Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - A Visit from the Goon Squad

Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

7 reviews

beetle4bugs's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Read this book for my english class. I heavily enjoyed it, and analyizing it’s themes was a highlight of reading. I bought a used copy and had a blast marking/underlining each bit that piqued my interest. Egan has an amazing writing style(s) and it’s given me inspiration for my own projects, 10/10 book.

Content Warnings

jsingh's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

3.75/5

This was an interesting read! I agree with a lot of the 3-star comments here. I picked up this book because it won a Pulitzer Prize. Egan can certainly write well. I wish there was a more contiguous plot, however. I left the book wondering what I was supposed to learn from it all. I loved certain stories more than others - I think my favorite was that of La Doll/Dolly. What a nickname!

Below are some of my favorite quotes:

"I made Jocelyn repeat each detail of the story until I knew everything she knew...so we could be equal again." (1:28:32)

"Marty plugs in his violin and we launch into our best song: "What the fu$k?"" (1:31:08).
"Jocelyn and I shriek and hug onto Benny, which, for me, is like touching something electrical—his actual body in my arms. I remember every hug I've given him. I learn one thing each time..." (1:38:39).

"'The world is full of sh&theads, Rhea. Don't listen to them. Listen to me.' And I know that Lou is one of those sh&theads, but I listen." (1:59:08)

"Rolf imagines sharks just under his feet, but he doesn't turn or look back. He keeps swimming toward that white sand, knowing instinctively that his struggle to stay afloat is the most exquisite torture he can concoct for his father." (2:46:45)

"Lou and Mindy dance close together...but Mindy is thinking of Albert, as she will periodically after marrying Lou and having two daughters—his fifth and sixth children—in quick succession as if sprinting against the inevitable drift of his attention." (2:52:16)

"In the Volvo, Stephanie slipped an advanced copy of Bosco's new album 'A to B' into the CD player out of some sense that in doing so, she was strengthening her alibi." (4:12:26)

"She'd thought that because she could do something very very well, namely, get the best people into one room at one time, she could do other things well too—like design. And La Doll had had a vision: broad, translucent trays of oil and water suspended beneath small, brightly colored spotlights whose heat would make the opposing liquids twist and bubble and swirl. She'd imagined people craning their necks to look up, spellbound by the shifting liquid shapes...they began to collapse...sending scalding oil onto the heads of every glamorous person in the country, and some other countries too." (4:55:19)

"Jarred once again by [Sasha's] memory, Ted felt the pressure that arose in him when he tried to talk about his work, a confusion about what could have driven him to disappoint his parents and rack up mountainous debt, so he could write a dissertation claiming (in breathless tones that embarrassed his now) that Cezane's distinctive brushstrokes were an effort to represent sound, namely, in his summer landscapes, the hypnotic chant of locusts." (7:54:48)

Content Warnings