A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Both Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures and the Gables Book Club are reading The Candy House so in the interest of continuity I picked up the earlier book that featured the same characters. Visit was probably the quirkiest book I have ever encountered. It won the Pulitzer Prize min 2010 and has received exclamations as the perfect book.  Many critics have written how it haunts them as they revisit the myriad of characters introduced in the novel. Actually, it reads more like a collection of interlinked short stories. It is hard to describe as the stories move back and forth in time (1970s to 2020), place (New York to California to Africa), and connection with each other. 

The reader is introduced to Bennie Salazar and Sasha in the first chapter and they weave their way in to succeeding chapters of the novel. Bennie is a member of a Punk band that gets a break from Lou, who is a record producer and eventually a tragic figure. Sasha is introduced as a kleptomaniac, stealing a wallet in a woman's restroom before she meets with her therapist. Both incidents give insight as to how their lives will change through the decades.

Throughout the novel various scenes give hints to tell the story of the lives of the characters. Bennie moves up through the recording scene and eventually has his own record label. He marries twice, obsessed over his impotency to the degree that he ingests gold flakes to help improve it. Sasha had a sad life that finds her running away with a rock star and traveling all over the world. One of the most stereotypical characters is LaDoll, a slutty publicist in New York City, who is also mother to Lulu. The novel, in chapter 12, projects into the future as it is a series of PowerPoint slides called "pointers" and is written by Sasha's daughter, Alison. 

At times this was a very frustrating read because of how the novel shifted time, place, and characters. It perhaps is worth a second read, but I am not sure I could do that. I found it hard to connect with many of the characters and was even repulsed by a few. I sure hope that The Candy House is a more satisfying read.