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GAF Book Club (May 2011) - "A Visit from the Goon Squad" by Jennifer Egan

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C

Cyan

Banned
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Pulitzer motherfucker, do you speak it?


A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan

Bennie is an aging former punk rocker and record executive. Sasha is the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Here Jennifer Egan brilliantly reveals their pasts, along with the inner lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs. With music pulsing on every page, A Visit from the Goon Squad is a startling, exhilirating novel of self-destruction and redemption.

Amazon Paperback
Kindle Ebook*
(probably not available in your local library, due to having just won the Pulitzer)

Let’s read!


Guidelines:
-If you read ahead, use spoiler tags! [spoiler]text goes here[/spoiler]
-When using spoiler tags, please mark them--put a page or chapter number, or otherwise indicate just how far ahead you are.
-Unspoilered discussion of anything through the latest milestone is allowed and encouraged. If you’re not caught up, read the thread at your own risk!
-Suggestions for the next book club selection are welcome at any time. We'll vote on the next book around the 21st.


Reading Milestones:
Tue 5/3 - Chapters 1-3
Fri 5/6 - Chapters 4-6
Mon 5/9 - Chapters 7-8
Thu 4/12 - Chapters 9-11
Sun 5/15 - Chapter 12*
Wed 5/18 - Chapter 13, fin

The segments are for the most part just over 50 pages. We'll finish around the 18th, and have some final post-read discussion of the book before we move on.

As usual, each milestone evening I’ll make a post noting how far we are, and bring up some points of discussion.


Future Book Club Possibilities:
Franny & Zooey by J.D. Salinger
[your recommendation here!]


Previous Book Club Threads:
The Afghan Campaign, by Steven Pressfield (Apr 2011)
Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert A. Heinlein (Mar 2011)
Flashman, by George MacDonald Fraser (Feb 2011)


*Chapter 12 is entirely written as a Powerpoint presentation. If you're using a Kindle, you may have trouble viewing it. Fortunately, the entirety of the chapter can be easily read--with audio--on Egan's website.
 
Guileless

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
I heard about the power point thing but never thought about it being hard to view on kindle. Will read that chapter on her site.
 
I

_Isaac

Member
Hmmm. I went to the library. All the copies in my city are checked out, so I'll skip this one. I don't even like music anyway.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
_Isaac said:
Hmmm. I went to the library. All the copies in my city are checked out, so I'll skip this one. I don't even like music anyway.
Click to expand...
Heh. There are like 80 holds on the book at my library. I had to bite the bullet and finally pay for a book club selection. :p
 
N

nakedsushi

Member
_Isaac said:
Hmmm. I went to the library. All the copies in my city are checked out, so I'll skip this one. I don't even like music anyway.
Click to expand...

That's one of the shortcoming of the hardcover's picture. The book isn't about music at all. I guess some of the characters work for the recording industry, but that's just background information and not at all central to the story. I guess if you're in "the industry" some things may make more sense in the book.
 
Guileless

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
I'm not a big music fan either, but what happened to the recording industry over the last 15 years is absolutely fascinating to me.
 
N

nyong

Banned
I might cash in on my Borders gift card for this one...if I can't find it at Costco. I checked last week and didn't see it.
 
Guileless

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
I blew through first three chapters yesterday. Got into it quickly. I don't read much contemporary literary fiction, and this is a nice change of pace.
 
8

8BitsAtATime

Member
I forgot to order it. The Barnes and Nobles in my area dont have it, so now I have to wait till tuesday for my order to ship. Well at least it gives me time to finish reading Tiger Force
 
N

nakedsushi

Member
Starting with Sasha and her "little problem" is a great idea for the book. I know I kept reading it for the thrill of seeing if she'd get caught.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
And we're off!

Not so much chapters as... vignettes, it seems. Sasha's problem was definitely a great place to start. Amusing, especially the screwdriver. The bit of paper from the guy's wallet, though. That made me a little sad.

Bennie's constant staring at Sasha's breasts was pretty funny, especially given the motivation. Had to wonder about the gold flake thing. Is that something the author made up?

And ah, the embarrassing recollections. I cringed at that stuff; it's something that happens to me from time to time. Pointlessly remember embarrassing events, feel like an ass all over again. This happen to anyone else?
 
Guileless

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
I relive embarrassing recollections all the time. And it's just like in the book where something completely random surfaces in my head and takes me back to some other place and time. Unless it was really memorable for someone else there at the time, nobody else remembers it so it would no longer exist you quit thinking about it.

