A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

I wasn't quite ready for this novel.  It was harsher than I anticipated.  By "harsh," I mean it involved rather seedy, nefarious characters who, generally speaking, were really not good people.  The novel documented some pretty unpleasant activities, but there were characters one could root for, even though they occasionally let you down.  (So far, these characters sound like real people, right?  That's what I liked best about the novel.)


By the time the title is illuminated--the "goon squad" as a metaphor for "death"--we are ready for it, and it makes much of the book make more sense.  The characters, for all their faults and deficiencies, are very much like us: They struggle, they feel fear, they try to get things right but too often fail, they sometimes recognize their flaws (sometimes not), and they push through the narrative with admirable courage in the face of death.


The novel is told in a series of related chapters, each one devoted to a particular character and written sympathetically from their perspective (in the third person).  The characters' lives interconnect in unusual ways.  Time shifts are frequent in the novel, and as each chapter begins, the first task is to orient yourself chronologically.  Characters introduced as rather minor players in one chapter are discovered to be the main attraction in the following chapter, providing a motif of linkages which illustrates the clever "six degrees of separation" theory.  (Note: Kevin Bacon does not actually appear in this novel.)


This is definitely a character-driven novel.  The events, though at times unbelievable and bordering on fantastic, move the narrative forward and give the characters something to react to, to bounce off while living their sordid lives.  The separate chapters and intertwined lives of the characters eventually do cohere into an overarching narrative with a satisfying, melancholy, and eerily beautiful ending.


This is a gritty novel of life and death that borders on pulp fiction.  The characters are fully developed, round, and differentiated in various ways.  Their voices (unlike those in The Martian) are unique to, and indicative of, their personalities.  Most of the characters were interesting, and while some of the narrative lines remained incomplete, we learned enough about each character to satisfy us.  Well, pretty much.  I would like to have learned more about the young actress who deliberately insulted the General/dictator.  And the overweight rocker who tries to exploit his long-dead career by launching a tour he promotes as a very public suicidal march toward oblivion, but who ends up actually resurrecting himself and his artistic life, ironically.


I finished the book about two months ago, so I can't recall too many specific details.  I enjoyed it, even though at times reading it was akin to slogging through knee-deep mud.  I just felt so dirty...  This was no light-hearted romp through Hogwarts, and though there was humor, it was dark and grim.


Kind of like life, no?