A 2010 novel about an aging punk rocker turned record executive has just been named the best book published since 2010, adding another remarkable accolade to its already impressive legacy. Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and became one of the most celebrated novels of the 21st century, captivating readers with its unconventional structure, unforgettable characters and stories that connect in unexpected ways.
“It won a Pulitzer Prize and confirmed its stature early, but fifteen years have only strengthened the case. Few novels this formally adventurous are also this funny, sad, and alive to the embarrassing ways people keep trying to matter to one another.”
@nytimes In Jennifer Egan’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book “A Visit from the Goon Squad,” each chapter stands as its own self-contained story, shifting among different characters, perspectives and narrative techniques. One of her most experimental is a chapter told entirely in PowerPoint slides that Egan says she slipped in during a round of revisions. The novel recently made The Times’s list of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. Tap the link in bio to listen to our full conversation on “The Book Review Podcast.”
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Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad follows Bennie Salazar, an aging former punk rocker who has become a record executive, and Sasha, his troubled young assistant. The novel branches out through the lives of friends, musicians, family members, lovers and former bandmates whose stories intersect across decades, beginning in the 1970s.
Egan doesn’t tell a straightforward, linear story. Instead, she builds the novel out of 13 interconnected chapters that jump between characters, time periods and even different forms of storytelling. Chapter 12 is famously told almost entirely as a series of PowerPoint slides, while others focus on different genres and characters.
This is a novel about music, fame, memory, aging and time, creating one of the most inventive books about growing up in the digital age.
Related: 2009 Novel Rejected by 60 Literary Agents Named Goodreads’ Best Book for Book Clubs
A Visit from the Goon Squad Was a Critical Success
A critical success from the start, the book won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction.
The book’s popularity has grown with time. The New York Times named it one of its 100 Best Books of the 21st Century, and The Atlantic named it one of the Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years. It has also appeared on many best-of-the-decade lists, including those from Time, Entertainment Weekly and Literary Hub.
Why A Visit from the Goon Squad Is So Revered
@heyheyitskatiek A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan 🎶🎸💔 #HeyHeyReads #BookTok #BookTokClub #BookReview #Bookworm
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Unlike other literary works that experiment with form, Egan doesn’t sacrifice the book’s emotional core. The chapters can feel almost like separate stories, but gradually, readers recognize the connections between the characters and understand how their choices affect other people’s lives.
The structure also reflects the book’s central theme of time. Characters who seem important in one chapter might disappear for years before reappearing from an entirely different perspective, with music providing the book’s organizing principle.
The book is also famous for its PowerPoint chapter, which allows Egan to explore a young character’s thoughts in a way that traditional writing couldn’t. She effortlessly moves through a range of styles, from tragedy to satire to PowerPoint, to create one cohesive story.
Why the Novel Still Resonates Today
A Visit from the Goon Squad was considered groundbreaking when it was published in 2010, but its allure has only grown with time. Its themes of technology, the changing ways people communicate, nostalgia for lost youth and the evolution of the music industry are even more relevant now than they were in 2010.
Fifteen years after its publication, the novel’s unusual structure feels less like an experiment and more like a reflection of the way people actually experience modern life: in fragments, memories, conversations and connections that only become clear with time.
Related: Oprah Winfrey Names Her Favorite Book 30 Years After Launching Her Book Club
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