Sasha tipped back her head to look at him. She made a point of doing this now and then, just to remind Coz that she wasn't an idiot--she knew the question had a right answer. She and Coz were collaborators, writing a story whose end had already been determined: she would get well. She would stop stealing from people and start caring again about the things that had once guided her: music; the network of friends she'd made when she first came to New York; a set of goals she'd scrawled on a big sheet of newsprint and taped to the walls of her early apartments:
Find a band to manage
Understand the news
Study Japanese
Practice the harp
-A Visit from the Goon Squad
It now seems appropriate that I procrastinated for a week on writing this review, as Sasha's set of goals up there looks not unlike a list of resolutions. Also gives my blog that classy--albeit slightly dated--touch to start the year with 2010's Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction, dontcha think?
A Visit from the Goon Squad tells the story of--well, what exactly? A bunch of people, a city, an era, their music. It encompasses a lot, really. Egan spends each chapter with a different character, and these characters weave their way in and out of each other's stories; this method that must have involved a heck of a lot of notes, I'd imagine. The bulk of the story takes place in the first decade of the 21st century, but jumps back as far as the 60's and forward into the near future. It's a pretty impressive feat.
It's also a pretty easy story to get wrapped up in, and I found myself regretting that I hadn't saved it for my recent travels--I finished it sitting in an airplane right before takeoff, actually. There's something about the world that Egan creates that really draws the reader in, even though I wouldn't describe it as a particularly warm book. There wasn't a character I really loved, but the format of the book helped to engender sympathy with all of them, which is a pretty nifty trick. It's not necessarily a book I see myself returning to--although having said that, a reread probably would allow me to make connections between characters I'd missed the first time around. It's a bit hard to imagine rereading anything right now, with more new books on my shelves than ever. Lucky me!
Up next: World War Z, which I just finished yesterday and hopefully will be back to post about relatively soon.
It now seems appropriate that I procrastinated for a week on writing this review, as Sasha's set of goals up there looks not unlike a list of resolutions. Also gives my blog that classy--albeit slightly dated--touch to start the year with 2010's Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction, dontcha think?
A Visit from the Goon Squad tells the story of--well, what exactly? A bunch of people, a city, an era, their music. It encompasses a lot, really. Egan spends each chapter with a different character, and these characters weave their way in and out of each other's stories; this method that must have involved a heck of a lot of notes, I'd imagine. The bulk of the story takes place in the first decade of the 21st century, but jumps back as far as the 60's and forward into the near future. It's a pretty impressive feat.
It's also a pretty easy story to get wrapped up in, and I found myself regretting that I hadn't saved it for my recent travels--I finished it sitting in an airplane right before takeoff, actually. There's something about the world that Egan creates that really draws the reader in, even though I wouldn't describe it as a particularly warm book. There wasn't a character I really loved, but the format of the book helped to engender sympathy with all of them, which is a pretty nifty trick. It's not necessarily a book I see myself returning to--although having said that, a reread probably would allow me to make connections between characters I'd missed the first time around. It's a bit hard to imagine rereading anything right now, with more new books on my shelves than ever. Lucky me!
Up next: World War Z, which I just finished yesterday and hopefully will be back to post about relatively soon.
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