‘A Visit From the Goon Squad’

Not quite a novel – more like linked short stories (with PowerPoint!) – Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad was this summer’s classy beach read: a relentlessly, often ruthlessly funny exploration of our ever-molting relationship to music, from adolescence to adulthood, acting out to mellowing out (usually sheepishly). The cult of celebrity and Earth’s fundamental unsustainability are some of Egan’s grand-canvas concerns, but it’s the small-scale family stuff – the miscommunications, abandonments, and shambling pretend-vows to do better – that hooks the reader in, so much so that it’s frustrating when Egan reshuffles the character deck chapter to chapter: Each is so singular and engrossing, one longs for longer visitation rights to them all.

Jennifer Egan

Moderated by Amanda Eyre Ward
Saturday, Oct. 16, 3:45-4:30pm, Capitol Auditorium, Rm. E1.004

Literary Death Match

With Hank Stuever, Mark Haskell Smith, Bob Shea, Rick Meyerowitz, Julie Klausner, Jennifer Egan, and Holly Black; emceed by Todd Zuniga
Saturday, Oct. 16, 12:30-1:30pm, Paramount Theatre

This article appears in October 15 • 2010.

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A graduate of the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas, Kimberley has written about film, books, and pop culture for The Austin Chronicle since 2000. She was named Editor of the Chronicle in 2016; she previously served as the paper’s Managing Editor, Screens Editor, Books Editor, and proofreader. Her work has been awarded by the Association of Alternative Newsmedia for excellence in arts criticism, team reporting, and special section (Best of Austin). The Austin Alliance for Women...