Book 8: A Visit from the Goon Squad
8 A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD Jennifer Egan (USA, 2010)
The lives of a group of friends as they age and face various disappointments.
A Visit...won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
I love experimental writing styles, which made me believe I would love this book. Unfortunately, Egan's novel is messy and shallow.
A Visit...is a novel, but could easily be described as a series of linked short stories with recurring characters. This could be interesting; instead it is an excuse to constantly scratch the surface until there is no space for a meaningful story to emerge. "So what?" is what I kept asking myself as I was reading, until I ceased to care.
I appreciate the fact that Egan experiments with a different style with each chapter, clearly using writers such as David Foster Wallace or Jay McInerney as sources of inspiration, but the "insights" below the surface are unimpressive and often cliché.
To me, this book felt like a huge waste of time.
1.5/5
The lives of a group of friends as they age and face various disappointments.
A Visit...won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
I love experimental writing styles, which made me believe I would love this book. Unfortunately, Egan's novel is messy and shallow.
A Visit...is a novel, but could easily be described as a series of linked short stories with recurring characters. This could be interesting; instead it is an excuse to constantly scratch the surface until there is no space for a meaningful story to emerge. "So what?" is what I kept asking myself as I was reading, until I ceased to care.
I appreciate the fact that Egan experiments with a different style with each chapter, clearly using writers such as David Foster Wallace or Jay McInerney as sources of inspiration, but the "insights" below the surface are unimpressive and often cliché.
To me, this book felt like a huge waste of time.
1.5/5