A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD

I. Cover

II. Table of Contents

III. Egan Biography

IV. How to Read A Visit from the Goon Squad

V. Character Descriptions and Analysis

VI. Chapter Summaries and Analysis

VII. Symbols and Motifs Analysis

VIII. (Expository) AVftGS as a Pulitzer Winner

IX. (Argumentative) Postmodernism

X. (Argumentative) Egan’s Writing Style

XI. Technology Essay

XII. A Visit from the Goon Squad as a New Criticism Novel

Jennifer Egan is an award winning author for her novels and her collection of short stories. Egan was born on September 7, 1962 in Chicago but now lives with her family in Brooklyn. After high school at Lowell High School, she attended the University of Pennsylvania then traveled to England to study at St. John’s College, Cambridge. After that she moved to New York and her travels and time there gave her a lot of inspiration for writing.

In 1966, Egan’s writing career took off when she published her first novel, The Invisible Circus. This novel is about the story of Phoebe O’Connor. Phoebe was an eighteen year old who is obsessed with the memory of her older sister Faith, who committed suicide. This first novel was crafted into a movie that was released in 2001. This novel was the start to a very successful writing career. She moved on to publish a novel containing many short stories, Emerald City and Other Stories. Each short story in Emerald City and Other Stories relates by dealing with loneliness, regret and desire. Egan is also an accomplished journalist who has frequently written in the New York Times Magazine.

Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad, can either be read in multiple short stories, or can be read as a whole. To fully understand the text and to connect each character with his or her past, and to recognize the either subtle or direct relationships each character has with one another,  it is key to read the novel as a whole. For the reader to separate and read the text in short stories would cause the audience to misinterpret ideas presented and miss vital connections Egan has made with each chapter.

A Visit From the Goon Squad shifts among varying voices and perspectives, and Egan’s writing style creates memories that link these different perspectives through a flashback in time,  fast forwarding into their future, or simply keeping them in present time. A constant direct connection we see in this novel is between Bennie Salazar, a record executive, and Sasha Grady, his kleptomaniac assistant and other subtle links between other characters that have an association with the two main characters. Throughout this novel, the events that take place in the majority of the chapters have something to tie in with Bennie and Sasha. An interesting complex connection that Egan has woven into chapter 4 is when we first meet Lou Kline, his girlfriend Mindy and his two children, Rolph and Charlie on an African safari vacation. At a point during their getaway, Charlie recognizes a warrior with scars on his chest, following Charlie’s recognition, Egan fast forwards through this warrior’s life until she reveals that his grandchild will marry an American woman named Lulu. Later in Egan’s novel, we meet Lulu, who is at the time a child, and her mother Dolly, a PR manager who years prior hosted a party that Bennie had attended. Lulu will eventually grow up and replace Sasha as his assistant.

To understand these interconnected chains, the reader needs to know the before and after aspects of the characters life outside of their given chapter. If one read each chapter in separate short stories, the reader would miss the relationship in the first chapter, where we meet Sasha as she is explaining to her therapist the relations she had with a man named Alex, and the last chapter where Alex is in a meeting with Bennie to promote a band concert and in his mind trying to remember the name of the woman who he slept with years before who had also been Bennie’s assistant. Time is a key piece in understanding Egan’s writing as each character grows to hold a new perspective, majority of the change being from negative to positive such as Sasha has done, from stealing to “finding objects” in the trash and making them into art. Time changes these characters, specifically referring to the title and the saying “time’s a goon”.

In addition to reading the novel as a whole, it is also important to grasp and note the timeline and order events occur in the chapters. Jennifer Egan’s writing has a consistent habit of springing from decade to decade or skipping years and then tracking back to them such as the first time we meet Bosco, a fat cancer ridden man determined to end his life playing music and the last time we see him, recovered and running a dairy farm.

Sasha Grady

Sasha is a kleptomaniac with wild, choppy red hair, a pretty face “like a fox” (258), with an alt-rock fashion sensibility: lacy underwear, black t-shirts, ripped jeans, doc martens. She is the first character we meet in A Visit From the Goon Squad, and she introduces us to the themes of intimacy and individuality, as well as the question of how each individual relates and interacts with others. Sasha expresses her individuality through the challenge/temptation of stealing personal objects from strangers, telling herself that it asserts something about her. This statement that Sasha feels is necessary to define her is continuous throughout the novel, connecting to other characters’ personalities and their own struggles to separate themselves from the rest of the crowd. For example, Sasha herself poses this challenge to Bennie Salazar, as he uses her as a test to see if the gold flakes are working.

Bennie Salazar

Bennie is described as a ‘cholo’ with dark hair styled in a mohawk when he’s a teenager versus the trim, fit, and expensive he is depicted as at the height of his career. He goes to great lengths to separate himself from the first identity, as seen in his move to Crandale, New York after making it big as a record producer and his refusal to interact with other cholos when he was a teen trying to integrate himself into a friend group comprised mostly of white people. In “Ask Me if I Care”, Rhea says that no one has seen Bennie’s house, a hint that he is hiding a large part of who he is. His goals are clear cut, precise, and represented in how he spends his time: working at a record store, working with and managing a band, pining after a rich white girl. The reader is aware of his desire to make it big in the music biz, but unaware of who he really is a person. He is similar to Sasha in his ambitions to prove himself to the world, but he lacks her motive of personal connection. He is disconnected and removed from all the people he cares about and instead of making an effort to really enjoy them and know them, he turns himself back to his public ambitions as a distraction. This disconnect persists throughout the novel and contributes to the themes of identity, ambition, and human connection.

Scotty Hausman

Scotty is described as “magnetic” (41). He was a golden boy in high school, someone who was expected to go far and reach great things, who was beloved by everyone he met. Egan paints an ironic identity for someone who would later become obsessed with the idea that the concepts of inclusion and exclusion are merely human constructs and that if we are fully aware that the things ‘excluding’ us are “nothing more than a series of atoms and molecules” (97). This outlook seems to be a coping mechanism for Scotty: he struggles to connect with those around him, choosing to view the world from a logical point of view rather than an emotional one to avoid feeling excluded from the more functional members of society he looks down on. Scotty has no conflicts with his identity, but instead connects to the overarching themes of isolation, personal power, and human connection. Scotty yearns to be loved and to be understood, but he pushes people away and takes pride in his off-putting demeanor (characterized by his rotten teeth), unlike Bennie, who is overly concerned with appearances and makes attempts to reconcile with loved ones, but is foiled by his ambition.

Rob Freeman

Alison Blake describes Rob as “primordially cute, with reddish face stubble and nice eyes, like a mountain climber” (273), and Sasha tells him he does not “look druggy” (193), an attribute she admires after her teen years in Naples. He is very closely connected to the theme of identity and he is the only character who personifies death, our relation to death, and death’s relation to time.Rob Freeman’s character is similar to Scotty in many ways: the easy going attitude he puts on display, his self-loathing, his feeling of exclusion, but Egan personifies Rob much differently than she does Scotty. We meet Rob in the second-person, making us feel incredibly connected to what he’s thinking and feeling, even more so than the first-person characters. The reader is one with Rob, a purposeful association because of Rob’s death at the end of the chapter. We are supposed to hurt for Rob, to fully understand him before he is lost forever, since no one else will ever understand him.

Lou Kline

Lou is ruggedly handsome, “the way some dads can sometimes be,” with “shaggy blonde hair” (49) accordingly to Rhea when she meets him for the first time. The last time she sees him, he is old and decrepit, his eyes “vacant” (88). Lou is most closely associated with time. He acts as if he is immortal, incapable of defeat or age, personified by his pension for much younger women, but time catches up to him, just as it catches up to Bosco, and pulls his legs out from under him, leaving only a shell behind. He is the only character completely comfortable with his situation and identity. Even when he is old he is still the same Lou, seen in his lewd comments about Rhea’s oldest daughter (86) and his insistence on being at the poolside, eating a green apple (88).

