'Goon Squad' lives up to the hype

When I asked my Facebook friends recently to recommend a favorite book, I received a couple dozen suggestions of interesting titles and authors, but only one novel was mentioned by more than one person.

That's how I came upon Jennifer Egan's "A Visit from the Goon Squad." And, wow, am I glad I decided that two endorsements was enough to justify putting it at the top of my list.

Rare is the book, fiction or nonfiction, that lives up to the hype. I can see why this collection of 13 short stories, loosely tied together with a handful of recurring characters and zipping back and forth in time from San Francisco in the 1970s to present-day New York City, won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and a host of other awards.

The Los Angeles Times called it "the smartest book you can get your hands on" and I would agree. The writing is razor-sharp, the physical descriptions palpable, the dialogue pitch-perfect, whether it's two teenage girls or two wealthy suburban housewives at a tennis club who are doing the talking.

Jennifer Egan

Bennie, a punk rocker who's become an aging music industry executive, and Sasha, his 35-year-old assistant with a bad habit of stealing, are the two primary characters but they appear in only some of the stories. The other chapters revolve around people who have some connection to Bennie and Sasha and who, like them, find themselves struggling to understand the life changes that have occurred with the passage of time.

One chapter runs about 70 pages in the form of a PowerPoint presentation, set at some unspecified year in the 2020s, and conveys the thoughts of an adolescent sister and brother. Maybe I'm easily dazzled, but I thought that chapter was brilliant for the emotional wallop it packed in such an austere form.

As for the title? "Goon squad" is a metaphor for "time." Each of the adult characters looks forward and back from their present situation and we're able to ponder with them how they got to where they are, and share any regrets or redemption that occur along the way.

Next time someone asks me to recommend a book, this will be the one. Brilliant.


Photo by Pieter M. Van Hattem/Vistalux