I always wondered about the effect of ingesting gold flakes while drinking Goldschlager in college. Never heard it was an aphrodisiac.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
Guileless said:
I always wondered about the effect of ingesting gold flakes while drinking Goldschlager in college. Never heard it was an aphrodisiac.
Click to expand...
Yeah, me neither. And I've drunk Goldschlager before, but *ahem* never noticed anything unusual. ;)
 
Guileless

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
I had a roommate who dropped a bottle of Goldschlager and broke it when it was 3/4 full. The room smelled like cinnamon for a week.
 
M

Maklershed

Member
Enjoying the book so far. I like that it vocalizes two quirks which I thought I was kind of alone in (even though I figured other people had to experience it too). The first being when Sasha in the moment realized she'd just be a vague and random memory in this guys life and he'd think "where did I see that tub in the kitchen?". And the part where Bennie is having a great time and everything is going perfectly and he has one bad memory and it just sours the whole day for him .. and then of course he thinks everyone else's day is ruined somehow too.

What is the gold flake thing about? Is that for real? Do people actually do that? Seems like a hideous waste of money.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
I have to say, I actually quite like the way the book is structured. One vignette chaining into the next through a different character in the prior one. Interesting way to keep just enough of a thread that it feels cohesive, yet allow an open world the author can move around in.

The last chapter was... different. Scotty's POV was the most interesting so far, I thought. The sort of guy who could believe in crazy conspiracy theories, and yet at the same time his perspective seemed so sensible, so congruent.

Ok. The bits (in Chapter 4) where the author goes "X will wind up living for seventy years and having two kids and blah blah". Interesting sidelight that adds to the story? Or annoying and kind of boring?
 
Guileless

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
It was a bit jarring at first, but it didn't annoy me. Another way to explore the theme about how much people change over time. The aside about Lou's son committing suicide when he was around 30 made an impression.

I'm also enjoying the shifts in perspective. Egan is skillful in how she moves across time and space without leaving the reader in the dark. Or maybe I'm used to it from reading fantasy novels with huge casts and shifting povs. I had been ready for a book from Sasha's perspective after the first chapter but this is more interesting.
 
P

Pau

Member
The book just came in and I've been catching up. I didn't enjoy the first three chapters and almost put it down, but I just finished chapter four and I'm liking it a bit more.

Cyan said:
Ok. The bits (in Chapter 4) where the author goes "X will wind up living for seventy years and having two kids and blah blah". Interesting sidelight that adds to the story? Or annoying and kind of boring?
Click to expand...
I actually like these because I always wonder about that sort of thing. How the stuff happening to these characters are really just moments in time. For some it's of no importance whatsoever, for others it changes everything. And I've got to agree with Guileless that Rolph committing suicide was a standout. I don't know how to explain it, but you never read about an innocent kid and think he or she ends up committing suicide. Hell, you never think about kids in real life that you know ever having that sort of ending.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
Pau said:
I actually like these because I always wonder about that sort of thing. How the stuff happening to these characters are really just moments in time. For some it's of no importance whatsoever, for others it changes everything. And I've got to agree with Guileless that Rolph committing suicide was a standout. I don't know how to explain it, but you never read about an innocent kid and think he or she ends up committing suicide. Hell, you never think about kids in real life that you know ever having that sort of ending.
Click to expand...
Yeah, definitely. I did like the Rolph one, but the one with the safari organizer guy I kind of blanked out on. Interesting choice, I'm not quite sure if I liked it on balance or not.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
Wow. Those two chapters were so tonally different I'm not quite sure where to start.

Egan's ability to sweep the reader up into the storyline and characters of each new vignette continues to impress. It's funny how easy it is to connect with characters and emotions even if I can't really identify with myself--Dolly longing for her daughter to call her "Mom" again, Stephanie wishing for nothing more than the approval and liking of the blonde coterie, hateful as they are.

So, Bosco's statement--"time is a goon." And his Suicide Tour notion. I suppose this is the central theme of the book, hence the title. Any thoughts on that metaphor?
 
Guileless

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
That would be why she set it within the youth-obsessed music industry. I keep thinking about Mick Jagger's quote from the 60s that "I'd rather be dead than singing "Satisfaction" when I'm forty-five." Haw.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
Guileless said:
That would be why she set it within the youth-obsessed music industry. I keep thinking about Mick Jagger's quote from the 60s that "I'd rather be dead than singing "Satisfaction" when I'm forty-five." Haw.
Click to expand...
Or The Who's "hope I die before I get old."