Dolly/ La Doll

We do not know what Dolly looked like when she was La Doll, only what she looked like after she had served her time in jail for her disastrous party: “she emerged from jail thirty pounds heavier and fifty years older, with wild gray hair. No one recognized her” (142). This marred appearance correlates to the overarching theme of time, emphasizing how quickly things can change. Dolly’s desperation stems from a good place, but she is still willing to ignore the fact that she is improving the public image of a genocidal dictator, a trait that connects her to the theme of corruption. Dolly and Lou Kline are paired characters in their exemplification of how time can scar a person, however Lou is the example of a long period of time sucking the life out of you and Dolly’s fall from grace was all in one night.

Charlie/ Charlene

Charlie is a young girl, but Charlene is the young woman estranged from her father and her past life, trudging forwards from a cocaine addiction and a quick spell in a cult. Charlie despises her father Lou because of his inability to connect with her, but offhanded comments such as “Lou wonders fleetingly if he should have included her…” (77), lead the reader to believe it is negligence towards Charlie because her brother is Lou’s favorite. Charlie’s only motivation is to grow up. She cuts her swimsuit into a bikini because she wants to appear older, she eyes the warriors that singing for them greedily, and she and Rolph “move together, [feeling their] self-consciousness miraculously fade, as if [they] are growing up right there on the dance floor” (82), therefore contributing to Egan’s stance on time and how quickly we can change.

Jocelyn

Jocelyn has a “beautiful half-Chinese face”, “chopped black hair that looks permanently wet, and twelve ear piercings…” (43). Jocelyn is a more intense exemplification of a young woman wanting to grow up than Charlie. She thrusts herself into Lou’s world because he is powerful and rich, but ends up falling in love with his son, Rolph, who is exactly Jocelyn’s age. This little spell she has as a seventeen year old ruins her life; when she goes to visit Lou after many many years, she says that she is working on her B.A. at UCLA and she lives with her ageing mother who won’t be able to take care of her much longer, while Rhea has three children and a successful career in Seattle. Jocelyn’s affection and connection to Rolph ironically bring her closer to Lou, who expedites her time and connects her to the theme of corruptibility.

Rhea

Rhea has green hair and thousands upon thousands of freckles that she despises. She is constantly pining after things other people have, seen in her anger towards Jocelyn for her new relationship with Lou, her constant reassurance to herself that she will grow out of her freckles or have them removed, and her unrequited love for Bennie. She connects to the themes of desperation and struggle for identity. Rhea knows who she is, but represses it because she doesn’t believe it will fit in with what her friends enjoy, exemplified in her willingness to be friends with Alice (58) once Jocelyn is not there to prevent her from interacting with Alice kindly.

Alex

Alex begins the book as a young man “in excellent shape, not from going to the gym but from being young enough that his body was still imprinted with whatever sports he’d played in high school and college” with an “anxious and bored” energy (6). He ends the novel an older man, married twice with a toddler. The stress eats away at him, and he becomes so desperate for some kind of action in his life that he accepts a morally ambiguous offer from Bennie Salazar, a direct antithesis to the Alex that stood up to the hotel staff when he discovered a woman had lost a wallet when he was on a date with Sasha in the beginning of the novel. This relates to La Doll’s fall from grace, her having to resort to desperate measures to get the money to keep Lulu in school. Alex is not desperate for money, but for an excitement his current life is not yielding to him, connecting to human identity and our understanding of our desires.

Bosco

Bosco used to be a young man comparable to Iggy Pop, with vibrant red hair and an incredible stage presence, but when we meet him in the novel he is old and fat and his hair has greyed, but he is not discouraged by how time has affected him, he wants to put it on display. He is one of the only characters who is truly in tune with their identity, similar to Scotty, but more determined to make his mark and more determined to connect with people. He is tired of his isolation and has developed an idea to come full circle, a unique characteristic, as most characters cling to the past once time has caught up with them.

Lulu Peale

We first meet Lulu as a young girl attending Miss Rutger’s School for Girls, with a “regal bearing that had become her trademark” (140). Fast forward into the future and she is a young woman with an “arresting, wide-eyed symmetry [to] her face [and] a radiant shine of her hair” (317) working as Bennie Salazar’s assistant. Lulu bridges the world between generations and represents the new breed of human that has come into the world. She is the character most connected to technology and she is the character most adaptable to change.

Stephanie

Stephanie Salazar has dark hair and a large octopus tattoo on one of her thighs. She is a complete antithesis to the rest of the tanned, blond, fit women that live in Crandale. She represents the human drive to prove ourselves, exemplified by her obsession with tennis and the connection to Kathy. She wants to feel like she belongs, but is working against a wall not made of just atoms and molecules as Scotty describes his exclusion, but of complicated emotions and political entanglements. The Crandale women are hesitant to interact with her because of her uncharacteristic look and her dark-skinned husband, and the only way she can bridge this divide is to play tennis at the country club.

Kitty Jackson

Kitty Jackson looks “extraordinary”, with an “upturned nose, full mouth, [and] big blue eyes” (167) even though those features might be ordinary on somebody else. Jules argues throughout his article that Kitty really is not a special human being, just someone who walked into something at the right time and gained some kind of incredible, societal, super power. Even after her downfall after the attempted rape, she is still rather extraordinary, but her motivations are no longer pure. A young Kitty Jackson (so in love with her horse, Nixon) never would have agreed to pretend to date a genocidal dictator, but time has changed her and changed what she believes the world owes her. She accepts the job with the sole intent of insulting the dictator, of bringing him down a notch. She connects to the themes of corruptibility and youth vs age.

Ted

Ted is a tall man in his 40s. He goes to Naples to find his niece, Sasha, but diverts his attention towards taking in all of the art he can while he is there and neglects his responsibilities, the whole time lamenting that he cannot connect with his wife the way he used to. He imagines her constantly, but is unable to really connect with her over the phone, which leaves him feeling even more isolated from her and his sons. He places the blame for the disconnect on himself, but dislikes the person he turned Susan into. He connects to the themes of exclusion, love, regret, and motivation.

Mindy

Mindy is a beautiful graduate student studying at Berkeley. She tells herself that her trip to Africa with Lou will be a good study for her major, but she does not open a single one of the books she brought to read. Mindy personifies the split we all feel between decisions, seen in her confrontation with Albert while being Lou’s girlfriend. She is unaffected by time, seemingly frozen on the Safari.

Jules

Jules is Stephanie’s brother and had a lot of potential before he tried to rape Kitty Jackson after he had recently been dumped by his fiance. After the time in prison as a result of the crime, Jules is skinnier and has overcome his eczema, but has a deflated looking face and straggly hair.

The General

The General looks like “a sick baby with a giant mustache and a double chin” (137) when the first picture of him is released in the Times, but once the hat is fixed he looks “sweet” and unlike a man who “used human bones to pave his roads” (141). He is cruel, but comes out of his shell for Kitty, only to immediately grow angry when she starts to question his regime.

Chris Salazar

Chris is Bennie and Stephanie’s son, described as “a mysterious presence” (35) by Bennie, who is unable to connect with the boy. Chris uses his father to get things that he would otherwise not be allowed to with his mother, like Frappuccinos and his gold medicine.

Lincoln Blake

Lincoln is described as a younger, skinnier, version of his father Drew. He is obsessed with the pauses in rock songs and is very close with his sister, Alison. He wants to tell his father he loves him, but he uses a complicated logic that equates in telling his father about a song with a pause that he enjoys and the message is lost on Drew, leaving a disconnect between them.

Rolph

Rolph is thin young boy with slicked flat hair and sparkling eyes, living on forever in Charlie’s memory. He grapples with his love and his hate for his father, desperately wanting to connect with him, but upset by his morals and values and his ability to leave people behind so easily. This culminates in suicide and causes an even greater divide between Lou and his other children.

Lupa Salazar

Lupa is Bennie’s younger second wife with whom he has his daughter Ava.

Ava Salazar

Ava is Bennie and Lupa’s child, Bennie’s second after his first (Chris) with Stephanie.

