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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
this is the book that made realise i detest non-linear timelines more than the word moist
3.5 stars
A multi-character narration about aging while trying to maintain the authentic punk rock mindset.
The meaning of "multi-character narration" in A Visit From the Goon Squad is more expansive than anything I've ever seen in a novel before. Even more expansive than any short story collection either. Off the top of my head, I can't even count how many narrators there were in total. It remains cohesive and relatively easy to follow by still focusing on main characters who appear in another's character POV. The novel will also bring back conversations and details about main characters, making you as a reader feel clever for having noticed.
Is multi-character narration drawing upon the spirit of punk rock? Possibly. I still don't quite understand punk rock after finishing this novel, and I'm not really sure that's the point anyways. The main "point" of this novel seems to be more focused on what the turning point of a person's life is. Through different narrators, we revisit the same characters during the incident that may have changed the course of their life. Layered on top of that is whether this is also the turning point of a minor character's life. The novel leaves it up to the reader to determine how much that's really true.
Even though the POV is from a certain character's point of view for the majority of the chapter, the reader will get jarring, omnipresent flashes of a character's future. Any feeling of comfort is ripped away as we suddenly receive a character's entire grim future during what would otherwise be a quiet moment. We also get the comforting opposite of this, where a character's positive decision is shown casually in another future story. Again, it's a great technique to reward the reader's engagement and continued attention.
Visiting short periods in our character's lives is effective in popping in to view their highs and lows. At certain points in their lives, characters are winners; then we'll revisit them later to see them at their worst. I was surprised over and over again to keep seeing my predictions proven wrong.
The ending satisfies by returning to a previous POV but set in the future. Egan attempts to show us a technodystopic future where insidious guerilla marketing (in which your friends are secret agents who market you products and services by pretending to organically bring up those products and services in conversation) rules and all people are hooked on their mobile devices. It's pretty accurate in copying influencer culture and our reliance on mobile devices. This is the second instance I've seen of guerilla marketing in literature, but I feel it goes a little bit farther than influencer culture as we know it in real life now. But to be fair, most influencers are required to disclose their status as advertisement or promotion by federal law, not because of their moral compass (ex. Goodreads reviews require a disclosure of ARCs being the result of a giveaway and being given in exchange for a review). Reading more extreme examples in literature does keep me cynical and suspicious though, and hopefully it does the same for you.
This book has aged well, mostly because it doesn't focus too deeply on defining authentic punk rock. It uses punk rock as the aesthetic and setting, but Egan doesn't seem too personally concerned about gatekeeping what real punk rock is.
A multi-character narration about aging while trying to maintain the authentic punk rock mindset.
The meaning of "multi-character narration" in A Visit From the Goon Squad is more expansive than anything I've ever seen in a novel before. Even more expansive than any short story collection either. Off the top of my head, I can't even count how many narrators there were in total. It remains cohesive and relatively easy to follow by still focusing on main characters who appear in another's character POV. The novel will also bring back conversations and details about main characters, making you as a reader feel clever for having noticed.
Is multi-character narration drawing upon the spirit of punk rock? Possibly. I still don't quite understand punk rock after finishing this novel, and I'm not really sure that's the point anyways. The main "point" of this novel seems to be more focused on what the turning point of a person's life is. Through different narrators, we revisit the same characters during the incident that may have changed the course of their life. Layered on top of that is whether this is also the turning point of a minor character's life. The novel leaves it up to the reader to determine how much that's really true.
Even though the POV is from a certain character's point of view for the majority of the chapter, the reader will get jarring, omnipresent flashes of a character's future. Any feeling of comfort is ripped away as we suddenly receive a character's entire grim future during what would otherwise be a quiet moment. We also get the comforting opposite of this, where a character's positive decision is shown casually in another future story. Again, it's a great technique to reward the reader's engagement and continued attention.
Visiting short periods in our character's lives is effective in popping in to view their highs and lows. At certain points in their lives, characters are winners; then we'll revisit them later to see them at their worst. I was surprised over and over again to keep seeing my predictions proven wrong.
