Book Review: “A Visit from the Goon Squad”
Jennifer Egan’s novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad, is a sonic, narratively variegated timepiece in which the chapters act as cogs. As the novel progresses and the reader is introduced to the speakers, the novel takes on the appearance of a Byzantine mechanism.
Every chapter is narrated by a different speaker. Therefore, it’s only natural that some chapters carry more torque than others; but, the novel manages to draw great resonance from the interlocking of stylish, emic teeth. The work Egan gives us is certainly a work of fiction; outside of those parameters, the ingenuity of the work might well be its resistance to classification and definition.
However, certain speakers stand out and provide the foil for the other narratives. There’s Bennie Salazar, CEO of Sow’s Ear Records, and former punk musician. There’s Jules Jones, Bennie’s brother-in-law and a low-level misanthrope who did jail time for groping starlet Kitty Jackson during an interview and has written an unsuccessful novel. Ted Hollander is an art history professor and uncle to a runaway whose gone to Naples, Italy to find his runaway niece and peep the exquisite objets d’art. And then there’s Sasha, Benny’s secretary, an adroit kleptomaniac whom we find in chapter one on a date with a greenhorn who’s just moved to New York City. While her date blathers on for pages, we peek in on Sasha’s perverse justifications for her stealing ways — we even get the banter Sasha typically has with Coz, her psychiatrist (a shout out to Bill Cosby’s therapeutic hallmark?).
Egan’s novel has garnered considerable attention, prestige, and interest. In April, she was awarded a Pulitzer for A Visit from the Goon Squad, and the title has gone on to sell vigorously. And, I sincerely wish the hype was unfounded, or moored to something outside the fluid vignettes and risks Egan generates. For example, one of the last chapters is told completely through a spiffy PowerPoint, but an economy and terseness remains; another chapter takes place 20 years into the future where marketing has evolved, yet still requires the blood of Idealists. The connection between the chapters isn’t always evident, but Egan trusts her readers to smash the padlocks and burgle the speakers.
The 338 pages that comprise Egan’s novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad, from Anchor Books are more important than any individual page. The power and force that the novel generates is impressive and entertaining. There are 13 chapters which means there are 13 speakers, and the novel covers less than 50 years of mayhem, music, and morbidity. Every chapter is like watching an episode of “The Sopranos” set to the Sex Pistols. Maybe the real magic in Egan’s novel is how one chapter doesn’t overpower another or diminish the resonance of a great read.
Yago Cura is a writer based in Los Angeles. He edits the online journal Hinchas de Poesia and moderates the blog Spicaresque. Follow him on Twitter @theshusher.