Alice

Alice is beautiful and blonde and rich, something that Jocelyn and Rhea are prejudiced against her for. She is in actuality kind and upset that she cannot connect with the other girls. She is in love with Scotty for a time, even though Bennie is head over heels for her. We learn later that she and Scotty had a rough marriage and that she still lives in California after they divorce.

Alison Blake

Alison is Sasha and Drew’s daughter. She believes her purpose in life is to make other people uncomfortable and begins with her mother. She cares deeply about her brother and enjoys slide journaling and looks up to the younger version of her mother she sees in pictures, but is unenchanted with the present version, constantly annoyed with her and hypercritical of her.

Albert

Albert is a “surly Englishman” (64) who is second in command to Lou’s war buddy, Ramsey. He is a man of few words, but when he does speak it is very candid and clear. He tells Mindy straight up that he is entranced by her, and he feels the same towards him. He is unaffected by her curtness towards him later, but makes a mistake in an attempt to impress the children in the Jeep he is driving, resulting in him being fired because Chronos was attacked by a lion.

Kathy

Kathy is Stephanie’s tennis partner in Crandale and is having an affair with Bennie. She models what Stephanie wants to be now that they’ve moved to Crandale.

Clay

Kathy’s racist husband who accuses Bennie of being in the Al Qaeda when he attends a party in their home.

Drew Blake

Drew is the love of Sasha’s life. He is from Massachusetts and a swimmer, making him very toned and outdoorsy looking. He is a good boyfriend to Sasha, but their relationship peters off after Drew is unable to save Rob. They reconnect on social media and Sasha moves to Pakistan to be with him, resulting in them having two children together back in the states, but their relationship crumbles because of Drew’s long hours as a doctor and the guilt and stress that accompanies the job. He cannot relate to his son and it causes him significant angst.

Joe

Joe is the grandson of a warrior that Charlie meets on the Safari. He marries Lulu Peale after attending Columbia University and majoring in engineering and invents a security scanning device that becomes commonplace in crowds. He inherits his grandfather’s hunting dagger and puts it on display in a plexiglass case in his loft in Tribeca.

Bix

I

The first chapter of the book begins by introducing a character named Sasha, who is addicted to stealing things. Sasha is on a date with a man named Alex. When Sasha is in the bathroom she sees a woman's purse in reach in one of the stalls and gets the urge to steal the woman’s wallet. After all of this had already happened Sasha is telling the story to her therapist, Coz and Egan is going back and forth between Sasha in therapy and Sasha at the restaurant. After she decides to steal the wallet and is leaving the restaurant with Alex they notice the woman scrabbling to find her wallet. Alex goes over to help try and find her wallet, as the two of them are looking in the restaurant Sasha goes back to the bathroom to put the wallet back where it was. As Sasha is taking out the wallet the woman comes into the bathroom and sees her with the wallet, looking at Sasha like she knew it was her all along. Sasha then begs the woman not to tell anyone and the woman agrees. After Alex and Sasha leave the restaurant they go back to Sasha’s to have sex. After Alex sees the tub in the kitchen and decides he wants to take a bath; while Alex takes a bath Sasha sees his wallet and of course gets the idea to steal it. As Sasha is looking through his wallet she finds a piece of paper that says “I believe in you.” and decides to steal only that from his wallet.

Analysis:

The opening chapter is about Sasha and her life because almost everyone and everything falls back to Sasha throughout the book. In the last chapter of the book Alex is mentioned again and Sasha is looked back on by Alex and Bennie, wondering what she ended up doing with her life after she moved away. From the stealing it can be inferred that Sasha has not found herself yet and is struggling to do so. From seeing that Sasha has a therapist we can infer that she is trying to be a better person and wants to try to stop her habit of stealing, even though it gives her this indescribable thrill. When Sasha only steals the “I believe in you” note and nothing else this explains that she’s not only stealing it just for the thrill but also so she can have something for motivational support.

II

In this chapter we are introduced to Bennie Salazar who is a music producer and Sasha is his assistant at the time. Bennie is always looking back at the past, at all of the bad things he has done and even keeps a list of them so he can look at them at anytime. As Bennie drives to pick up his son Chris from school he listens to old songs back from high school, songs that he listened to with his high school gang: Scotty, Alice, Jocelyn and Rhea. After his son and him went to get coffee Bennie put gold flakes in his coffee because he heard that if you do so that it will increase sexual potency. He does this because he has not had an sexual tension in a long time since his ex wife Stephanie and him got a divorce. Although, when Chris asked him what the gold flakes where and what they did Bennie said they were Medicine for headaches. Chris then asked if he could try one and ended up liking the taste of metal just like his dad. Bennie and Chris like to do things thats Stephanie would never allow Chris to do usually do, they call this betrayal bonds. After Chris and Bennie grab coffee they swing by the studio so Chris can meet the Stop/Go Sister, Sasha is there and says hi to Chris, who she’s know his whole life. Bennie sees Sasha and seems to be having a thing for Sasha but when he looks at her boobs he feels nothing.  

Analysis:

As Bennie reflects on bad memories from the past we can see that his career as a music producer has fallen. After cheating on his ex-wife Stephanie with one of Stephanie’s tennis friends- who are talked about in Chapter 7- Bennie seems to be pretty lonely and in regret of all of the things he has done in the past. Really the only thing Bennie Salazar has going for him is his son Chris. As Bennie shares the gold flakes with Chris this symbolizes Bennie trying to create a close bond with his son and also shows how desperate he is to be close with his son and try and find a cure to his so called sexual potency. We can see his problem when he looks at Sasha’s boobs (who he’s had a thing for quite some time now) and still feels nothing when looking at her boobs. This chapter goes to explore the many ways in which Bennie Salazar is lonely, desperate and dysfunctional.

III

This chapter is narrated by Rhea, who is apart of a punk rock band with Scottie, Bennie and Jocelyn. They are all together one night and decide to go to Alice’s house, who grew up in a wealthy house and neighborhood. At Alice’s house she talks to everyone about how she went to private schools just about her whole childhood. Scottie ends up wanting to see her sisters uniforms, who still goes to private school, so they sneak into her sisters rooms and look at the uniforms. Everyone ends up following the two of them upstairs and while they stand in Alice’s sisters room Rhea becomes scared by the fact that they could scare the kids with their punk clothing. Jocelyn and Rhea spend most of their time hanging out with Bennie and Scottie and at school they all sit in what’s called the pit, where all the punk rockers hang out. The four of them are tied up in this love triangle where Rhea likes Bennie, Bennie likes Alice, Alice likes Scottie, Scottie likes Jocelyn and Jocelyn likes Scottie.

Analysis:

In chapter three Rhea takes the readers back in time to their younger childhood years. When they all visit Alice’s nice house a contrast is shown between Alice’s childhood growing up and her friends childhood, who grew up differently but seemed to all take the same path in life, focusing on punk rock. As Rhea shows her concern for Alice’s sisters it portrays that she (possibly more than the others) is sympathetic towards her sisters and is concerned about their differences. As for the love triangle, that shows that the fundamental parts of being young are still intact.

IV

Grass

In this section of the chapter we meet Lou Kline who has a label and is dating Mindy and Lou’s two children Rolph and Charlie who are on a african safari. As they all are sitting around the bonfire one night Rolph asks Charlie if he remembers a vacation they took with Lou and their mother to Hawaii. As Rolph asks this question Charlie sees Lou and Mindy cuddling by the campfire and becomes aware of what they will do tonight. As more and more people enter the camp Charlie sees a warrior that seems to be familiar and seems to be moved by him as he starts to sing. Earlier Charlie gave away earrings Lou had given her as a gift to a woman who was leaking breast milk. Charlie feels as though she has grown up and has become this whole other person; however, the warrior sees that she is still just a child. Roph and Lou take a walk to ease Lou’s mind from what Charlie had been doing.

