and publicists figure prominently in A Visit from the Goon Squad. What do the careers and private lives of Bennie, Lou, and Scotty (“X’s and O’s”; “Pure Language”); Bosco and Stephanie (“A to B”); and Dolly (“Selling the General”) suggest about American culture and society over the decades? Discuss how specific details and cultural references (e.g., names of real people, bands, and venues) add authenticity to Egan’s fictional creations.

8. The chapters in this book can be read as stand-alone stories. How does this affect the reader’s engagement with individual characters and the events in their lives? Which characters or stories did you find the most compelling? By the end, does everything fall into place to form a satisfying storyline?

9. Read the quotation from Proust that Egan uses as an epigraph (p. ix). How do Proust’s observations apply to A Visit from the Goon Squad? What impact do changing times and different contexts have on how the characters perceive and present themselves? Are the attitudes and actions of some characters more consistent than others', and if so, why?

10. In a recent interview Egan said, “I think anyone who’s writing satirically about the future of America and life often looks prophetic. . . . I think we’re all part of a zeitgeist and we’re all listening to and absorbing the same things, consciously or unconsciously. . . .” (Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 8, 2010). Considering current social trends and political realities, including fears of war and environmental devastation, evaluate the future Egan envisions in “Pure Language” and “Great Rock and Roll Pauses.”

11. What does “Pure Language” have to say about authenticity in a technological and digital age? Would you view the response to Bennie, Alex, and Lulu’s marketing venture differently if the musician had been someone other than Scotty Hausmann and his slide guitar? Stop/Go (from “The Gold Cure”), for example?

(For a complete list of available reading group guides, and to sign up for the Reading Group Center enewsletter, visit: www.readinggroupcenter.com.)


4.8 44

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating 4.8 (44 comments)

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S Holladay , November 06, 2014 (view all comments by S Holladay)
Have you seriously not read this book yet? I don't read a lot of fiction, but this one sucked me in and I finished it in two days and then told everyone I know about it. The Sundance Channel is supposedly turning this book into a show; read the book before the show comes out!

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KaylaAdams , April 16, 2013
This book is purely amazing and will keep you wanting for more.

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wolfling34 , January 30, 2013
I love how the story weaves in and out of each of the character's lives, even going so far as to utilize power point presentation in on e chapter. Jennifer Egan masterfully uses every grammar possible to make this an exciting and thought provoking read.

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tdjerram , January 30, 2013
Best Book I Read In 2012! Read print book & ebook & listened to audiobook at the same time. Most books are much stronger in one format or another. Egan's beautiful heartbreak of a classic for today's adults & tomorrow's children is wonderful in every format. Made me laugh & cry & wish there were 100s more pages & tracks to be had when it ended.

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Elizabeth Bee , January 26, 2013 (view all comments by Elizabeth Bee)
This novel is sneakily brilliant. It took a few chapters for me to get into this book, but when I did, I couldn't put it down. The seemingly separate stories end up painting a picture of intertwined lives, tragedies, and moments of triumph. No but really, people: there's a chapter in the form of a power-point presentation. And a wry vision of a future NYC that made me laugh and also cringe with recognition.

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Linda Whang , January 06, 2013
my vote for a puddly award!

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Book Club Reader , January 01, 2013
A fav in my book club this last year.

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Katsuya , December 28, 2012 (view all comments by Katsuya)
The book jumps around in time and in point of view. A tangled mess of interconnected characters are the subjects of various chapters, one of which is written in Powerpoint. This could have been a terrible mess, or frustrating , but it was the mixed narratives kept the whole structure going. The stories are about people in various times in their lives-- during their optimistic (or not) youth, as adults struggling to make relationships and jobs work, and in a post-apocalyptic future where we are all (um) part of a machine. I didn't find it to be a cynical novel, though. People move on, move up, and keep it going. I might have had a different view of it 10 years ago, but the characters were very real. The slices of their lives that we glimpse in different chapters are the same small samples we see of our own friends. Loved it.

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johnnybgood , September 08, 2012 (view all comments by johnnybgood)
Held out against this for a long time mainly because two friends raved about it so much, but turns out they were right, Goon Squad is one helluva trip, a real virtuoso performance. The writing is very sharp and thought-provoking, the characters highly entertaining. At times it can all get a little confusing but then everything comes together and off you go again on a whirl through time. Well worth a read.

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LDP , August 04, 2012 (view all comments by LDP)
I was hesitant to read A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD because I wasn't crazy about Jennifer Egan's earlier novel, LOOK AT ME. I'm glad I gave Egan a second chance, though, because I thoroughly enjoyed her delving into different aspects of the music industry, while simultaneously revealing truths about time. Who we think we will be when we are young is rarely who we become. Using a narrative structure that jumps back and forth in time, Egan skillfully unveils key aspects of characters' stories, like a painter filling in a complex composition. Entertaining and satisfying.

