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 …more 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. (less)