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.*
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.*