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salliforth , January 27, 2012 (view all comments by salliforth)
Oh . . .my . . . God! This book is incredible. What an inventive structure and what a brilliant mind to construct this story. Even a chapter summary would be a spoiler. Just read it. Enjoy it. And then wonder that there are such brilliant writers in the world.

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Annie Reader , January 19, 2012 (view all comments by Annie Reader)
Egan drew me into a story and turned it into a tree of stories - - I enjoyed climbing every branch of the tree to follow her interesting characters and their intertwined lives.

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jbike , January 19, 2012
Great fun watching (reading?) Jennifer Egan work her craft."Out of Body" alone is well worth the price of admission.

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mle , January 19, 2012 (view all comments by mle)
This was, by far, the best book I read in 2011! I enjoyed the story line and the different narrators, but I especially enjoyed the changes in time and place. Jennifer Egan was able to encorporate all of these people, places and times with ease.

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Patricia Lacina , January 19, 2012 (view all comments by Patricia Lacina)
This exremely original book generated more discussion in our reading group than anyone ever imagined possible!

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Edward Geis , January 19, 2012 (view all comments by Edward Geis)
I have been in the same book group for over twenty years. We have read over 200 books, each chosen by one of the ten members every month. "A Visit from the Goon Squad" was my choice for December, and it generated the most interesting, provocative, challenging and lengthy (three hours forty minutes, but who's counting the goon?). Time, music, silence, success, dead fish on a corporate desk, it won the Pulitzer Prize and my respect for Jennifer Egan.

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Thomas Jackson , January 19, 2012 (view all comments by Thomas Jackson)
Rock and Roll, great writing and a chapter written from the perspective of a twelve year old, in Powerpoint format makes this book unique and exceptional.

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Jennifer B , January 19, 2012
This is a zany, sometimes moving, and often comic read--all told in a highly creative format that tells the story backwards and forwards through time. It takes a few chapters to figure out what's going on but stick with it. Think "Time Travelers Wife" but with a bigger, more intertwined cast of characters set against the music industry scene. Definitely one of my favorites.

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Penny Brassfield , January 19, 2012
Entirely original, creative novel of cleverly intertwined stories of several generations of unusual characters. One chapter consists of a series of Powerpoint pages which is wildly entertaining.

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maxter , January 16, 2012
A labyrinth of character studies, where each chapter turns a corner to (at times painfully) explore one who appeared in the previous pages to be either sufficiently summarized and dismissed or of little consequence to the journey. Yet each twist and turn and retracing of steps illuminates the minds and the lives of far more characters in far more depth and with creativity (cue PowerPoint slides!) greater than expected.

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Emily T , January 12, 2012 (view all comments by Emily T)
This book and its engrossing and intertwined narratives had me spellbound from the first chapter. As a commentary on music, youth culture, emotional scars, and the potential future I found each story separately powerful. Combined together the characters and their relationships resonated with me in a way I haven't experienced for some time. Egan's wit and imagination are well displayed here, and the journey this book takes the reader on is riveting.

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mrscole131 , January 06, 2012
Strange yet entertaining read. I loved the future texting at the end.

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Mtn High Reading , January 05, 2012
Intricately woven characters must face the passage of time through love, addition and emotion.

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Miina Tupala , January 05, 2012 (view all comments by Miina Tupala)
I wasn't looking forward to reading this book because the description did not appeal to me. However, it was easily the best crafted book I've read in...probably ever! Egan did not leave a single loose thread and everything ties into something else seamlessly. Brilliant!

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nlondon36 , January 04, 2012 (view all comments by nlondon36)
How can you not adore a book that sketches a very hung-over character emerging onto the street in the morning and describing the sensation ad being bitten by sunlight? Egan's talent is so far-reaching, her characters so alive and perversely sympathetic, her writing so inventive, that reading this book twice wouldn't be sufficient.

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emoskowitz , January 03, 2012 (view all comments by emoskowitz)
Who need a linear narrative in 2011? Jennifer Egan takes the reader time-tripping into a multitude of key moments that are shared among a varied set of characters. Readers -- voyeuristically --can watch the drama unfold with sometimes little introduction and yet partake of the central theme of the novel-- which I think is the omnipotence of time.

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Pam in Kennewick , January 03, 2012 (view all comments by Pam in Kennewick)
This is the book I've been passing on to my friends when they ask if I've read any good books lately.

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Jerry Dale McFadden , January 02, 2012 (view all comments by Jerry Dale McFadden)
Innovative style and a joy to read.

