A Visit from the Goon Squad in Oly Reads

Feb 18, 2011 jess rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2011, audiobook-d, fiction

This book started a little slow, and dragged at the beginning. It seemed kind of like any other "punk rock" "music biz" kind of story. I didn't bond with the characters and the storyline was, well, nothing seemed to ever happen. 1/3 of the way in, I started to really like it but I wasn't sure if I *really* liked it, or if it was the sort of appreciation you have for the familiar stuff you've spent some time with. Halfway through, almost without even realizing it, I was completely hooked & the bo This book started a little slow, and dragged at the beginning. It seemed kind of like any other "punk rock" "music biz" kind of story. I didn't bond with the characters and the storyline was, well, nothing seemed to ever happen. 1/3 of the way in, I started to really like it but I wasn't sure if I *really* liked it, or if it was the sort of appreciation you have for the familiar stuff you've spent some time with. Halfway through, almost without even realizing it, I was completely hooked & the book held my complete attention to the end.

The book was surprisingly postmodern, but the storytelling is conventional enough. Egan finds time for considerable reflection on the pressures of technology in the digital age, and some of Lulu's marketing jargon and theories made me l-o-l. And this quote from the last chapter? I had to park my car to write it down.

Rebecca was an academic star. Her new book was on the phenomenon of word casings, a term she'd invented for words that no longer had meaning outside quotation marks. English was full of these empty words--"friend" and "real" and "story" and "change"--words that had been shucked of their meanings and reduced to husks. Some, like "identity," "search," and "cloud," had clearly been drained of life by their Web usage. With others, the reasons were more complex; how had "American" become an ironic term? How had "democracy" come to be used in an arch, mocking way?

The plot moves through shifting perspectives along an inconsistent timeline, exploring how various characters intersect at different moments in their lives. It was hard to keep up sometimes, probably b/c I was reading the audio book & couldn't flip back to remember if this guy's girlfriend is that guy's oldest daughter or not? I got a little confused around the African safari subplot, and I'm not sure if I picked up on all the complex references and subtle nuances. I did my best. There are several good uses of non-human characters; New York City, Time, Technology and Fame/Notoriety are major players. It's a book I think Andy Warhol would enjoy, although he might not admit it.

What I hope I remember: how this book is sort of John Irving-ish (I don't mean that to be offensive or banal) with a smear of futuristic/sci-fi/post-war perspective, complicated relationships and dynamic characters, multiple plot lines and everything/all of it rotating like small planets around a giant sun (Benny Salazar) in the center of the solar system of drunk/drugged punk/rock storytelling. I also hope I remember the diversity of the female characters in this book. The dudes are all interesting enough, but the ways that the ladies are complicated & multifaceted really made the story for me - e.g. La Doll/Dolly and her history, the fateful party she threw, and the way she experiences/constructs fame. and Sasha, who is at least as important as Benny Salazar in the way the story is experienced by the reader. It really made me think about how we change when we are moving through life, sometimes without even noticing, and about the power/privilege of being able to re-invent yourself.

Also, for a book with a guitar on the cover, this had a lot less music in it than I expected. ...more

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