The ending satisfies by returning to a previous POV but set in the future. Egan attempts to show us a technodystopic future where insidious guerilla marketing (in which your friends are secret agents who market you products and services by pretending to organically bring up those products and services in conversation) rules and all people are hooked on their mobile devices. It's pretty accurate in copying influencer culture and our reliance on mobile devices. This is the second instance I've seen of guerilla marketing in literature, but I feel it goes a little bit farther than influencer culture as we know it in real life now. But to be fair, most influencers are required to disclose their status as advertisement or promotion by federal law, not because of their moral compass (ex. Goodreads reviews require a disclosure of ARCs being the result of a giveaway and being given in exchange for a review). Reading more extreme examples in literature does keep me cynical and suspicious though, and hopefully it does the same for you.
This book has aged well, mostly because it doesn't focus too deeply on defining authentic punk rock. It uses punk rock as the aesthetic and setting, but Egan doesn't seem too personally concerned about gatekeeping what real punk rock is.
Wow, this is what I call good contemporary fiction! It is experimental without ever coming close to pretentiousness: a weird collection of intermingled tales about the lives of people who age and come to terms – or not – with it. It has some wonderful reflections on ephemerality, time, art (especially music), post-modernity and post-post-modernity. Highly recommended for anyone who isn’t bothered easily with reading about the daily life of 20th/21st century Americans. I am looking forward to reading something other by Jennifer Egan.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Read this one on the plane over here, which was a month ago today, so to be honest I haven’t got an initial reaction to it any more, but just the memory of it. The memory was that it was good – a bit similar to Oscar Wao in that it crosses people and generations linked by small ties. Each chapter almost stood alone as its own story but the web of names and lives made it that much more fascinating. You know how sometimes you wish you knew what someone was like when they were younger, or what made them into who they are now? This book was like a voyeuristic peek into someone else’s life – which I guess all books are, really, but this one more so.
Most memorable part of book: Chapter 12.
Most memorable part of book: Chapter 12.
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book is unique in that it’s almost a collection of short stories that tells one overarching tale. Its main themes has to do with time and existentialism. What will we do in our fleeting time? How does my actions affect someone else? I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the experimental writing styles the author took.
The interconnecting short stories concept reminds me of Girl, Woman, Other, but was much less interesting to me. I didn’t love the majority of the characters. It was well written, but the style didn’t really speak to me. Some of the stories I found interesting like Stephanie’s, Sasha’s and Sasha’s kid with the PowerPoint presentation which was quite amusing. The last story though threw me for a loop, I had no idea what was going on with the “handsets” and “T’ing” people. So strange
This was a quick book to read. I didn't feel like I had a grasp on the characters or what I would have liked to know what came of them was never answered because we moves on to the next story.
The density of this book only becomes apparent as you reach the second half. Each chapter is about a different person, sometimes in a different tense, always connected somehow with the characters that came before them. Sometimes this connection appears to be a loose one, but as we delve further into these lives we see how they are all masterfully interconnected. These people touch each other’s lives in minuscule or massive ways.
This book gives off a kind of melancholic aura, as it’s characters wrestle with lives that never quite live up to their promise. Happiness is in their lives too, but always on the periphery - it hovers on the edge of our vision and is absent when we turn to look.
Most of the stories revolve around the characters from the first two chapters - Bennie, a music producer and industry heavyweight, and Sasha, his troubled kleptomaniac assistant. Through them we jump forward and backward in time, to their teenage friendships and their autumn years. Their partners, exes, friends and family all drift in and out of each other’s lives as they chase their own happiness. Herein lies the connective tissue of this book: personal happiness. Each character meditates on it, strives for it, misses it, obsesses over it. And the other great theme of this novel, growing up. We glimpse the trajectories of their lives through time, as they lose or fulfil their potential, burn out or settle down. It’s breathtaking to witness so much living in one short book.
This book gives off a kind of melancholic aura, as it’s characters wrestle with lives that never quite live up to their promise. Happiness is in their lives too, but always on the periphery - it hovers on the edge of our vision and is absent when we turn to look.
Most of the stories revolve around the characters from the first two chapters - Bennie, a music producer and industry heavyweight, and Sasha, his troubled kleptomaniac assistant. Through them we jump forward and backward in time, to their teenage friendships and their autumn years. Their partners, exes, friends and family all drift in and out of each other’s lives as they chase their own happiness. Herein lies the connective tissue of this book: personal happiness. Each character meditates on it, strives for it, misses it, obsesses over it. And the other great theme of this novel, growing up. We glimpse the trajectories of their lives through time, as they lose or fulfil their potential, burn out or settle down. It’s breathtaking to witness so much living in one short book.