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Matt Dobbin , January 01, 2012
Best book I read in 2011

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Lauren Wilson , January 01, 2012
My book club's pick for best book of the year. Loved it.

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Heather Duncan , January 01, 2012
My favorite book of 2011.

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Adena , January 01, 2012 (view all comments by Adena)
Just a fantastic storyteller and a marvelous book!!

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Andi Wass , January 01, 2012
Thoughtful, unique, a great way to understand time and change

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Cheryl O'Neil , January 01, 2012 (view all comments by Cheryl O'Neil)
I loved the way the characters moved through time growing and changing the way real people do. The use of music and art added to the effect. This just seemed to be more than fiction because every little detail was so real.

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Jester , January 01, 2012 (view all comments by Jester)
Jennifer Egan, with "...Goon Squad," makes fiction exciting again!

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Elizabeth Rosner , January 01, 2012 (view all comments by Elizabeth Rosner)
Truly a brilliant work of fiction. Masterfully constructed, by turns dark and dazzling, breathtaking in scope and depth. Recommended to anyone who chooses to read for stimulation of the brain as well as expansion of the heart.

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Katherine L Miller , September 20, 2011 (view all comments by Katherine L Miller)
The complexity of the interconnected stories in this book leads to a suprising sense that realizations are creeping up on you from behind. While Egan's plots are generally engineered with a certain kind of post modern cleverness, the metaphorical development and plot device are more integrated and less noticeable in this novel than in previous ones such as The Keep. There is a sensation present that I identify as markedly Egan-- It is one of the great things about writing--that you may be reading the surface language but absorbing entirely other ideas in other layers. I enjoyed the read and the stories are still circling in my mind a month later.

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Peter Stamelman , September 20, 2011 (view all comments by Peter Stamelman)
Joan Didion for the naughts. In addition, Egan pulls off one of the most difficult of narrative tricks: taking seemingly disparate storylines and gradually(and devastatingly)weaving them together into an kaleidoscopic tapestry. The book deserves all the awards and accolades - and merits a second, third reading. A damned good book.

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whitesunlight , September 01, 2011
Some say that this is, in fact, a novel, but I'm not so sure. I think it's a book of linked short stories disguised as chapters that end up having the bulk and weight of a full length novel. Those chapters are brilliant and well composed, borrowing meat from each other to do a brilliant job of building a huge arc across the entire full length piece. They absolutely "show" rather than "tell." Though it is mindboggling to keep all the characters and their connections, sidetracks, and philosophies straight, it's a pleasure to try. Jennifer Egan astounds in her ability to get inside the mannerisms and mentalities of her various subjects. She writes an entire chapter from a young girl's point of view that is all charts and graphs and details about what life means from that tween vantage. The reader has to actually flip the book lengthwise to decipher not only the message but the model. Amazing!

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El Arbol , September 01, 2011 (view all comments by El Arbol)
Intellectua-licious.

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Elizabeth Rosner , September 01, 2011 (view all comments by Elizabeth Rosner)
Brilliant, original, inspiring, compelling. Recommended reading for anyone who likes to be dazzled page after page.

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mjordan , September 01, 2011
I really enjoyed this book and was glad I was reading it during the summer. I had to literally read it twice to see how all of the characters' lives melded together over time. One question I have for those of you out there: What role did the La Doll chapter visiting the Cuban dictator play in the book, other than introducing Lulu? This was the one chapter that didn't fit for me. Others?

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stealth , August 31, 2011 (view all comments by stealth)
This book was fantastic!

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chorne , April 27, 2011 (view all comments by chorne)
I greatly enjoyed "A Visit From the Goon Squad." The interlocking stories that form the narrative are expertly plotted, and turning the page to the next chapter always produces a surprise, as you can't predict which character will next take his or her position as the center of attention. For the most part these are tales of the cities (New York, Los Angeles), but Egan's fine eye for detail is equally good in side trips to places like Naples, Westchester, or Palm Springs. This is a book you can curl up with in order to shudder sympathetically at the unstoppable depredations of "the goon" (time). I did find the end of the book a bit disappointing in its turn toward a future dystopia in which everyone, even children, reserves eye contact for handheld electronic devices rather than other human beings. The PowerPoint "diary" chapter (ironically, it does not come out well on a Kindle) is likewise interesting but not compelling. This stuff is in no way as complicated as the human relationships in the rest of the book---and perhaps that's the point--but the power of Egan's stories seems to dissipate here. Don't let this criticism put you off the novel; it is well worth reading.

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780307477477
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
03/22/2011
Publisher:
Anchor Books
Pages:
340
Height:
8.00
Width:
5.25
Thickness:
.75
Grade Range:
General/trade
Copyright Year:
2011
Author:
Jennifer Egan
Subject:
Literature-A to Z

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