This wonderful but hard-to-categorise novel won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. After reading one of the most peculiar chapters I have come across in the last five years, I had tears streaming down my face… but where to begin?
This is certainly not a single linear story. Some reviewers have suggested it is much closer to a suite of related short stories. Each chapter forms its own beautifully crafted microcosm, but there is a bigger scheme in place. We initially meet two characters. One is an innovative music producer who is commendable for his musical insight and defiant attitude to the music “money men”, but who in his personal life has failed marriages and a self-centred “user” attitude to women (even teens) he meets. The other is Sasha, his executive assistant who has clearly come through great difficulties as a young person, and is now fighting kleptomania.
Rather than a story about two characters, this becomes a story about the larger context of history (and future). Egan does this by jumping ship rapidly and in all directions. We move back in time to look at the teen years of the producer… but from the point of view (in the first person) of one of his friends. Rather than explore Sasha's inner life directly, we are transported into the life of her angst ridden uncle who has reluctantly agreed to look for her in Europe after she runs away from home. In some ways this reminded me of a fractal structure... at one point we are learning about a particular charcter, but then get a paragraph about the future life in summary of an incidental character, and a line or two about the life in summary of one of his childern. The “Goon Squad” in the title is actually a reference to time, so at least one declared theme is the corrosive effects of time on personality, aspiration and relationships.
The final chapter is essentially near future science fiction (a bit like the most recent William Gibson works), so Egan has not restricted her story telling to the normal “then till now” framework. However the chapter that reduced me tears was the penultimate. It is written as the creation of a twelve year old daughter (part of Sasha’s future). She creates her journals using only Power Point slides and what looks like the “Smart Art” graphics from Microsoft. This has no right to work… but does (at least for me) spectacularly. It is a wonderful example of how to create a message from conscious manipulation of a limited medium, and a reminder that often many of the words in our story telling serve little useful purpose.
If you are sensitive about vulgar words in the mouths of teens (and some of the other characters are realistically vulgar as well) then you may think twice. I was not comfortable with the sexual relationship of the producer when he was at his sleaziest.. yet none of this is commended. This is a broad ranging look at humanity, and despite the title offers hope of healing, love and fulfilment. It is certainly a thrill to read highly effective experimentation with form and structure.
Recommended for adults, though I imagine older teens might find it interesting as well. Sexually explicit scenes and language mean it is unsuited for younger readers.
Andrew Lack
Head of the Odell Learning Resources Centre
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