a visit from the goon squad

Over the weekend I finished Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad. I picked this book up at the bookstore countless times. Each time I put the book down, despite all the awards and accolades, because the marketing copy on the back was so blah.

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, exhilarating novel of self-destruction and redemption.

I had asked one of the booksellers at PowerHouse if she'd read it and what she thought and she raved about it. So I finally caved and bought it when we were browsing in Malaprop's in Asheville and ploughed through it last week.

It's a multi-layered gem of a story, about so much more than Bennie and Sasha and the music industry. Egan deftly follows the ripples of her characters' interactions and movements through the world. It was a pleasure to be privy to that world for a few hours.