A Visit from the Goon Squad

Pulitzer Prize Winner

By: Jennifer Egan

Narrated by: Roxana Ortega

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE WINNER • With music pulsing on every page, this startling, exhilarating novel of self-destruction and redemption “features characters about whom you come to care deeply as you watch them doing things they shouldn't, acting gloriously, infuriatingly human” (The Chicago Tribune).

One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century • One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years • A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of the Century • A Los Angeles Times Best Fiction Book of the Last 30 Years

Bennie is an aging former punk rocker and record executive. Sasha is the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Here Jennifer Egan brilliantly reveals their pasts, along with the inner lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs.

“Pitch perfect . . . Darkly, rippingly funny . . . Egan possesses a satirist’s eye and a romance novelist’s heart.”—The New York Times Book Review

You have to pay attention!

Several reviews I read before purchasing this mentioned that it was difficult to follow as it jumped back and forth in time and between loosely related characters; so, I read with care, often going back and rereading sections. It was not hard to do that, as the story was engaging.

The writing was fresh and different. Magnificently casual with brilliantly REAL dialogue.

The craft of the writing kept me interested in a story that otherwise would not have interested me.

The story itself is for connoisseurs of music - particularly of rock n roll.

A lot of characters and mini-subplots

Many parts were interesting and thought-provoking, but there were too many characters and mini-plots for me to really keep track of.

I listen during long drives once or twice a week. Maybe if I listened straight through while not driving it would have been easier to follow.

Ambitious story about time and art, grating narration

Intricate web of characters, was happy to finally return to Sasha near the end. I appreciate the experimental format, and will think about it for a while. The narrator is terrific when she’s reading straight straight, but the exaggerated masculine voices and screechy child voices are a huge distraction.

A+

Great descriptive, character driven novel! Definitely a captivating read And had a hard time putting it down until I finished it.

No goons really…

Fascinating characters, and unusual structure delivered by fine reader or readers made for a great ride…