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Again, S.F. in 70s. Hairstlye, clothing, ideals, all durastically change in these Characters lifetimes... something Egan is able to beautifully represent.

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Colors, ideals, and vibe of San Fransisco in 70s... for an idea of one of the settings!- Nina

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Book Cover - representative of the two main ideas: music and time.

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The literary criticism we picked questions Sasha's reliability as a narrator, because in the beginning she is deciding what answers to say depending on what she thinks her therapists wants to hear. Lit crit states "They are examining her past in order to shape her future, but the past Sasha narrates from the couch is already heavily edited. Like any analysand, Sasha is constantly choosing which answer to give: the one she thinks her therapist wants to hear? The one that means she’s getting better? The truth? Which truth?"

However, this section of Sasha's life is necessary to see growth within her later on and embed smaller messages such as the one I was talking about in the connected post. I think the truth that she is telling might not be the "correct" one - but that is the choice Egan chose to make - Sasha, at this point in her life, is struggling to find herself and get help for her addiction. She knows that. Later on, we see development in Sasha as she becomes a mother.

She turns to collage making as a hobby and when questioned why by her daughter, she says "'Not junk, tiny pieces of our lives.'" (264). Here we see a much more reflective Sasha that would not be possible without knowing her background, and her unreliability as a narrator in the beginning sets this up perfectly.

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This interview is super interesting and focuses a lot on characters and how the book came to be! Definitely would watch if considering reading this book, because it will help you understand big ideas.

12:30 - discussion about Alison's PowerPoint
18:30 - big ideas, THEN the development of characters (her process)
26:07 - development of Sasha as a stealing addict
31:00 - The importance of time and how it is reflected in book
34:15 - How she transferred from Characters (specifically with Bennie) - using the why to develop backgrounds and interlace meaning!
49:15 - feminist lens from a writing perspective

VIDEO LINK: A Visit from the Goon Squad | Jennifer Egan | Talks at Google - YouTube

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A Visit from the Goon Squad | Jennifer Egan | Talks at Google

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This book is centered around time - and it plays an important role as it travels onward without stop. Egans usage of perspective and narrative allow us to understand power dynamics, and more importantly, they reference differing societal norms. One that I will focus on is addiction recovery, seen with Sasha. With over 10 different narratives, Egan was able to incorporate a ton of smaller messages, and with Sasha, we learn about addiction... for her it was stealing. She knows what she is doing is wrong, and when we first meet her we initially can tell that she is silenced by her shame... not entirely because she tells her therapist she isn't, but in the date scene in which she steals a wallet, she has to take a Xanax to calm down. "She longed to slide to the floor," (12). Later on, we see her recover, find herself and her passions, and move to the desert to start a family and focus on sculpting. Her newfound confidence allows her to speak and blossom. This is one smaller story of recovery, whereas other narratives go the opposite direction... Bennie, for instance, speaks in the beginning of his story and is on top of the music industry prior to his downfall where he quickly becomes irrelevant and is soon silenced by that irrelevancy. His story is one of lost dreams and old ideals in a rapidly changing environment.

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This book was inspired by Proust’s A La Recherche du Temps Perdu and The Sopranos. She wanted to incorporate as many real world problems into a narrative without stretching it too thin - she incorporates sexism, lost dreams, failed relationships, opportunities, a futuristic world in which technology has an extreme hold on many, etc. However, she keeps the common theme of relationships throughout her jumping through TIME and SPACE.... some examples of place/time/setting in this book: teens in 70's San Fran, young adults in suburbs of NYC, or young families in the heart of NYC in a later futuristic time period.

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In the New York Times book review, it is written that "Egan’s depiction of Jules, the celebrity journalist, embodies her sophisticated sympathy," - in regards to Egan's skills as a writer. This is represented in Jules through our understanding of why he choses to 🤬 Kitty... and providing a sense of normality and first person for Jules allows us to feel much more connected to the crime and cause the reader to truly stop and think about what is being done. This happens by regular people... "not villains but folks just trying to get by."

Their relationship, although initially work related, begins to take shape of men vs women and hierarchy of social class (celebrity) and the power rush that Jules got from touching Kitty led to this problematic relationship and continued a cycle rather than breaking one.

