Mandi Prince
Music producers, kleptomaniacs and genocidal dictators all mixed in with sex, drugs and rock and roll seems to be the basis of Jennifer Egan’s latest novel “A Visit From the Goon Squad,” she touches on it all.
With the majority of this book being chapter stories with different narrators and their points of view in each it gets a little confusing but none the less refreshing and uncapped.
Unusual as it might seem there is also a 75 page power pointesque spread about pauses in certain songs which is captivating.
Somehow, some way the stories relate back to one another.
With intense tales of childhood flash backs, present day settings and quick sum ups of the future Egan explores the lives of a handful of characters that in one way or another are linked to two people: Benny Salazar, a music producer and Sasha his assistant.
Sasha is a recovering kleptomaniac as we are introduced to her and has a job that comes as a breeze to her, causing almost a boring feel, it gets better when we learn her rebellious and heart breaking past and get a deeper look into her future.
Benny goes from guitar playing punk rock kid who is discovered by Lou, a man who fathered 6 children and has a steamy affair with one of Benny’s friends to a self made music producer with a heart of gold but no backbone to turn anyone down including some mistresses.
While we go back and forth between these two they are not always in every chapter, jumping from character to character requires digging deep into the stories and figuring how and why these people are connected, kind of like a mystery inside a novel. So get out your magnifying glass and enjoy.