A Visit From the Goon Squad

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Readers will be pleased to discover that the

star-crossed marriage of lucid prose and expertly deployed postmodern

switcheroos that helped shoot Egan to the top of the genre-bending new

school is alive in well in this graceful yet wild novel. We begin in

contemporaryish New York with kleptomaniac Sasha and her boss, rising

music producer Bennie Salazar, before flashing back, with Bennie, to the

glory days of Bay Area punk rock, and eventually forward, with Sasha,

to a settled life. By then, Egan has accrued tertiary characters, like

Scotty Hausmann, Bennie's one-time bandmate who all but dropped out of

society, and Alex, who goes on a date with Sasha and later witnesses the

future of the music industry. Egan's overarching concerns are about how

rebellion ages, influence corrupts, habits turn to addictions, and

lifelong friendships fluctuate and turn. Or as one character asks, How

did I go from being a rock star to being a fat fuck no one cares about?

Egan answers the question elegantly, though not straight on, as this

powerful novel chronicles how and why we change, even as the song stays

the same. (June) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

--This text refers to the

Hardcover

edition.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Critics loved Egan's newest novel, describing it as "audacious" and "extraordinary" (Philadelphia Inquirer).

In the hands of a less-gifted writer, Egans's time-hopping narrative,

unorthodox format, and motley cast of characters might have failed

spectacularly. But it works here, primarily because each person shines

within his or her individual chapter that offers a distinct voice and a

fascinating backstory. A few reviewers mentioned the uneven nature of

the chapters and the different stylistic experiments within them. Yet,

hailed as "a frequently dazzling piece of layer-cake metafiction" (Entertainment Weekly), A Visit from the Goon Squad is a gutsy novel that succeeds on all levels.

--This text refers to the

Hardcover

edition.