A Visit From the Goon Squad
3 journalers for this copy...
So, I didn't really get it! I understood the concept and what the author was trying to achieve but it just wasn't my kind of thing.The characters were interesting enough. The concept of time and how things change is good, but part of me just couldn't get into it. It kept me slightly interested, hence I finished the book, but it was a relief that it was complete. Also prepare yourself for some power-points near the end!
Amazon blurb:
Jennifer Egan's spellbinding novel circles the lives of Bennie Salazar, an ageing former punk rocker and record executive, and Sasha, the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Although Bennie and Sasha never discover each other's pasts, the reader does, in intimate detail, along with the secret lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs, over many years, in locales as varied as New York, San Francisco, Naples, and Africa.
We first meet Sasha in her mid-thirties, on her therapist's couch in New York City, confronting her long-standing compulsion to steal. Later, we learn the genesis of her turmoil when we see her as the child of a violent marriage, then a runaway living in Naples, then as a college student trying to avert the suicidal impulses of her best friend. We meet Bennie Salazar at the melancholy nadir of his adult life-divorced, struggling to connect with his nine-year-old son, listening to a washed up band in the basement of a suburban house-and then revisit him in 1979, at the height of his youth, shy and tender, revelling in San Francisco's punk scene as he discovers his ardour for rock and roll and his gift for spotting talent. We learn what became of his high school gang-who thrived and who faltered-and we encounter Lou Kline, Bennie's catastrophically careless mentor, along with the lovers and children left behind in the wake of Lou's far flung sexual conquests and meteoric rise and fall.
A Visit From the Goon Squad is a book about the interplay of time and music, about survival, about the stirrings and transformations set inexorably in motion by even the most passing conjunction of our fates. In a breathtaking array of styles and tones ranging from tragedy to satire to Powerpoint, Egan captures the undertow of self-destruction that we all must either master or succumb to; the basic human hunger for redemption; and the universal tendency to reach for both-and escape the merciless progress of time-in the transporting realms of art and music. Sly, startling, exhilarating work from one of our boldest writers.
Amazon blurb:
Jennifer Egan's spellbinding novel circles the lives of Bennie Salazar, an ageing former punk rocker and record executive, and Sasha, the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Although Bennie and Sasha never discover each other's pasts, the reader does, in intimate detail, along with the secret lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs, over many years, in locales as varied as New York, San Francisco, Naples, and Africa.
We first meet Sasha in her mid-thirties, on her therapist's couch in New York City, confronting her long-standing compulsion to steal. Later, we learn the genesis of her turmoil when we see her as the child of a violent marriage, then a runaway living in Naples, then as a college student trying to avert the suicidal impulses of her best friend. We meet Bennie Salazar at the melancholy nadir of his adult life-divorced, struggling to connect with his nine-year-old son, listening to a washed up band in the basement of a suburban house-and then revisit him in 1979, at the height of his youth, shy and tender, revelling in San Francisco's punk scene as he discovers his ardour for rock and roll and his gift for spotting talent. We learn what became of his high school gang-who thrived and who faltered-and we encounter Lou Kline, Bennie's catastrophically careless mentor, along with the lovers and children left behind in the wake of Lou's far flung sexual conquests and meteoric rise and fall.
A Visit From the Goon Squad is a book about the interplay of time and music, about survival, about the stirrings and transformations set inexorably in motion by even the most passing conjunction of our fates. In a breathtaking array of styles and tones ranging from tragedy to satire to Powerpoint, Egan captures the undertow of self-destruction that we all must either master or succumb to; the basic human hunger for redemption; and the universal tendency to reach for both-and escape the merciless progress of time-in the transporting realms of art and music. Sly, startling, exhilarating work from one of our boldest writers.
Hi There and welcome to bookcrossing!
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Sent to Nakipa as the winner of the international sweepstake. Hope you enjoy this book.
Bookcrossing is a community of booklovers who want to share their books with the world. You have just found a free book and its yours to do with as you with. You can read it and pass it on, or keep it.
The BCID you entered is unique to this book.Please make a journal entry to say where you found the book, what you thought of it and where you release it. You can remain anonymous or you can become a member of bookcrossing (its free!). Please consider using Nataliec7 as your referring member if you join. Lets keep this book travelling to as many readers as possible.
Sent to Nakipa as the winner of the international sweepstake. Hope you enjoy this book.
And the book has arrived. Thank you so much for sending me a wishlist book, I'm really looking forward to reading this one! :D
I guess I have to confess this book was also not really my thing. It is nicely written and after getting used to having to jump around from character to character and trying to connect them all, it really only continued to give me the idea that books written about contemporary characters have to have them all screwed up, is there not a normal person these days?
Released 7 yrs ago (8/24/2016 UTC) at Lisboa - City, Lisboa (cidade) Portugal
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
This book is going out to you as part of the Wishlist Tag Game. I hope you enjoy! :D
Thank you very much, I completely forgot about this tag! Now to check if I haven't missed anyone ..
Sorry for the awfully late journal entry, the envelope has been with me for a few months, but I am rarely at home and my backlog has a backlog and .. Thank you so much, it will be enjoyed one day soon, pinkie promise!
Sorry for the awfully late journal entry, the envelope has been with me for a few months, but I am rarely at home and my backlog has a backlog and .. Thank you so much, it will be enjoyed one day soon, pinkie promise!
