Music makes the world go around and music makes A Visit from the Goon Squad spin and pulse like an electric guitar. This Pulitzer Prize winning novel is a canon where each character has a individual story that connects to the orchestra which is the Goon Squad.
Bennie and Sasha are the main characters whose past, present and future story lines exist throughout the entire book. Bennie was in a band when he was in high school. He grew up to be a record executive with a beautiful, intriguing secretary named Sasha. Sasha likes to steal things and has a troubled past that she doesn't want anyone to know about. New characters are continually introduced, whose lives intersect with Bennie and Sasha.
Each chapter is a mystery where you must uncover who the narrator is and how they connect to the lives of Sasha and Benny, who literally run the show. The technical business of music is combined with the way Egan wrote this book. A Visit from the Goon Squad is unique, intellectual, technical and full of heart. The underlying theme of music gives the book a heartbeat. There is an entire chapter written in Power Point format and makes you wonder about pauses. A Visit from the Goon Squad is a book full of characters you will love to hate and may even care about in the end. This is a book to think on and analyze. (I love books that make me think and analyze!) I loved the mystery of the Goon Squad and the pieces of the chapters that make you form your own unique puzzle. It is fun to think about why this book won the Pulitzer Prize in 2011. Is it the goons, the music, the unique writing? Hmmm.
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