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When choosing a book review, we decided to look at The New York Times linked at the bottom of this post because we align with what was written about Egan's "A Visit from the Goon Squad." Egan perfectly spread out her perspectives to point where, for a while (as seen in our book club audios), we couldn't put together the point of it all. However, the book miraculously comes together at the end in which the reader learns the pour of a constantly devouring goon, the passage of time. Throughout the book, multiple smaller connections are made, and the book is exciting in that sense - we really enjoyed trying to put together a character map of our own prior to finding a "prettier" one online that would more benefit someone looking for a book to read. The books commentary is definitely more indirect, but it is powerful (see theme).

This book review focuses on choices made by Egan, compares her to other writers, and discusses how time the ever changing society and constant ticking of time leads to the development of characters and, more importantly which we focus on with our developed theme, their relationships. We agree with this book review when it says the book is "nearly pitch perfect," and we give it a 4/5 (just for the confusion in the earlier stages of reading, it might take a committed reader or patient one to come full circle).

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""For "Goon Squad," I knew it was a book about time. I started writing and I thought it was fun. Then I thought it's a book happening in pieces, therefore the pieces need to be as different as possible. I thought, 'Let's take advantage of the piecemeal nature and cover more ground, not just people and situations but time periods and techniques.'"
Egan when talking about her creation of the characters
Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-SEB-64384

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Although Bennie did not participate in the "Summer of Love" as he was too young, he was influenced by the ideas of resisting conformity and protecting freedom of thought that the movement promoted. Throughout his career, we see his desire to make good-quality, meaningful music, instead of the "garbage" that most producers were making. Bennie's continuation of counter culture values into his adult life illustrates that the desire for reform is not simply something that disillusioned youth express to find purpose. Instead, it is an essential component that drives societal change. Although the counter culture movement has largely ended, its ideals can be helpful in enhancing contemporary society.

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Historical Context: Counter Culture in San Francisco - Carolina

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Historical Context: Counter Culture in San Francisco - Carolina

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Based on the fact that Egan grew up in San Francisco and the timing and location of Bennie's teenage years (also San Francisco in the late 1970s), it is clear that Egan wanted to incorporate the San Francisco counter culture into her writing. The movement was located mainly in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood in San Francisco. It is most well-known for the "Summer of Love" in 1967, where tens of thousands of youths came to protest the Vietnam War and the materialism of American society. Many of these youth also wanted to "expand their minds" through the use of drugs like LSD and through practicing alternative religions. This movement is also associated with many bands and artists like the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin.
Source: https://www.britannica.com/place/Haight-Ashbury

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Throughout the book, we see Bennie continuously wrapped up in the false illusion of the American Dream and the wealth and eternal happiness it may provide, just as Gatsby was. However, at the end of the book when the narrative wraps up with Alex in the future, we see him reflect on the past just as Gatsby did as well. Throughout his chapter, he is trying to pin point the name of Sasha, who we know he went on a date once many years prior (first chapter), almost as if he is trying to find out what it is about the past that is missing from his current day life, in the future: a time period of "handsets" (futuristic phones) and a sense of corruption. Finally at the end, he remembers her name and discusses her with Bennie.
What's intresting is that they are right by her old apartment, and Alex feels the urge to check in on her.

"Bennie stood close to Alex, and they waited together, suspended in the same precarious excitement." (339). We begin to understand all the Sasha represented when Egan writes "Alex imagined walking into her apartment and finding himself still there - his young self, full of schemes and high standards, with nothing decided yet." (339). His American Dream lay in the possibilities and glamor of his youth, in which he yearned for now in this new age. We fully understand that commentary as nobody answered the door and "Alex felt a gradual draining loss," (339).

A similar urge seen in Gatsby when Nick confronts him and reminds him that "you can't repeat the past!" - however, in Alex, it is much more subtle and not the main focus of this narrative.

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Alison's PowerPoint and it's reflection on her relationships - Nina Bowens 

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Alison's PowerPoint and it's reflection on her relationships - Nina Bowens 

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When looking at Alison, Sasha's daughter, and her entire section, the reader is prompted to pause and question Egan's choices into the layout and syntax of the entire section. Her brother, Lincoln, has autism and her parents often struggle to understand him and his obsessions, such as music and pauses in songs.

