What readers think of A Visit from the Goon Squad, plus links to write your own review.

About a year ago, I realized that all the Pulitzer Prize-winning books I have read are without exception excellent. So even though I was wary about this one—a goon squad?—I trusted that Pulitzer Prize gold medal (it won in 2011) and dove in. I am so glad I did!

Written by Jennifer Egan, this is a compelling, character-driven book with no discernible plot. But don't worry about that! I couldn't stop reading once I started. And that weird goon squad? Well, that is a brilliant metaphor for the inevitable process of aging—of growing old whether you like it or not, whether you fight it or give in and age gracefully.

The novel is structured around more than a dozen characters, who experience the ravages of time, some of whom handle it better than others. Each chapter focuses on one of those characters, bouncing back and forth in time from the 1970s to the 2000s, and in Egan's expert hands this is smooth, effortless, and orderly. In other words, it works brilliantly and isn't the least bit jarring.

The characters, each of whom is richly and deeply depicted, are either directly or loosely connected to one another. Some of them include:
• Sasha, a young woman who constantly steals things for the sheer thrill of it and works as an assistant to record producer Bennie Salazar. She has a checkered, difficult past.

• Bennie, the aforementioned record producer, is going through a midlife crisis, knowing his best days professionally and personally are well behind him.

• Dolly, the single mother of Lulu, is a public relations executive, who is trying to make a comeback. She chooses to do so taking on a general of an unnamed country that is a genocidal dictator. (Think Qaddafi.)

• Kitty Jackson, a beautiful actress.

• Lou Kline, a 1970s-era record producer, who marries three women, has six children, and keeps chasing younger and younger women until the inevitable happens.

Each chapter is told from the point of view of that one character in his or her voice. And each chapter creates a wider and wider circle with Sasha and Bennie at the center, as the characters' relationships to each other shift and develop as the novel progresses. Reading this book is like watching a skipping stone on a lake.

Have you ever heard of "Chekov's gun"? The Russian playwright Anton Chekov once said that if you place a loaded rifle on the set in Act I, it had better be fired by Act III. With that in mind, so many seemingly minor details or asides in the early chapters of this novel turn into full-fledged chapters later. Nothing is mentioned that isn't fully fleshed out later.

Highly imaginative and brilliantly observed, this extraordinary and sophisticated novel is literary fiction at its finest.

A Visit from the Goon Squad interpolates characters that are struggling with the process of aging while at the same time figuring out their paths and direction in life. Although the book was well-written with each chapter an engaging short story of its own, I did not like the book as a whole. The lack of plot and depth of the characters drained my focus from the book, although as previously said the chapters themselves were easy to read.
   Throughout the book Egan uses different voices to express her characters, even featuring a fifty page powerpoint presentation near the end of the book. The various writing views makes the book more intriguing, but once again I feel that the book doesn’t capture the depth of the characters personalities and doesn’t show the change that the characters made in time, it just plots their events throughout the years. Also, make note that before you read this book, there are a huge number of characters. I suggest to not spread out the reading, but rather try to read it consistently. I had to keep referring back to earlier passages in the book to remember who all the characters were and what their relations to other characters were as well. The number of characters made it hard to keep up with what exactly was going on in the chapters, but eventually you can piece together the relations and events.
   As a whole, I would not place this book as a “must-read” and it is definitely not a “relax, sit back, and enjoy” one either. As previously said, I did not like it, but different people have different literature tastes, so I can see how one would like it. However, I am not going to be recommending it.

The critics adored this book! In fact I never read such accolades: "extraordinary", "dazzling", etc. I couldn't wait to purchase it and begin reading. I'm reading it...and reading it.....but where's the good part? These people are uninteresting and unlikable. As a psychotherapist I was drawn in by the first chapter which takes place in a therapist office. Yes, I understand they were on a journey of aging (I wouldn't say growing), but there was no reason for me to care. Three-quarters of the way in, I just gave up. Left it on a plane so maybe someone else will find it and enjoy it. I wouldn't give it to any of my friends. To tell you the truth, I feel misled. Money wasted.

Yes, it is clever..but that doesn't warrant the accolades this book is getting. Not an arresting book at all..

I finished the book the whole time thinking when will this grab my attention. Very confusing each chapter a different character at different stages of their lives. Not alot of substance. A waste of my time. Would not recomend. It was book club book to read & discuss. Not a lot of discussing on my part.

After reading all the critics, I thought that this would be a great read to suggest for one of my book clubs. I'm 3 qtrs of the way through the book and would drop it except that we chose to read it in a book club. The charcters are all dysfunctional with few redeeming qualities, they are unable to connect with others in a significant way, they lack depth, and are totally self absorbed. I haven't found one of them to be interesting enough to care about what happens to them and right now I just can't wait to get done with this book.

I'm not sure why this novel won such accolades. The topic sounded interesting (the world of contemporary music) but about halfway through I realized I didn't care about any of the characters or what happened to them. That's the kiss of death for me, so I shut the book and never opened it again.

I hoped to like this book and gave it several chapters before closing it for good. I'm very surprised to see it get the rave reviews. I found it confusing, bouncing around with characters I could not recognize in their many incarnations, past, present and contrived future; and never enough to care about.

Also, for all its forward-thinking, there are parts of this book that cannot be read on a Kindle.