Hills

Albert, the jeep driver, takes them up in the hills one night to look for animals. Lou’s continuous flirtation with the bird watching ladies has Mindy all jealous. They come to a point where they are only a few feet away from lions and everyone starts taking pictures while Chronos, one of the men on the safari trip,gets out of the jeep and starts to inch towards them. While this is all going on Mindy and Albert are looking at each other feeling some kind of connection. The female lion then attacks Chronos, injuring him badly, but not killing him because he was able to shoot the lion and get away. After Rolph goes back to the hotel with Mindy and they run into Albert. Rolph notices a weird tension in the room but thinks it’s nothing.

Sand

Lou and the whole group hop on a train to Mombasa where Lou and Rolph spend the day spearfishing. Lou ends up catching a ton of fish while Rolph has caught none, however, he seems to be ok with it and says he just likes watching them. Rolph asks Lou about Mindy and Lou agrees that she has been rude to Albert and Rolph ends up storming off leaving Lou in the water. Rolph and Charlie talk about Mindy at dinner and Rolph tells Charlie that even though Mindy has feelings for Albert, Lou is still going to marry her. The story then jumps to future Charlie, who makes wrong decisions like joining a cult and having a cocaine habit. Rolph and Lou end up not speaking and Lou marries Mindy. Rolph ends up shooting himself later on and that’s when Charlie was looking back at her past childhood.

Analysis:

One of the main themes of this book is time and how it interacts with people and that’s what this chapter is all about. Mindy and Lou share time with each other, however when Lou is flirting with the bird watchers (who do not seem to be bird watchers at all) Mindy pulls back from Lou and starts flirting with Albert. Then going to the present time with Charlie and Rolphs lives we see that this safari was like the beginning of their childhood and all their problems. Lou spending this great amount of time with Mindy and not his kids seemed to greatly impact them as they grew up. As for Lou and Mindy, Lou sees himself as being successful for marrying Mindy; however, for Mindy she began to see that just because she was married she was not living this steady, perfect, happy life.

V

Lou is on his deathbed and it is hard for everyone to imagine a man that never seemed to age be old and dying. Rhea and Jocelyn come to visit Lou and it too is also hard for them to believe that this man is dying. The girls say hello and Lou tells them that they look gorgeous, but of course they do not think so because they are forty three years old. Rhea has three kids and lives in Seattle while Jocelyn lives with her mom and is trying to go to school at UCLA. Lou pulls out some pictures of his six children from three different wives and Jocelyn begins to think about Rolph. The girls then roll Lou outside by the pool and Jocelyn seems to forget that Rolph has died and asks Lou about him. When she realizes that he’s been dead for fifteen years she begins to get angry and angry at Lou and thinks about pushing him into the pool and drowning him but she realizes that he already is dying.

Analysis:

This chapter definitely is in contrast to chapter four, the one before it, and seems to capture how much has changed for Lou and everyone else since their youth. The girls relationship has also contrasted with their past life and friendships, yet after many years the three of them meet again and are there for each other (in a way). Since it has been such a long time since they have all seen each other Jocelyn seems to get caught up in her mind that they are young again and forgets in that moment also that Rolph is dead and has been for the last fifteen years. Jocelyn thought to throw Lou in the pool and kill him in that moment because she realized that Lou was the reason for screwing up her, Rhea and Rolphs lives. Having thought this Jocelyn is angry by the fact that her and everyone else's relationships affected their future.  

VI

As Scottie is sitting on a park bench reading a magazine he recognizes Bennie and sees that he has won an award for record producing. This of course makes Scottie think about the past and he can’t stop thinking about it, so a week later Scottie decides to write him. The following day Scottie decides to go fishing and ends up getting his best catch yet, a extremely large striped bass. Amazed by this amazing catch Scottie sees this as a sign to go see Bennie in person and bring him this striped bass that gave him good luck. Since Scottie did not have any real dressy clothes that Scottie dry cleaned an already dry cleaned jacket again ( which is something he just always did) and put on some khaki pants. Scottie thinks about the past and remembers thinking that it was “X’s and O’s” that determined who was in and who wasn’t. After waiting a while Scottie goes up to the receptionist (who is Sasha) says that his fish is going to start to stink up the place. This comment finally gets Bennie to come down stairs and talk to Scottie who is so excited. Bennie invites Scottie to his office which is all nice and glamourous making Scottie think Bennie really does have it all. Scottie offers Bennie his fish but Bennie refuses multiple times even though Scottie insists he take it. After many attempts to giving Bennie the fish he refuses to take the fish, but after Scottie leaves the office he realizes he had left the fish in Bennie’s office and begins to laugh to himself. Just before leaving Bennies office Bennie gives Scottie his business card that Scottie ends up giving to a couple of musicians on the street. After Scottie decides to go get his dry cleaned shirt dry cleaned another time.

Analysis:

This chapter also falls back to the main theme of time and how at one point you and someone could be living the same life and then a decade goes by and you and that person are two completely different people. This was the case for Scottie and Bennie, at a young age they had the same music career dreams but ended up in different worlds. Scottie tries to see Bennies world as someone who is a part of this wealthy life that is thriving. However, Scottie believes that he too is thriving and living an exciting life and doesn’t want Bennies wealthiness to take that away from him. After seeing Bennie in this “I’m better than you” lifestyle Scottie refuses to believe any of it and cleans his jacket once again because of it.

VII

Bennie and his wife Stephanie move into a suburb named Crandale and don’t exactly fit in. Everyone in Crandale is a member to their local country club, so Bennie and Stephanie decide to join to get closer to the community. Stephanie used to play tennis back in the day and finds herself trying it out again for the first time in a while. While she is practicing she meets Kathy who ends up being her tennis partner and friend in some ways. As easy as it was for Stephanie to fit right in with the community it wasn’t as easy for Bennie because he had nothing to help him get there resulting in lots of judgement from the community. However, Bennie continues to try and be a part of his community because he does not want to be an outcast like his neighbor Noreen, who constantly is looking over at Bennie and Stephanie through the fence. Much later on Stephanie's brother Jules comes to stay with them,after he has just been released from prison, and ends up still unemployed months later. While all of this was happening Stephanie had been going to secret tennis dates without Bennie knowing. One day she ends up having to go meet Bosco, a former rock star and current alcoholic, because she screwed up with one of her tennis dates. Bosco explains to both of them that he wants to go on a suicide tour- suicide because he is sick and not in a good condition to be going on a tour- and Jules explains that he is a writer and can work for Bosco on this. After the meeting with Bosco Stephanie goes home to find a gold bobby pin in one of Bennies pant pockets, she knows it could be no one other than Kathy. While she is discovering that her husband is cheating on her Noreen is on the other side of the fence staring at her.

Analysis:

Moving to the suburbs is a bigger change for Bennie and Stephanie than they had realized. The suburbs is a place of wealth and fortune and both Bennie and Stephanie are not used to this kind society. Not being able to fit in is hard for them to see because growing up they were seen as the cool, higher class in their community. Everyone is going through big changes in this chapter that they all have to come to terms with and choose what they want next in life. Bosco has made peace with him not being a rock star anymore and has decided to leave this world in a way he will be remembered, Jules, Stephanie and Bennie have to adjust to the new life they’re living. These big life decisions make all the characters who they are; for instance, Stephanie would not be Stephanie if she weren’t being cheated on.

VIII

Dolly (also known as La Doll) is introduced in this chapter and is a publicist who makes a downfall in her career after a bad party. She now lives in an apartment with her daughter Lulu and is working as a generals publicist. Her job as his publicist is to portray him as someone who is kind, so she comes up with the idea of having his photo taken with a woman (Kitty Jackson the movie star) who is also washed up and creates an image that they are both good people. To get this photo Kitty, Dolly and Lulu all fly out to meet up with the general. This becomes a great opportunity for Dolly and Lulu to get more time to bond. Although Dolly believes it’s a good idea everyone else does not think so because the general is a scary man and it is dangerous where they are going. Once they get there Kitty plays nice and takes the photo with the general, but after the photo is taken Kitty begins to scream at the general at his genocidal tendencies. This gets Kitty kidnapped by the general and Dolly and Lulu kicked out and flown back home. Once Dolly and Lulu arrive home Dolly sends out the photos of the general and Kitty, and this helps their publicity greatly. After word gets out that the general has Kitty people start coming to him saying to let her go and he frees her, which boosts the publicity for her even more. After Dolly and Lulu decide to move away from the city and start over.

