Jennifer Egan's Visit from the Goon Squad was very very good. It was a delight from start to finish...vivid characters and situations all weaving in and out of different stories. Close up you could take each story separately and then step back and see it as a cohesive whole. Time was fluid and dizzying. You're in the not so distant future when toddlers are addicted to their 'starfishes', which are some sort of handheld device that eerily sounds like an Iphone a few years from now, and then back in the 1970's listening to the start of punk in the backseat of a car.
The story is vaguely about the music scene and a few recurring characters who play a part in it. Structurally it reminded us (unofficial MV bookgroup pick)of Olive Kittredge or the Imperfectionists by Tim Rackman. I hope however that this does not spawn a whole series of the 'lots of short stories crammed together to make a novel' genre. It worked for them but I can see it not working for others.
I have gotten a couple more of her books to check up on her ouevre but if this is any indication she deserves all the prizes Jonathan Frantzen's novel didn't get.
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