Preview: A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

This novel will change your life.

Winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize and 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award and written by American writer Jennifer Egan, this is the most moving book I’ve ever read.

A Visit from the Goon Squad, while a novel, is a collection of intertwined stories told from various perspectives throughout different locations and time periods, taking place from the 60s to the 2020s.

The novel also uses a variety of formats: for example, one story is told entirely through a slideshow.

Most of the novel is centred on music and takes place in New York City.

A lengthy list of characters is portrayed in A Visit from the Goon Squad, which includes: Bennie, a record executive; Sasha, Bennie’s thieving assistant; Bosco, a guitarist; Lou, an older music producer who spends much of his time with young women; and Scotty, Bennie’s former bandmate.

The heartbreaking novel focuses on how time doesn’t stop for anyone, and tracks some of these characters from their youth to middle age, underscoring change; lost youth, friendship, and happiness; and growing up.