Hadn't thought about it, but I suppose that is why it's set within the music industry. Or maybe the theme arose from that setting?
 
Guileless

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
The New Yorker's site has an online book club and read Good Squad in April. The author put up a playlist of music to accompany each chapter:

Chapter 1, Found Objects: “Into My Arms,” Nick Cave
Chapter 2, The Gold Cure: “I Wanna Live,” The Ramones
Chapter 3, Ask Me If I Care: “Breakdown,” Tom Petty

Chapter 4, Safari: “Grand Canyon,” Magnetic Fields
Chapter 5, You (Plural): “Exile Vilify,” the National
Chapter 6, X’s and O’s: “Pan American Highway,” Frank Black & the Catholics

Chapter 7, A to B: “Beyond Belief,” Elvis Costello
Chapter 8, Selling the General: “And She Was,” Talking Heads
Chapter 9, Forty-Minute Lunch: Kitty Jackson Opens Up About Love, Fame, and Nixon!: “Goddess of Love,” Bryan Ferry

Chapter 10, Out of Body: “Paradise Circus,” Massive Attack
Chapter 11, Good-bye, My Love: “Nothingman,” Pearl Jam
Chapter 12, Great Rock and Roll Pauses: “Mother of Pearl,” Roxy Music (part of me feels I should have chosen the Doobie Brothers “Long Train Runnin’,” though, for obvious reasons)

Chapter 13, Pure Language: “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” Jimi Hendrix

Like I said before I'm no music expert so I'm unfamiliar with most songs. But Breakdown for the chapter Rhea narrarates about Lou and "And She Was" for the chapter with the general are excellent choices.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
And another three chapters go by. Again, very different in tone and style. The second-person POV of chapter 10 really didn't do it for me, but the other two chapters were compelling.

Amazing that the author made me feel so much sympathy for a would-be rapist, without even the advantage of likability that, say, Flashman has. I feel like she immersed me so completely in the character that all of his actions made sense. Funny given a few of his comments about being immersed in someone else in the piece.

Chapter 11 was sweet. At first I was mad at the guy for not even looking, but his description of it was so familiar. Sasha's moment at the end of the chapter was great.

No questions for discussion are coming to mind... anyone else?
 
Guileless

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
Interesting, chapter 10 was my favorite so far. Pitch-perfect recollection of how I felt when I was first in college.

I've wondered about the kind of people that do celebrity profiles for magazines like GQ. They churn them out every month and it must be difficult to find something interesting to say while the star's PR flack hovers in the background. I don't read them often but I remember reading a profile of Kobe Bryant (Men's Journal I think) and after I read it I thought to myself, 'that was a complete waste of time.'

I'm enjoying this book, but it really makes you melancholy and reflective. That is a good thing to experience every once in a while though.
 
M

Maklershed

Member
Guileless said:
I'm enjoying this book, but it really makes you melancholy and reflective. That is a good thing to experience every once in a while though.
Click to expand...
My thoughts exactly. I see so much of my own life and experiences in this. And I'm right there with the characters - everything started out crazy and wild. I was a strong, fit, moderately handsome teeneager and I had high ambitions and thought the world was my oyster and I was due for great things or celebrity. Now I'm an overweight, prematurely bald guy who's away at work 11 hours a day and whose biggest thrills comes from playing video games and watching tv. Time is indeed a goon.
 
N

nakedsushi

Member
Yeah! I'm excited so many people are enjoying the book. When my coworker first told me about the book, I didn't think I'd like it b/c I'm not that hip or into the recording industry, but it really rang true to me because it's actually about HOW MUCH IT SUCKS TO BE OLD.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
Again, if you're reading on Kindle, you'll want to visit Egan's website to see the slideshow.

So... that was different. In real life, I fucking hate PowerPoint; it's one of the most egregious biz-shit things there is. So seeing it in story form... actually, come to think of it, I've written a story in PowerPoint form myself, so maybe I shouldn't throw stones.

Anyway, it was interesting the way it was built up (I seem to use that word a lot--interesting), and the collage was a clever metaphor for the story itself. The whole rock and roll pause thing was fun--I've noticed those myself. Sometimes they're cool, sometimes they just flop (Bad Religion - "Bored and Extremely Dangerous"). Is the kid meant to be autistic?

And we got an answer for what happened to the guy from Chapter 10. I guess we probably should have already known.
 
