A Visit from the Goon Squad- Jennifer Egan

I’m still not totally sure what to say about this book. Told in many different ways and weaving through the lives of interconnecting people, I definitely like the concept. From chapter to chapter you’re never sure how the book is going to be narrated. Ranging from a fairly random 50-75 pages worth of charts telling a story, to a typical third person point of view, the novel jumps all over the place, but it works. I was marginally concerned about halfway through that I was looking at another book that I never was going to connect with, something that made big promises but didn’t deliver. Well, I’m still not sure it lives up to the reviews it’s getting on Amazon, but at least I can say that I enjoyed this one more than Tiger’s Wife. And it was definitely more thought provoking.

I’m trying to come up with a good way to summarize the plot, but the truth is, there isn’t really one. I can’t seem to come up with much. Essentially every chapter is about a different person, at different points in their lives, always with some character overlap. Half of the fun is trying to figure out how everyone connects, and when in their lives they crossed paths. That might be the whole point, actually, because for me this never came into a book that seemed like a cohesive novel. And, like I said, it sort of works.

I think I was expecting the whole time for everything to just magically come together in the end though. Maybe that was too easy. The way it did end up finishing felt disjointed and a little odd. Like the author just got tired of writing. And in past entries I’ve probably covered that I like a good plot that keeps the pages turning and ends well, so this didn’t exactly satisfy. But having said that, it was a nice change. I think if I was in the right mood, I would have enjoyed this more. Instead, I realized about halfway through that I was ready to move on.

3- solid and interesting, especially in writing style, but nothing I need to read again.

Next up: A Song of Ice and Fire, first book in the Game of Thrones series, which I am somewhat shocked to have never read before.