Analysis:

This chapters main focus is on the relationships that everyone (mainly Dolly) has with the general. Dolly is constantly reminding herself that working with the general is strictly work and even though she hates him she has to keep it professional. This ties into the theme of constant change and the idea that things happen for a reason. Dolly, Kitty and Lulu continue to move forward in their lives after their interaction with the general and except the changes that have been made after their interaction with the general. This chapter gives the idea that even during challenging times they continue to move forward knowing that from the good and bad moments in your life you will only grow and learn from your experiences. When Dolly and Lulu move away they are not quitting their life, they are starting over to move forward with their life and try and have a simpler lifestyle. From their experiences in the city they now know that it is not the life they want to be living, Dolly wants to be able to connect with Lulu and that is something she cannot do in the city. The characters in the book create change for better and try not to repeat their mistakes.

IX

Jules and Kitty go out to eat to discuss the new movie Kitty is in called Oh, Baby, Oh because Jules is writing an article on it for a magazine. On their lunch date Jules continues to tell Kitty that she is getting special treatment from the waiter and everyone knows that the one and only Kitty Jackson is in this restaurant. Jules does this to try and charm Kitty and goes on a walk with her to charm her more. As they are walking Jules believes that Kitty is coming on to him and this makes Jules think that she wants to do something. Jules ends up pushing Kitty to the ground and attempts to rape her, while he has her locked down on the ground Kitty reaches for her purse and pulls out a spray and sprays him in the face. After he still has her locked on the ground with one arm and she pulls out a pocket knife from her purse and jabs it at his leg. Finally this gets her free and she runs away.

Analysis:

This chapter continues to go back and forth between Jules’ internal thoughts and the report on Kitty Jackson. The majority of this chapter however is related to what Jules is thinking. As the chapter goes on the reader can see that Jules is not thinking much about the movie at all and is really only thinking about the things around him. As the chapter comes to an end we find out that Jules has never even seen the movie so that explains why the actual movie is not talked about much in this chapter. This chapter revolves around a person's mind and how it functions and affects the people and things around it.

X

From the point of view of Rob, Drew and Sasha's friend, this chapter deals with the relationship he has between Drew and Sasha. Rob is in his early twenties and is obsessing over Drew and Sasha's relationship because he has a secret crush on Sasha and gets very jealous. Rob, Drew, Sasha, Lizzie and Bix are at Bix and Lizzies apartment smoking. As Drew talks and makes comments towards things Rob begins to overanalyze what he says and notices how paranoid Drew is while high. Drew sees Drew and Sasha’s sexual tension and looks back on when he attempted suicide and had anger issues, but after he had that stage in his life he no longer has the urge to fight anyone. Drew dreams of becoming president but Rob calls him out on it (like he always does with people) and says that the president does not get high. Lizzie is afraid to tell her parents that she is sleeping with a black man, Bix, and has him stay somewhere else while her parents are in town. Rob comments on this situation and calls out Lizzie's mother and his remarks towards her religious mother. This offends her of course and Rob starts to apologize for many things that he’s done like attempting suicide, insulting Lizzies mom and being an asshole.

Rob begins to look back on when he first met Sasha at freshman orientation. Sasha and Rob had a fake relationship because Sasha's stepfather hired a detective to watch her, so she needed someone who was not a stoner and was good. During their fake relationship they learned almost everything about each other and Rob began to fall for her. As time went on she began to forget about their fake relationship and met Drew, who her stepfather actually ended up liking.

When Sasha and Drew start their relationship Sasha takes it as a way to start over and when Rob figures out that Drew does not know about her past he gets the urge to tell him. One night they all go to a concert where both Drew and Rob take ecstacy. After the concert they are both too high to go to Bennie Salazar's after party which makes Sasha mad, so she ends up leaving them both to wander the streets of Manhattan. After ending up in the hospital Sasha tells Rob (also known as Bobby) that he can never take ecstasy again. When Rob and Drew get out of the hospital they join Bix at a club and end up going out to a river to just talk. At the river Rob decides to tell Drew about Sashas past and Drew does not believe him. Drew ends up getting really upset and dives into the cold water. Rob goes after him and begins to think about Sasha and wants to apologize for all his fights. After going in the water to try and save Drew Rob ends up dead.

Analysis:

This chapter focuses on the relationship and love Rob has towards Sasha and how meeting Sasha during freshman orientation changed his life forever. Robs feelings for Sasha are deep, as we see as he becomes jealous of Sasha and Drew’s relationship and frustrated by it. Chapter 10 portrays the theme of survival of youth and time, which both Rob and Sasha have lived through together. As Rob and Sasha grew up they spent a lot of time together and and have gone through a lot with Rob's attempt at suicide and everything. Rob and Sasha both reveal new truths about themselves in this chapter and in the following chapter (chapter 11) as Sasha reflects back on her past and Robs past as well.

XI

Ted Hollander is in search to try and find Sasha,who is Ted's niece and is currently living in Naples and has been gone for two years. Sasha’s stepfather, Hammer, has asked and paid Ted to find her. However, instead of going to look for Sasha Ted travels to Pompeii where he looks at paintings and explores the city. That night Ted calls Sasha’s mom and reports back to her that he hasn’t yet found Sasha but will look again tomorrow (even though he  actually planned on visiting a museum). After he talks to Sasha’s mom he calls his wife, Susan, who has a weird tone in her voice as she tries to hide that everything is fine and their relationship is fine. Ted continues to feel guilty that he no longer loves her the way he used to and Susan begins to except that Ted is no longer affectionate towards her. Susan hands the phone to their son and Ted begins to talk in a happy tone but his son can see through it and tells Ted to not put on the fake dad voice. All of his kids have their turns talking to their dad and continue to tell them all about how their sports are going. Ted is an art history professor and (as the reader can see from his excessive amount of museum hunting in Pompeii) focuses on art more than anything else. While Ted is out exploring in Italy he sees Sasha and begins to follow and stalks her. Sasha notices that Ted is follower her and confronts him, only when she asks why he’s here he tells her to look at art (which is true, but not completely). They go out to dinner and Ted can not get over how grown up she is and tries to convince her that she's a foreigner who doesn't know her way around. When Sasha leaves after dinner Ted realizes that his wallet is missing and begins to look for Sasha to get it back. When he finds her hotel she doesn’t let him in, but eventually she gives in to returning his wallet. After Ted gets his wallet back he still does not leave and Sasha finally lets him in explaining how hard it is for her to get by and how she has many friends only none of them have lasted.

Analysis:

While Ted is looking for Sasha in this chapter he is also going through some internal conflicts and desires (like his art and his family) that drive him away from searching for Sasha. Teds dishonesty towards his family shows that he has become somewhat disconnected with his family.This chapter helps to describe the development of the character Sasha and also introduce the new character Ted. As the chapter goes on we come to find out that Sasha’s life has been hard but also adventures. Ted continues to portrays the theme of time by spending the majority of his time in Europe looking at different forms of art.

XII

This chapter is presented in a powerpoint made by Sasha’s 12 year old daughter Alison Blake and has a brother who is 13 years old named Lincoln who are the children of Sasha and Drew Blake. Alison begins to point out that her mother does some annoying things and her dad is working a lot. While her brother, Lincoln has an obsession with pauses in rock music and will not stop talking or playing those kinds of songs, which both Alison and Sasha can understand and connect with but Drew can’t seem to. Drew is always gone because he is a doctor, he recently worked on a little girls heart who ended up dying, and is not very affectionate towards the kids or Sasha. Lincoln and Drew have a hard time connecting at all, probably because Lincoln will nonstop talk about the long pauses in songs and nothing else and this frustrates Drew and causes him to yell at Lincoln all the time. Drew then asks Sasha to go on a walk and educate him on the long pauses in these songs. When they return home the powerpoint ends with slides about the rock music and the static in them.

