A visit from the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan

Hello again internet.

My posts are annoyingly infrequent, I'm aware, and can only apologize  but you know I do life as well and sometimes it becomes more important than blogging. Also i'm lazy*. Who knew.

Let me tell you, i have lusted after The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan for quite some time. A vlogger I follow on YouTube - I know I'm a new medias traitor, i'm sorry but its interesting - that goes by the name of Hannah Hart raved about it and I, perhaps arrogantly, have assumed we have similar tastes due to her penchant for drinking wine and making awful puns, the worlds greatest pastimes i'm sure you'll agree.

So, I was browsing Herne Hill's delightful yet tiny bookshop and I saw this book that over the months had slipped to the bottom of my to read list. A perfect find, I thought.

And what a find it is. What a very rare book. 

I'm a big fan of stories that jump about, time wise, not sure why, its just always appealed to me and in AVFTGS it's charmingly and seamlessly done. In fact i'd go so far to say as this wouldn't be the book it is without the timey-wimey confusion. It adds so much to the story, you get a little slice of real life seen through the eyes of about 20 different characters who all interlink. Spread over about 60 years. Each character slightly struggling through a point in their life but ultimately they are refreshingly real and relate-able. For someone who usually reads fantasy fiction, or some derivative of it, this was a very nice change for me. 

Egan shows how human life as doomed to repeat with characters that are beautifully individual and detailed who interlock as we seem them at a difficult point in their lives.

What was interesting for me was the idea that each story was so different, but with similar things happening - does that make any sense at all? It does to me but i'm hungover so i don't think i can be a judge of 'sense.' I clearly don't posses any in the common variety. 

Note to self - wine will always lead to hangover, no matter how invincible you may feel. 

  

Returning to the point, AVFTGS is a great and original reflection on our fickle lives with ever changing trivial and poignant issues and with an overall idea that nobody really knows what they are doing in life, the same confusing trip ups are as present in youth as they are in middle ages. Which is comforting, not at all as depressing as it may sound and ultimately true. 

Not to mention, its very funny. In a kind of sarcastic, self depreciating way. A kind of High Fidelity way i think, which works perfectly with the themes and plots that run through it. 

I happily recommend this book. What i do not recommend is going to watch The Great Gatsby on a Thursday and being over excited by the excellent wine at your lovely local cinema... Just, you know, in case you were thinking of doing that... 

* I'm not actually lazy its just most of my downtime is spent reading books, and i'm going through a surge of excellent ones so instead of writing about them i am selfishly just powering through the series. Sorry. (No, i'm not actually, not at all. I am enjoying them GREATLY) 

The end.


For fans of: Nick Hornby,Roddy Doyle, Ian McEwan, Douglas Copeland
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