M

Maklershed

Member
I was a bit disappointed with that chapter. Any other chapter and I would've thought it was a neat idea. But Sasha and her husband were the most interesting characters to me and I was interested in their story and its resolution and following it on flow charts and graphs did not make that easy.
 
Guileless

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
I was expecting it to be too clever for its own good but it works as part of the postmodern pastiche of the book and a useful way to convey the perspective of a 12 year old girl on her family problems. I have rarely been convinced by writers who create inner monologues of teenagers/pre teens (with the exception of Stewat O'Nan in The Night Country and occasionally Stephen King.)
 
P

Pau

Member
Cyan said:
Is the kid meant to be autistic?
Click to expand...
It's mentioned that he's slightly autistic in chapter eleven - in Sasha's "flashfoward."
Cyan said:
And we got an answer for what happened to the guy from Chapter 10. I guess we probably should have already known.
Click to expand...
I never got the impression that he drowned from how the chapter ended, but then I thought maybe I was just being dumb.

As far as the PowerPoint chapter goes, I agree with Guileless that I was expecting it to be a clever gimmick but I was surprised that it didn't aggravate me completely. I just felt like I didn't get anything out of it being in such a format that I couldn't have gotten if it were written in prose.
 
Guileless

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
If you watch the powerpoint on her website you get to her the song pauses.

For me it was a more interesting choice to convey the voice of a near-future 12 year old than just another first person narration of events.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
And so we end on an odd note, with a futuristic mild scifi sort of thing.

Love the way the characters from the beginning are looped back in, and we see just what time has done to them. And the ending is wonderful. The chapter as a whole, though, didn't really do it for me. I think it was the weird flavor of the future stuff. That and the texts.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
It's hard to review Goon Squad as a novel, because really it's a series of vignettes, written from different POVs, with different subjects, in very different styles.

But it'd be hard to review Goon Squad as individual short stories, because really they're all linked together. Not just thematically, but in the way the characters appear in multiple places, in the way events echo from one to the next, in the way one vignette gives you a deeper view into an earlier or later one.

As a book, then.

I loved it. Beautiful writing, and amazing POV work, in almost every case immediately sucking me into the character's worldview and making me feel as though I knew him/her intimately. It covered the gamut of emotions, from quirky humor to despair, from painful betrayal to joyful discovery. And while the theme is the inevitable ravages of time, the book contains both the seeds of hope and a surprisingly uplifting ending. Yes, time marches on, whatever we may do to combat it--but history repeats, and there will always be another to take up the torch.

Wonderful book. I'm glad we went with this, because it's the sort of thing I'd never have read on my own.
 
N

nakedsushi

Member
^--- great review!

It echoed my thoughts exactly. I was really blown away with how easily Egan could slip you into everyone's story so seamlessly.
 
Guileless

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
I noticed on the copyright page that several of the stories had previously appeared as short fiction in magazines like the New Yorker. So she may have conceived the stories as standalone and then integrated them together into a novel (or novelesque work) with recurring characters and the underlying theme of how time has its way with people.

Interesting to me that the concert in the final chapter happens near Ground Zero and that in an earlier chapter the journalist who gets out of jail remarks on how strange the skyline looks without the WTC. Adds another layer of decline and foreboding to how everything goes to hell for the characters as they age.

My favorite chapter was the one set at college. Final chapter was very depressing. I figured it would end on a down note but that was really a down note. But overall I thoroughly enjoyed the book and I will recommend it to anyone. I bet it will still be read in 50 years.

My favorite passage was from a Bennie chapter:

He began weighing each musical choice, drawing out his argument through the songs themselves—Patti Smith’s ragged poetry (but why did she quit?), the jock hardcore of Black Flag and the Circle Jerks giving way to alternative, that great compromise, down, down, down to the singles he’d just today been petitioning radio stations to add, husks of music, lifeless and cold as the squares of office neon cutting the blue twilight.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
Ok, we're getting on towards the end of the month. Time to pick our next book! There were zero suggestions this time around, so our choices are the second-place book from last time:


Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger

And the book that I keep suggesting because I really want to do it in our book club:


The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

I'm voting Happiness Project, of course. I want to do non-fiction, and am keen on the idea of this book. Zooey... well. I wouldn't mind reading it, but don't particularly want to do a book club thread on it.

Let's get in our votes! Feel free to make your own suggestion, and I'll add it to our voting list. I'll leave voting open for the next two days, so until Wednesday night.
 
D

Dresden

Member
Not sure if I can participate next month (had to skip this month's club), but I'll vote for The Happiness Project.
 
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