Analysis:

This chapter is set in the future when Sasha has grown up and moved past her bad habits and became a mother of two. The chapter is from the point of view of her daughter Alison, which shows the ways younger kids see Sasha and Drew’s lives. We can see the great amount of disconnection this family shares, the isolation Drew has from the family and the isolation Lincoln has towards other people which all help to state that this family is very disconnected in a number of ways. Egan presents this chapter through a powerpoint to express what he sees (but also in the eyes of Alison) in the family and helps to describe and discuss how they interact with each other.

XIII

This chapter is also set in the future where Bennie and Alex meet to talk about a job for promoting a concert. Both of their wives, Rebecca and Lupa, are in the kitchen while their babies are on the floor next to Bennie and Alex while they talk. Sasha (who they can’t remember her name at the time) somehow comes up in their conversation and Alex doesn’t remember much about her, only that he thinks they have gone out and remembers something about a wallet. Alex is not sure if he wants to take the job because he really just wants to work with sound and not social media advertising, but Bennie tells him that there is not much you can do with sound nowadays and thinks that this is a good job for him. When they arrive at the concert Alex finds out that his real job for this concert was to keep Scotty from escaping (since he was supposed to perform). After the concert Alex remembered that her name was Sasha, so Bennie and Alex are on a hunt to see if Sasha still lives in New York, and if so if it’s still in the same apartment. They both go to the apartment and come to find out that Sasha no longer lives there.

Analysis:

Time- Time is the most significant, prevalent motif within A Visit From the Goon Squad because it is the force that drives each of the characters and affects them both individually and connectedly. Throughout the novel, time is inevitable; it will affect all the characters over the course of their lives, establishing personalities and opinions. Time is presented in the novel as disorganized, with the chapters jumping between decades and the people featured in each. Ultimately, the purpose of time is to show how the characters are either determined or fearful of oncoming change: “‘Time’s a goon, right? You gonna let that goon push you around?” Scotty shook his head. “The goon won’”(Egan 332-333). In their maturations, time humanizes the characters by analyzing their development and simultaneously identifies their relationships and differences to each other.

Technology and Language- Technology also relates to the process of time and the music industry, as technological devices are continuously advancing and becoming prominent in more and more aspects of daily life. In A Visit from the Goon Squad, technology is also noted as a disruption of nature, for the progressing usage of such devices upsets the original, raw productions of non-technological devices. This separation can be seen through the reach Alex must make to resonate with his wife after years of their strained relationship: “They were too far away for Alex to reach them, and the distance felt irrevocable, a chasm that would keep him from ever again touching the delicate silk of Rebecca's eyelids, or feeling, through his daughter's ribs, the scramble of her heartbeat. Without the zoom, he couldn't even see them. In desperation, he T'd Rebecca, pls wAt 4me, my bUtiful wyf, then kept his zoom trained on her face” (336). Implying a barrier and yet advancement at the same time, technology and language throughout the novel represents purity and artificialness.

Modern Culture- Modern (or pop) culture is prominent throughout the novel in increments of time; the music business, technology, and other societal trends all play a role in A Visit from the Goon Squad. When one goes out of fashion, another is soon to follow. Characters in the novel are also drawn to the appeals of rising culture, such as Kitty Jackson, a famous movie star who reinvents herself (Chapter Eight), and Bosco, an aged guitarist hoping to tour again (Chapter 7). Despite attraction to fame, the enticement of modern culture is also wearied by some of the characters who seek to establish happiness and firm bonds with life as it is. Modern culture is another evaluation of the neverending progression of time.

Personal Identity- As A Visit from the Goon Squad draws on both the individuality of characters and their connectedness over time, personal identity is expressed as validation that the characters find within themselves. Bennie, for example, struggles with his ethnicity, especially after moving to the upper-class area of Crandale, New York: “[H]e’d been asked, “What kind of name is Salazar?” enough times in his life to be fairly immune to skepticism about his origins and race” (116). Although an individual choice, personal identity is heavily influenced by surrounding characters and environments. The desire to retain a personal identity is also a threat in the novel, as time is inevitable in changing the morals and appearances of individuals and is therefore inconsistent.

Growth- Growth, much like personal identity, exhibits the changes the characters undergo over time. In random order throughout the novel, the growth of characters is explained as their development, be that for better or worse. Jocelyn, who evaluates her past and what she has become when she reunites with Lou and Rhea, cries in discussion with Rhea: “So this is it-what cost me all that time… “You have three children,” I sob into her hair. “Shhh.” “What do I have?” (87). Presented ahead of time, growth is often portrayed as negative, with characters reminiscing over previous ages; when mentioned in the past, however, the future often seems bright and promising. Neutralized by time, the growth of characters can either be beneficial or detrimental, but more importantly is inevitable.

Water- Water is used throughout the novel as a juxtaposition to life in that it ironically offsets traditional opinions of water as a bringer of rejuvenation and renewal. Water symbolizes destruction and chaos in A Visit from the Goon Squad, evident in Rob’s death scene: “[Y]ou’re caught in a current-there are currents in this river-you knew that-heard it somewhere and forgot-you shout, but feel the smallness of your voice, the seismic indifference of the water around you-all this in an instant” (207). Rather than be expressed as a typical soothing, natural force, the purpose of water serves to strike the reader as hazardous and a threat.

The Music Industry- Music is featured throughout A Visit from the Goon Squad, both as a reference and a hobby. Many of the characters have direct or related ties to it, often by connection to other characters. Life is often associated with music, as is with Bennie, whose career involves owning a record company:  “He felt the music in his mouth, his ears, his ribs-or was that his own pulse? He was on fire!” (30). Music serves as a source of inspiration and development for the characters, as well as a measure of time and expressivity. The characters have individual qualms and tastes regarding music, as well as opinions that mature with their age as referenced in the chapters.

The Pulitzer Prize is an award for an achievement in American journalism, literature, or music. Every year there are fourteen prizes given out in journalism, six prizes given out in literature, and one prize given out in music. The award winners receive $10,000 in a cash prize and the winner of the Public Service category is gifted with a gold medal in addition. Any piece that wins a Pulitzer Prize are marked with a gold stamp that shows the award. The prize was started in 1917 by Joseph Pulitzer. Joseph Pulitzer is an influential American Newspaper editor and publisher. He came to the United States seeking a military career as a recruit in the Union Army in the American Civil War. After the war he became a reporter on a German daily newspaper and became active in politics. At the height of his career, he became one of the most influential journalists in the United States.

Pulitzer established the prize in his will that was written in 1904. Throughout its years, the criteria for the prize has gone through many changes. Pulitzer stated that the Pulitzer Prize should be awarded to “the American novel published during the year which shall best present the whole atmosphere of American life and the highest standard of American manners and manhood.” The judges are a jury of academics with interest in fiction who read all the submissions. After reading the submissions, they send a select few to Columbia with reasoning behind each decision.

Jennifer Egan’s novel, A Visit From the Goon Squad, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. In her novel, the characters deal with American life, which makes it an American novel, therefore making it a perfect candidate for the Pulitzer Prize. Egan’s novel is broken up into many different time settings and many different points of view and narrations. This novel stands out because it is a collection of short stories that all tie into a bigger picture once the reader completes the puzzle. A Visit From the Goon Squad is not just a novel, but it is a game too. This novel challenges the reader to piece together connections between characters that are harder to find with the narration that is out of order. The challenge Egan gives her audience is a strong reason that her novel won the important prize for fiction that only a select few authors receive. Egan’s language and plot of her novel also played a large role in receiving her award, but it was her complicated writing style that really convinced the jury she deserved the award. Egan’s complex writing style was something new that had not been done before in her generation of writers and that’s why her novel stood out to the jury.

