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  2 0 I haven't finished reading this yet (I'm about to start the Powerpoint chapter). It's been taking me a long time because I can't stand the characters, any of them. I know that's not supposed to matter to me and it usually doesn't, but these people are giving me a hard time. Also, some of the details of the music scene don't ring true to me (Rhea and Jocelyn, with safety pins in their faces, are supposed to be impressed with Lou in his denim and copper bracelet, really? little things like that), which makes me doubt the whole thing. It seems mostly like a strong, not perfect, technical accomplishment, but I don't think it does anything that David Foster Wallace didn't already do, and I don't particularly enjoy his fiction. I respect this more than I like it. prettybetsy answered in Book Club- A Visit from the Goon Squad 11 months ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question New comments are not being accepted at this time.

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• Reputation: 105 Q&A: 3 0 0 45 2 0 Classifieds: 2 0 what's this? Moderator Jay Jansheski is a moderator on Questionland Seattle Follow Following 0 Jay Jansheski

  2 0 Probably like a lot of other people I read it just after it won the Pulizter and a few weeks before the book club popped up, and my impression of it then was that I liked it but didn't love it. I have to admit that I prefer a single, sort of grand arc, and the chaotic timeline and mash of characters in Goon Squad left me feeling distant. But when the book club came up I took the opportunity to go through it again and fill in all the holes in my understanding of story and character, and the better I knew it the more I liked it. I don't often take a second run at books I bounced off of the first time, but I'm glad I did here. All of which is to say, I liked it quite a lot. Here is my one complaint, and the thing that might have turned it into a specacular book for me: As I see it, the chapter with the slides is meant to be Sasha's redemption, but I can't see the mother in that story as being Sasha no matter how hard I try. Since it feels like a different person, I find it difficult to feel the satisfaction I think we're meant to feel for her. And it's not that I expect a happy ending for everyone– I can think of any number of books I love that have melancholy endings for their protagonists, but this wasn't one of those. This was a very happy ending that somehow landed on the wrong character. It's absurd to be nitpicking, because it's obviously a beautiful piece of work, but I guess I find myself more willing to dish out criticism for things I find to be so, so close to being spectacular, and the closer it is to spectacular (without actually touching it) the more I want to know what's wrong with it. And so that's how I feel about it: it was very nearly something that would have gone onto my shelf of favorite things, but the tiny distance by which it missed makes me feel nitpicky. Jay Jansheski answered in Book Club- A Visit from the Goon Squad 11 months ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question New comments are not being accepted at this time.

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  1 0 I liked it a lot. I didn't love it. I was bowled over by the quality of the writing -then again, I'm pretty easily impressed. My main criticism of it is that it lacked humor. I need at least a chuckle now and again. It offered a pretty bleak look at human nature. Maybe that's why I found the slides section so uplifting. The powerpoint presentation gave me chills. Nancy answered in Book Club- A Visit from the Goon Squad 11 months ago | Report 2 comments by Black Beetles in Amber and Black Beetles in Amber… 0 0 "My main criticism of it is that it lacked humor. I need at least a chuckle now and again. It offered a pretty bleak look at human nature." Most of the Kitty portions had some amount of "humor", or at least an attempt. I don't think bleakness was the problem exactly, dark humor (if handled well) would have been welcome. I was actually expecting this to be far bleaker, not just a surface-level view of rocknroll and LA. The way the book was originally described to me, I was expecting more crusty punk versus the suits interaction, but never felt fully immersed in the world, or the characters. The stories were fine, if feeling a bit recounted. Black Beetles in Amber commented 11 months ago | Report 0 0 Agreed on the effectiveness of the Powerpoint. It seemed the only time she wasn't a tourist, where she actually expressed the experiential quality of music. I enjoyed playing around with my memory of the silence-gaps in those songs :D Black Beetles in Amber commented 11 months ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question New comments are not being accepted at this time.

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  1 0 I have to admit that I didn't really give it a chance. I read the first chapter and gave it to a friend. I wanted to be able to chat about it here, but alas it bored me out of the gates. infernactual answered in Book Club- A Visit from the Goon Squad 11 months ago | Report 2 comments by David Wright and infernactual… 0 0 ooh: I have to say that there are some chapters a little ways in that are phenomenally NOT boring: actually terrifically suspenseful. You need to know - and have probably seen from the comments here - that the narrative of the first chapter is dropped and a new narrative ensues, and so on and so on. Then again: I don't really know anything about the kinds of books you enjoy, so there's really no sense in my challenging your boredom, & I'm not. But it might be interesting for others here to hear - if you can put a finger on it - just why you find it boring? David Wright commented 11 months ago | Report 1 0 I really didn't give it a fair shot and so it's unfair of me to say it was boring. There was just nothing to keep me going... I wasn't enamored with the writing. But in fairness it was my impatience because I know the style changes throughout the book. Thanks for letting me know that there is more there. Perhaps I'll borrow it back when my friends is done. infernactual commented 11 months ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question New comments are not being accepted at this time.