Through Alison's PowerPoint, we are able to understand her relationship with Linc, where she is much closer with him and tends to understand him a lot better. Not only does she organize the slideshow in sections, incorporating arrows, blocks, graphs, and more to symbolize Lincoln's interest in organization and timing (see pages 236,240,275 for prime examples,) but she also dedicates the title of her chapter to "Great Rock and Roll Pauses" - Lincoln's prime obsession, which she continuously supports throughout the chapter.  She even graphs them in multiple different forms at the end, which symbolizes something you can look into in another post!

Sasha's devotion to things Lincoln is interested in which quickly contradicts Lincoln's relationship with his dad, who quickly crescendos into an important syntax moment on page 279: "'Stop! Dad shouts. 'Stop. Please. Forget I asked.'"

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Applying a Marxist Lens - Carolina Proctor

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Applying a Marxist Lens - Carolina Proctor

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The obsession with money that plagues the American dream threatens to derail Bennie, despite his intense passion for music. This is seen when he tries to eat gold, tonguing it “in a tight knot” and sucking “the juice from within it” (35). Bennie eating the gold displays the deep obsession with acquiring wealth that the American dream has caused him to have; consequently, he is so fixated on it that he wastes his money on edible gold, believing that his consumption of it will automatically eliminate his insecurities by providing him with "success". Additionally, it relates to The Bluest Eye, where Pecola tries to eat Mary Janes in hopes that it will transform her into a white girl, ending her insecurities about her skin color and appearance. This "eating" action is so widely used in literature because it is used to criticize the American glorification of things that are largely unobtainable for the vast majority of people, like extreme wealth.

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In A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan illustrates the idea that structural issues in society lead to the formation of problematic relationships, but when relationships are formed in ways that transcend societal norms, they function to break the limiting societal structure and facilitate more freedom.

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Reflections on the American Dream (pink)

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Reflections on the American Dream (pink)

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The psychoanalytic lens is applied to look for unconscious behaviors and/or anxieties throughout a text. Egan's journalism history presents itself in A Visit From the Goon Squad through her short stories and the informative nature of each story. In journalism, it is important to get a point across through an article, which can be seen in each chapter as they are told through different points of view. Each point of view offers different reactions to a certain trauma. For example, the different reactions of Drew and Sasha towards Rob's death.

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Connection to Lit Crit - Carolina Proctor

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Connection to Lit Crit - Carolina Proctor

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When talking about the reduction of complex information in Alison's powerpoint, the lit crit notes that "The elisions necessitated by the form become poignant, as these silences echo the inability to communicate that infects the relationships limned in this chapter" (Jernigan). We agree with this statement, as Alison's powerpoint reflects the idea that in order to understand certain people, like Lincoln, different ways of communication are necessary. The pauses that are embedded throughout the powerpoint illustrate the lack of communication and misunderstandings that result from people's unwillingness to communicate in ways that they are not used to, like Drew and his unwillingness to engage with Lincoln about musical pauses.

This also relates to Morrell's social language lens, as Alison's powerpoint is a way to convey her thoughts without speech, and Lincoln's musical pauses are a way to understand the world around him.

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FEMINIST:
Throughout the book, we see Bennie as a symbol of masculinity - despite losing his dream after being sort of "removed" from the music industry. Towards the end of the book when the narrative circles back to him, we see him in a "buisness" meeting with Alex in which both of their daughters are playing.

"Their wives were in the kitchen; their baby daughters were between them on a red Persian carpet, warily sharing a ktichen set." (310)

This specific hone in on the setting and where characters are placed is important becuase Bennie, in essence, is in charge of this setting and dictated how the meeting would go. We see his values through this one line, and more importantly, where his values and perspective of society place him on this timeline. He is a man of older, less progressive views, adapting to life in a completely new world shaped by the goon of the story, time.

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Like in The Great Gatsby, Egan conveys the fact that the American dream is unreachable. Asking how ""American" become an ironic term? How had "democracy" come to be used in an arch, mocking way?" (324).  Saying that "American" has become an ironic term means that people are reaching for the "American Dream," however, there is none. Which has been leading people to pursue money rather than happiness, therefore it is an ironic, cyclical term. While saying that "democracy" has been used mockingly means that oppression has taken the free speech that is a part of democracy, which America prides itself on.