Jennifer Egan’s novel was deserving of the Pulitzer Prize because it meets Joseph Pulitzer’s original criteria of the winner being an American novel that examines American life. The addition of the risks she took as a writer also show how deserving of the award the novel was and how it caught the jury’s eye by being something different and unexpected.

Works Cited

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Joseph Pulitzer.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 3 Apr. 2018, www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Pulitzer.

“Biography Joseph Pulitzer.” www.pulitzer.org/page/biography-joseph-pulitzer.

Postmodernism is a 20th century style of literature “and concept in the arts, architecture, and criticism that represents a departure from modernism”(Dictionary.com) which broke classical traditions and aimed to move forward to more postmodernist ideas “and has at its heart a general distrust of grand theories and ideologies as well as a problematical relationship with any notion of art.” (Dictionary.com). Jennifer Egan successfully subsumes her novel into the postmodernism era by explaining the concept of reality to challenge the classic suspicion of reason, incorporating relativism which is the idea that the knowledge, truth and morality that exist within American culture are not definite, and the breakage of the typical structure of writing.

In the mid 1900s until today, postmodernism was a reaction to the expected certainty of scientific and systematic studies in literature that known facts and time was an immovable and unalterable complex method. Jennifer Egan alters this notion of actuality by reversing and fast forwarding from decade to decade in her chapters. Most novels of that era were chronologically consistent going from one year to the following year harboring no jumps or sudden ends. From chapter 2, “The Gold Cure”, where Bennie Salazar is a record label executive, Egan abruptly transports the reader into his past, chapter 3, “Ask Me If I Care” in which Bennie is only an adolescent finding his way with his teenage friends in his band, The Flaming Dildos, giving the reader an insight on how Bennie became the man he is today. Although, her reasons for these decade leaps are not random. Chapter 3 informs the reader of Bennie’s musical background and how he has come to arise in the music business. Ultimately, using this unorthodox method of jumping forward and backwards through time in her writing, Egan challenges one of the main concepts of postmodernism; absolutism which is the acceptance of absolute principles of politics, culture and ethical matters.

By changing from identity to identity within her novel, Egan shifts from one idea to the next, conveying the concept that within each culture, the notion of the clear cut truth is never truly concrete, meaning in each identity she develops, each character has their own personal validity. Sasha Grady, in chapter 11, where her Uncle Ted arrives in Naples to search for her, harbors decidedly similar but yet slightly different views from her uncle. Ted’s conventional ideas are that art is what brings joy to his life, distracting himself from the ruins of his personal life and his disconnection with his loved ones. Sasha seeks validity through stolen items, causing Ted to believe that there is a self destructive aspect to her life, creating a disengagement between their personal truths. Egan expands on this idea, further explaining the relationship between the niece and uncle to convey their shared comfort in disassociating with the rest of humanity, but highlighting the underlying factor of hopelessly reaching for a feeling of comfort and belonging in society.

Via the disjointed style of writing, exemplified through her interchanging character chapters, and especially in chapter 12 where she uses powerpoint to go further into depth about the disconnection within Sasha’s family, her redemption of her addiction through “finding” objects in the trash, and her acceptance of the fact that her art falls apart over time shedding light on the saying “time is a goon”, Egan breaks the standard modernist writing style.

Jennifer Egan covers multiple aspects of the postmodernism era in A Visit From The Goon Squad , through connecting characters, multiple differentiating decades, and odd narratives to create a challenge to the classical principles represented in the modernist epoch.

Works Cited

A Visit From the Goon Squad is a hodgepodge of different stories cleverly intertwined to make an effective statement on human existence, our relationship with technology, and our relationships to each other and ourselves, but the assertions Jennifer Egan makes would be moot if she had been unable to utilize a wide range of styles in her writing. From her use of various and uncommon points of view, sentence structures, tonal shifts, and dramatically different characters that are woven together with a cohesive and unique technique, Egan captivates the reader in a series of compelling stories intended to provoke critical thought about our own identities and our role in the world.

We start the novel in the third-person with Sasha Grady. Egan’s language is descriptive and she makes an effort to tell the reader exactly what is happening, setting the scene before she delves into Sasha’s inner turmoil. She uses colons to create detailed, cumulative sentences that are punctuated by simple sentences (“only from people” (4)) and complex/complex compound declarations that enable her to create a candid (although somewhat detached) tone, such as her discussion of Coz: “he wore funky sweaters and let her call him Coz, but he was old school inscrutable, to the point where Sasha couldn't tell if he was gay or straight, if he’d written famous books, or if (as she sometimes suspected) he was one of those escaped cons who impersonate surgeons and wind up leaving their operating tools inside people’s skulls” (4), which leaves the reader feeling as if they’ve glimpsed a stranger changing through a window as they walk by on the street.

We get to know small, intimate, details about each character in the third-person chapters that are thrown at us a bit haphazardly and are occasionally hidden within seemingly unrelated or unimportant interactions and actions, seen in Bennie’s frantic attempts to catch what Sasha says to him after she rejects his half-hearted and misguided romantic advance (38) (characterized as such by Egan’s use of the word “lunged” and her craftful imagery of him pressing his face against the window and his fumble to open the door). This interaction and use of language is a complete antithesis to her use of first-person in chapters three and six, where Rhea and Scotty Hausman outright tell the reader what they are thinking and feeling, leaving little to be interpreted. Her tone changes with each new character, Rhea’s feeling vulnerable, personal, and mourning, versus Scotty’s confident, outspoken, and scornful sensibility. Egan uses simpler sentences, informal sentence structures, and has a loose control on grammar (“but Bennie is waiting for Alice who’s waiting for Scotty, who’s waiting for Jocelyn, who’s known Scotty the longest…” (42)) throughout chapter three to more effectively personify Rhea and give the reader her full experience, with off-handed interruptions of flow such as “believe me, I don’t mistake that for information. I know everyone Jocelyn knows” (40), while in chapter six, Egan is very definite in her structure, relying mostly on balanced, complex, sentences, but includes variation between declarative, exclamatory, imperative, and interrogative sentence types in order to create more of a free-form and personal look into who Scotty is. She ranges from entire paragraphs of rhetorical questions (“but if it was Bennie’s good luck I was getting that day, did that mean my good luck was also his good luck? That my visiting unexpected was also good for him?...” (94-95)) to clean, informative declaratives speckled with parenthesis and punctuated by exclamatories such as “...my old friend Bennie Salazar was a record producer!...” (92).

Rob Freeman’s character is similar to Scotty in many ways: the easy going attitude he puts on display, his self-loathing, his feeling of exclusion, but Egan personifies Rob much differently than she does Scotty. The tone she takes in chapter ten is solemn, thoughtful, and sentimental, with much less dialogue than most chapters (but when it is included, there is an emphasis on two word sentences), focusing more on ‘you’ and ‘your’ recollections of better times. We meet Rob in the second-person, making us feel incredibly connected to what he’s thinking and feeling, even more so than the first-person characters. The reader is one with Rob, a purposeful association because of Rob’s death at the end of the chapter. Egan uses much more imagery than usual in this chapter to help the reader fit into the story, describing every new location in great detail, covering more senses than typical, “Bix and Lizzie’s apartment is tiny, like a dollhouse, full of plants and the smell of plants (wet and planty)...the March cold crackles your sinuses” (188), and greatly varies her sentence structure to create a narrative more similar to a thought process or a memory than the journalistic styles of the first-person narratives.

The evolution of technology as well as it’s role in society is a constant thematic element throughout A Visit from the Goon Squad. Due to the vastness of the novel’s chronology, it makes sense that Egan would focus a lot of her attention and writing to the advancement of technology, as well as the effect these advancements have on entertainment, music, and how we consume media as a whole. This is most clearly seen within the final chapter of the novel in which Alex describes the recent concept of ‘pointers’ and the newfound status of the music industry appealing to toddlers. This idea of simplifying a medium for the sake of accessibility and convenience can be seen in various elements throughout the book, and is the statement I believe Egan is making on the future technological innovations in our society.

