Book Review: "A Visit from the Goon Squad" by Jennifer Egan

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Book Review: 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 Good Squad is a startling, exhilarating novel of self-destruction and redemption.

Thoughts: I devoured this book. Earned a nice shiny sunburn for it too. After the first few chapters I thought it was going to be a bunch of stories of deviants and love triangles. I was pleasantly surprised when all the stories started connecting. It kept me anxious to read the next story and figure out where it would fit into the picture. 

Each chapter is written in varying narrative styles told by the characters. This made the book that much more enjoyable. It made me feel like I was really listening to them tell a story. The chapters jumped around in time as well. It is my favorite style of writing. I get bored with fiction, and this type of novel sucks me in until the very end. 

The characters, oh the characters. I think I loved each one as much as the next. Without having to read chapters of character introduction, you learn about them from their stories and the stories of others. You have to think and make correlations, it was very intriguing. The most surprising character connection being Dolly's daughter, Lulu. To avoid spoilers that's all you get. 

Recommendation: This is a must read for me. A friend suggested it a couple years ago after it came out. I've wanted to read it since. It just kept getting pushed to the bottom of the pile while I was trying to catch up on book club books I missed while I was in grad school.

*I spent three and half years working full time and getting a master's part time. Since my book club (until recently) was reading a book every two weeks I fell behind only being able to read about every other book. Because of my OCD I've spend the past year playing catch up and reading a missed book in between each new book club book. Happily, after I read a great article on Book Riot about successful book clubs, we have changed our book schedule. 

I definitely recommend this book. It's for the wanna be punk rocker, like me! It's for the literary risk takers. It's for anyone that appreciates unique styles and not-so-perfect book characters. Put this one on your list, it's officially one of my favorites. I'm just sorry i waited so long to read this one.