A Visit from the Goon Squad: Review

Nothing excited me more when we were told that we were allowed to choose our own novel for the first time ever this year in AP Lit. Don't get me wrong, the scholarly choices of Winesburg, Ohio and Frankenstein we're interesting in the sense that they were novels associated with literary merit, but most of the time the books put me to sleep or made my head hurt (when I'm not interested in a novel I actually get literal headaches.......it's so sad). Finally being able to pick the book I wanted to read for class was what I was looking forward to all year! First things first, the choice selections made it so hard to choose what exactly I wanted to read; I’m that person who walks around with at least 20 books at Barnes and Noble. Choosing just one book is literally impossible, so deciding which book to read as my final novel drove me insane. Secondly, the incorporation of a “self chosen" novel truly made me happy due to the fact that I was introduced to so many novels that I may have never ended up coming across on my own. Knowing about the books we talked about in class as options left me with future reading selections, which I always look forward too. The book I finally decided to read (after around 20 minutes of me debating back and forth with myself) was the novel A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan, and I have to say that I'm very happy with the choice that I made. The novel revolves around an array of characters, some that know each other and some that don't, that are each facing various challenges in their lives and only seem to be connected through the concept of time. From the start I knew that I was going to enjoy the novel; I love it when books are more so a collection of short stories that intertwine together rather than one short and simple story line that get's the point across; this novel was no different from my usual preference due to the fact that it allowed each and every character to tell what was happening in their lives from their own point of view while also showing how they connected to the larger idea at whole. I specifically enjoyed this book over others that I've read in the past due to the fact that Egan wrote out each character's story in such a way that you truly felt connected to them while reading. From Lou's problem with women, to Bennie's feelings after Stephanie left him or Rob's internal conflict due to him denying the fact that he was gay, each story honestly through you into the life of that specific character in way that made you truly see how time was something that they longed for. This book made it clear that time is in fact a "goon" in everyone's life; no one is completely aware of what the future holds; only time will eventually tell. Yet, time may not end up giving you what you wanted in life, which is why the goon that is time may end up visiting you when you least expect it. It's for that reason and that reason alone, that I think Egan allowed her characters to connect in the sense that they each weren't ready for time to continue evolving. Every character longed for a moment in their lives where they were truly happy and had little worries, in an attempt to have control over the situations that were currently going on around them. Ya feel me?