While the music and entertainment industry certainly take up the majority of the book’s focus, more of these ideas can be seen in the various advancements made to counter environmental issues in the book. While Egan never explicitly states the pressing issue of global warming and climate change in her novel, there are hints throughout that the world of A Visit from the Goon Squad exists in a similar environmental state to that of our own. Scotty’s description of the polluted lake in which he goes fishing as well as Rob’s acknowledgment of the litter-coated beach before he drowns keys us in on the less-than-perfect condition of the planet. While Egan only subtly references these issues, she goes into much more depth when describing the ways in which society combats these problems in her fictional future. These include the large wall constructed to counteract the rising sea levels, and the miles of solar panels constructed in the desert. However, these inventions are never portrayed as the solution to humanities issues, but instead as yet another form of humanity creating alternative issues instead of really dealing with the issue at its source. This is revealed when Ally discusses the negative effects of the solar panels in chapter 12, such as how they evicted many desert species from their habitats. “They look evil. Like angled oily black things” (291). Descriptions such as these give us a sense or Egan’s critique on humanity’s treatment and actions on such environmental concerns.

As a critical lense in literature, New Criticism disregards knowledge outside of the literature itself and favors instead direct analysis of the writing. Close reading is essential to understanding a work under a New Criticism lense; rather than reflect on an author’s intentional  purpose, it is favorable to consider the language, literary devices, and interactions within the text. Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad is most easily understood as a self-contained novel, or without influence from the author or the response of an audience. With a vast smattering of characters and complex relationships between them that become evident only as the chapters progress, A Visit from the Goon Squad captivates the reader to grasp the novel wholly by personal interpretation. A New Criticism theory is most applicable to reading A Visit from the Goon Squad because it reinforces the separation of events over time, the individuality and yet connectedness between the characters, and the overall presence of time as an immanent force of nature.

Applying New Criticism to A Visit from the Goon Squad is prevalent with the disorder of presentation. Rather than follow a chronological sequence, Egan leads the reader through events in different periods of time, ranging up to decades apart. The exact time is hardly explicitly stated; often it is up to the reader to decipher the chain of events. In this way, a New Criticism lens is prominent to understanding A Visit from the Goon Squad because it entrusts the reader to pay close enough attention to the novel, especially retaining situations that have already occurred or characters that have previously been introduced. For example, Egan opens the novel with an account of Sasha, a kleptomaniac making conscious efforts to change her habits, and her interactions with a character named Alex. Egan later finishes the novel incorporating the  perspective of a much older Alex, who has a startling realization: “And in that moment, without warning, Alex abruptly recalled the name of the girl who had worked for Bennie Salazar: Sasha. It came to him effortlessly, like a door falling open. Sasha” (Egan 325). Had the reader forgotten the previous crossed paths between these two characters, Egan now makes it known. As New Criticism revolves not around the influence of the author, however, but rather the close reading conducted by the reader, the awareness that both Sasha and Alex had been previously connected raises questions requiring an analysis of character complexity. With this process taking place solely within the reader, a New Criticism lens proves prevalent.  

The concept of close reading (also known as “explication”) is also significant to understanding that by connecting the characters over many concepts and events, Egan reveals major points and themes within the novel through varying perspectives. In Chapter Five, titled “You (Plural)”, Jocelyn, a friend of Bennie’s during his youthful rock band days, reconnects with her friend Rhea and her teenage tormentor and love interest, Lou. Egan makes it known to the reader the complexity of the relationship between Jocelyn and Lou: she was his underrage lover, having been seduced by him when she was seventeen and him much older. Jocelyn appears in the chapter as much more independent, expressing her regrets and sadness over her previous interactions with Lou as they have led to the consequences she currently suffers; she reminisces “Everything went past, without me” (86). Having introduced Jocelyn earlier in the novel, Egan displays more detailed information about her character. No outside information is needed, as prioritized in New Criticism. Through reading, inferences and judgments can be made on the characters based wholly off of individual reading. New Criticism is helpful when analyzing A Visit from the Goon Squad in that it is easy to think critically, raise questions, and keep track of characters on both a separate scale and as an inclusion to the entire novel.

Furthermore, reading Egan’s novel under a New Criticism lens makes one of the most prominent themes especially apparent by verbal functions. The dialogue of characters, both narrated by Egan or spoken directly within the novel, reveal main messages and significant details that might otherwise be missed. New Criticism ensures that specifics are not lost under close reading. Small dialogue in Chapter Seven makes note of one of the most essential messages in A Visit from the Goon Squad, the inevitable progression of time and the changes it makes to characters: “You don’t look good anymore twenty years later, especially when you’ve had half your guts removed. Time’s a goon, right? Isn’t that the expression?” (127). Through usage of a New Criticism lens, the reader can pay attention to the last section of the quote, which also references the title of the novel itself. In valuing the realizations of the novel that can be made by individuals, many more concepts and devices are brought into the entire analyzation.

As time moves forward the role of society changes and America is faced with cultural adjustments. In A Visit from the Goon Squad Egan addresses the changes that all of the characters have to undergo from the time they are born to the time they die. Throughout the novel time is seen as one of the main themes where the changes that occur throughout time, along with the struggles and defeats that affect and change society as a whole. In A Visit from the Goon Squad Egan uses the development of society to portray his ideas on culture; with America's uncertainty on its role in society there becomes this loss of innocence, need for change and a continued outlook on time.

Throughout the novel characters differentiate between when they were young and when they were old and how society seemed to change them and their culture. As these characters do get older they begin to face a loss of innocence  and undergo a continuous amount of changes. However, what we learn from A Visit from the Goon Squad is that these changes never seem to vacate and continue to affect each and every character and their role in society. For example, when Bennie and Stephanie live in the suburbs they are treated differently because they were different from the rest of the community, and even though Stephanie made her way in with Kathy who had “elevated status in the pecking order of local blondes [that] gave Stephanie an easy and neutral entree” Bennie was still seen as an outsider (115). In the 1960s and today, society can determine who your friends are; it’s hard to try and be friends with someone from a different crowd because people seem to relate that as a way of knowing that they are not similar to yourself. However, Egan uses this novel to develop his argument that where you come from does not determine the kind of person you are because people are constantly changing in society and everyone goes through the loss of innocence. For instance, Lulu accepts the changes needed to be made after working for the general and continues to move forward after going through the loss of innocence. Egan creates these ideas to address that life revolves around change and finding yourself.

With the idea that life is about finding yourself and the continuous change that goes along with it, it also is about the ways in which we use time. Time is what creates our path in life and is what creates those changes in everyone's day to day lives; without time life and the changes made within life would not be possible. Looking at the ways Egan uses time to develop his ideas we can see that time is what creates each characters loss of innocence and is what also creates and destroys their hope towards a brighter future. For instance, Bennie Salazar loses hope in himself after he has not had any sexual tension since his divorce from Stephanie; however, as time goes by he developed the idea that “a pinch of gold flakes” would bring back the sexual tension that he wanted as he “looked at Sasha’s breasts”(33 and 35). After Bennie and Stephanie’s divorce Bennie had a loss of innocence that only helped to give him hope after time had passed. Egan uses time as a way for characters to find themselves again and discover their true identity. As said before, time changes everything, in the very beginning of the novel Sasha was just Bennies receptionist who had a problem with stealing things, but by the end of the novel she had moved away and had a family. While Sasha was the receptionist people did not care for her much, however when Bennie seemed to be “preoccupied by the memory of Sasha” while looking for her apartment with Alex that portrayed a sense of belonging that formed for Sasha over time (338). Alex and Bennie went back to Sasha’s apartnment to see if she still lived there because they had become more caring individuals over time after failing many times before that. The cultural background of the main theme of time all revolves around the idea that society changes people's minds and instincts. After Bennie and Alex got older they still had that same cultural background, but over time culture changes, people change and it all leads to a new and improved society where lessons are learned.