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• Reputation: 166 Q&A: 6 0 0 46 0 0 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Expert: 5 topics Books & Writing Book Recommendations General Book Discussion Other Books & Writing Book Club- A Visit from the Goon Squad Follow Following 0

  1 0 I felt pretty "meh" about this book. Maybe that's because I just finished it in the Philly airport where I'm still waiting to catch a plane back to Seattle that's been delayed for over 4 hours (!!!), but I agree with Misha: it felt like Egan was trying too hard to be edgy and didn't always succeed. I was especially annoyed by the last chapter. However, I did enjoy her writing style -- she's clearly got a major gift for description and characterization. And the PowerPoint chapter was unexpectedly charming and moving -- though I agree that Sasha was completely unrecognizable. Abby Bass answered in Book Club- A Visit from the Goon Squad 11 months ago | Report 1 comment by Black Beetles in Amber… 0 0 "it felt like Egan was trying too hard to be edgy and didn't always succeed." Yeah, I was always expecting PUNK RAWKKKK but ended up with this milquetoast impression of what a "scene" is, like someone's idea of what being trendy, being a "hit" band, and being a "hitmaker" were all about. Next time, interview someone who throws awesome scenester parties, has been through the grinder musicwise, the writing was fine but somewhat lifeless. Black Beetles in Amber commented 11 months ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question New comments are not being accepted at this time.

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• Reputation: 1254 Q&A: 23 0 18 493 64 1 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Moderator Marty Unger is a moderator on Questionland Seattle Follow Following 5

  1 0 Sorry I'm getting to the party late but I really slowed down at the end due to my waning interest in the characters and writing style. There's no doubt that Egan can write but her self-awareness of this fact bothered me throughout. Other than a few moments that I really enjoyed like Scotty's performance and some of the Powerpoint stuff, I was pretty bored for most of the book. Marty Unger answered in Book Club- A Visit from the Goon Squad 11 months ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question New comments are not being accepted at this time.

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  1 0 I liked it. I guess I wasn't expecting anything, having been completely aware of all the buzz but never actually reading enough about the plot to know what I was getting into. It took me probably three or four chapters to get into the rhythm of the changing perspectives, but after that I liked the style fine. I am a totally character-driven reader, so this could've been an ideal book for me, but I felt like it lacked heart in a few places; she kept it just a little bit darker than I could appreciate for a book about nothing. It was complicated and interesting and I'm learning to love books even when I don't love/care about the people in them. But there was a hollowness here that made me feel a little odd. I did think, overall, it was just what I want from a book- I thought about it a lot when I wasn't reading it, I want to talk about it with y'all, parts of it were really memorable. I just don't think I'll love it forever. I'm going to lend it to the next person who asks and probably forget they have it, you know? annabee answered in Book Club- A Visit from the Goon Squad 11 months ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question New comments are not being accepted at this time.

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  0 0 I read a bunch of other people's reviews after I finished the book because I couldn't decide if I liked it or not. Part of this ambivalence is probably due to the way they book is structured. On the one hand, I love, love, love the idea of writing about a network of people from different character and age perspectives. Egan goes so far as to outline the epilogues of some of the more minor characters' stories, much like a character sketch in which you knew if she wanted she could've devoted a chapter to each outline. Because of this, I liked the challenge of the pacing of the book. I liked having to keep track of who and when and what details I knew already. Talk about getting all wrapped up in other people's drama! On the other hand, there were particular chapters I didn't much care for, and unlike other novels where the chapters don't so clearly dictate the structure, I'll boldly make the case that GOON can be judged chapter by chapter. Trying to give the overall book a score is tough, and to echo many of the reviews I've read, Egan is clearly quite clever and was showing off a bit with this book. alynturner answered in Book Club- A Visit from the Goon Squad 11 months ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question New comments are not being accepted at this time.

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  0 0 I enjoyed Egan's book, but I didn't love it. I read and enjoyed her book "Invisible Circus" years before, and in some ways, found it more emotionally resonant. I will have to try "The Keep" as well. I appreciated her skill and her character development. But there were times when it felt like she was trying too hard--to be edgy, hip, etc. Some of this worked, and some of it felt forced. My feelings about the book also suffer from the fact that I read it around the same time that I read Tom Rachman's debut, "The Imperfectionists," which has a similar short story structure but somehow was more satisfying for me. I also wrote about both of those books briefly for a blog post, here. mishalibrarian answered in Book Club- A Visit from the Goon Squad 11 months ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question New comments are not being accepted at this time.

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  0 0 I really enjoyed it a lot. I sympathize with Paul: expectationsand hype and all that can so flavor a book. Fortunately, this was the first thing of Egan's that I'd read, so I wasn't saddled with any comparisons to her other works, and I guess I tend to view most literary awards as largely meaningless, so I felt able to ignore that aspect too. (Reviews, on the other hand, I do not find so easy to get out of my head, so I deliberately didn't read any and won't until we're done here - I think the only review I read was the video review where Ron Charles put on black lipstick and stood in front of his furnace). David Wright answered in Book Club- A Visit from the Goon Squad 11 months ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question New comments are not being accepted at this time.

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