Book Review - A Visit From the Goon Squad

As I mentioned earlier, after a real bummer of an attempted novel, I got back on track with a very entertaining one, A Visit From the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan (2010). 8 hours in the emergency room gave me more than ample time to finish the last half of this.

This wasn't a book that I found myself noting pages or quotes on, but it was a very fun read. The book rambles around a bit, or seems to because of the way it is constructed. The story is told from the point of view of many different narrators, and jumps back and forth in time and place with no warning. Each chapter is told from a different perspective than the last one, and it takes a little getting used to. The characters are all related in some way, but the connections are sometimes difficult to remember (at least they were for me), and the timing takes some figuring out.

Once you get used to the narrative style, it is easy to get lost in the characters, which are a wide assortment of different people. Egan does a very good job of building a fascinating set of people, and it is interesting to have your knowledge of them be gained through a mix of inside-looking-out and outside-looking-in. The "goon squad" referred to in the title, and several times within the book, is the passage of time and its effect on people. The jumping around in time and different perspectives help illustrate that well.

4 stars out of 5. Entertaining. An author who I would gladly read again.

Books read: 21 [totalling 4,772 pages]
New authors: 14 [including this]
Published in 2010: 13 [including this]
Classics: still 3