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Book Review and Lit Crit - Links for utilization 

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Book Review and Lit Crit - Links for utilization 

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Crit: https://online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=161330&itemid=WE54&articleId=396521
Review: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/books/review/Blythe-t.html?smid=url-share

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One aspect of the American dream that is conveyed by Egan is the excessive orientation toward money, meaning that in order for people to be considered successful in “American” terms, they first have to give up on their passions and dreams. For example, Bennie is a character who falls out of success because he tries to hold onto his passion of promoting music with good quality. When Bennie was younger, Rhea observed that at punk rock concerts, Bennie "actually" listened "to the music" (46). Therefore, it is evident that Bennie cares about how music makes him and others feel, not just how people react to it. When he carries this passion into his professional life, he gets "canned from his own label" after he refuses to "’feed the people 🤬’" music, or in other words, the meaningless, preverbal music that the markets are buying (312). Hence, because they care so much about satisfying the baby consumers, the executives of Bennie's label refuse to produce unpopular music, even when it is made with true passion. This reflects the prioritization of money in American society and the damage that it inflicts on people who have passion toward their jobs.

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Author and Background Information (purple)

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Author and Background Information (purple)

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Structural Relationships and their Issues - Carolina

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Structural Relationships and their Issues - Carolina

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Society has structures that categorize people into certain groups, leading people to form relationships solely to comply with the inherent structures. Jules describes the idea that everyone in the restaurant recognizes Kitty "with a simultaneity that can only be explained using principles of quantum mechanics" and the "properties of so-called entangled particles" (168). Moreover, through Jules' point of view, Egan conveys that there is a strong social hierarchy embedded in societal structure that causes people to mindlessly act as though they know certain people who are higher up.

The problematic effects of the relationships created by societal structure are evident in Jules' reaction to getting to know the genuine Kitty instead of her celebrity façade. After Kitty gives Jules a distinct gaze when he engages her about horses, he explains that "for reasons I cannot understand...I experience this contact as revelatory, urgent, as if...I am being lifted above an encroaching darkness", and then proceeds to try and r*pe her (181). Evidently, when Jules realizes that Kitty’s relationship with those around her is all part of the celebrity hierarchy, he gets so upset that he attacks her in an effort to degrade the “special” relationship that she has with other members of society. He knows that there is no reason people pretend to recognize her and want to know her besides her celebrity status. Furthermore, this displays the fragility and insecurity of relationships that are formed according to societal structure.

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POV in relation to character (5/8) - Demi Sasson

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POV in relation to character (5/8) - Demi Sasson

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The first two chapters, Sasha's and Bennies, are in the third person. This indicates that these characters might not be as self-aware as someone like Rhea or Stephanie. In Sasha and Bennies chapters, it is clear that because they are in the third person, they are an unreliable narrator. This is because they are not as self-aware and are still trying to chase the dream of happiness and success. Whereas Rhea and Stephanie understand that this dream is not always achievable. On the contrary, in some chapters, like "Found Objects," there are switches from the first person to the second person, indicating that the narrator might be talking to themselves. This differs from a thought shot because the rest of the chapter is not in the first person and does not show the narrator's thoughts but contradicts what the narrator said previously.

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In our internet run yesterday, many of the websites explained Jennifer Egan's imaginative mind. This is good to remember throughout the book because it allows readers to become imaginative as well. An article describes Egan as being known for her  “roving, unpredictable imagination, and for the dazzling ingenuity of her narrative conceits.” https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/16/jennifer-egans-travels-through-time

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR (journalism Background) - Carolina Proctor

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR (journalism Background) - Carolina Proctor

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Link: https://jenniferegan.com/about/
On top of being a writer, Jennifer Egan is a journalist who has written frequently in places like the New York Times Magazine. Her work covers many different areas such as childhood mental health disorders and child homelessness, which reflects her desire to understand perspectives of people in unique situations. She carries this desire over to her writing in A Visit From the Goon Squad, where she writes about characters who do things that are not societally acceptable in a way that allows the reader to understand their background and reasoning. One example of this is the chapter about Dolly, where through Dolly's perspective, Egan provides a perfectly logical rationale behind Dolly's promotion of the genocide-committing dictator.