Book Review: ‘A Visit from the Goon Squad’ by Jennifer Egan
Jennifer Egan’s ‘A Visit from the Goon Squad’ is a refreshing exploration of aging and transformation, told from thirteen different perspectives and spanning from the 1970s through to the 2020s. As opposed to moving chronologically, the prose guides us by means of relationships and whimsical coincidences, jumping from character to character and era to era as if running zig zags to escape the passage of time, or as Egan puts it, the ‘goon squad’. This unconventional approach is fitting as it encapsulates the messy relationship between past and present. Egan achieves this unconventional approach by immediately establishing a vivid and intricate personality in each new character as she changes perspective.
The two protagonists, Sasha and Bennie, become entangled in every storyline that branches off, despite only voicing one chapter each. ‘A Visit from the Goon Squad’ introduces Sasha as an offbeat compulsive thief, though we meet her again as Bennie’s assistant, and then as a mother of two living in the desert with her high school boyfriend.
Bennie is introduced as a divorced, cynical, yet successful record executive, who can’t seem to connect with his son and sprinkles gold flakes into his coffee as he was told it would bring back his libido. ‘He worked tirelessly, feverishly, to get things right, stay on top, make songs that people would love and buy and download as ringtones (and steal, of course) - above all, to satisfy the multinational crude-oil extractors he’d sold his label to five years ago.’
Much of the novel is based around the fast-paced music industry, a theme through which Egan correlates digitization with fear of time. Bennie describes digitization as an ‘aesthetic holocaust’ and spends much of his later career searching for the raw, imperfect sound akin to that of his teenage band - his adult life distorted by his inability to leave his adolescence behind. He regularly fantasizes about going back to the music venue which he hung around as a teenager and meeting up with his old gang, in his mind forever ‘green haired and safety-pinned’.
Bennie’s reminiscing sends the novel back into the San Francisco punk rock scene of the early 80’s, in which a 17 year old Rhea explains the dynamics of the group. Rhea is best friends with Jocelyn, who is seduced by a powerful record executive in his 40’s named Lou, who will later become Bennie’s mentor. The same Jocelyn that we come back to as an adult, feeling as if she is playing ‘catch up’ with her peers due to all her years spent with Lou.
In terms of setting, the novel primarily switches back and forth between the 80’s San Francisco punk scene and New York City, where Bennie and Sasha live as adults. However, takes numerous contextual detours, for example on a safari trip to Africa in order to delve into Lou’s relationship with his children, or to the suburban town of Crandale to understand Bennie’s divorce from the perspective of his wife Stephanie.
Stephanie’s narration then branches off into a number of seemingly random storylines, such as that of her brother - a celebrity reporter arrested for attempting to rape the famous actress Kitty Jackson, or that of Stephanie’s boss ‘La Doll’, who’s career as a publisher came crashing down along with the ceiling at her infamous party.
Egan’s experimental flair prevails through to the very last page, as the last few chapters include the perspective of Sasha’s twelve year old daughter, Alison, entirely told in powerpoint format, and a satirical take on New York City in the year 2020, involving babies glued to their handsets and people being manipulated by fake enthusiasts paid to promote events, or as she calls them ‘parrots’. Driving home her overarching discussion of technology’s effect on humanity’s relationship with time as well as with memory. Interestingly enough, Egan’s final chapter doesn’t tie together all the loose ends, or give us the satisfaction of yet another full circle, but leaves the reader with the image of a banal world full of isolation.
Ultimately Jennifer Egan’s ‘A Visit from the Goon Squad’ is an offbeat slice of genius, remarkably capable of keeping any iPhone addicted individual captivated, even in 2023.