A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

After a recent dry spell of disappointing novels, I happened upon Jennifer Egan’s 2010 Pulitzer Prize winning novel A Visit from the Goon Squad while trolling Overdrive for available downloads. During my recent spate of audio book borrowing,  I’ve noticed that unless the pacing and writing is beautifully crafted, I find my mind wandering to other things during my walks and drives as the book plays like so much white noise in the background. This is patently not the case for the audio version of Egan’s novel.  Written almost as a series of vignettes of a large cast of characters, A Visit from the Goon Squad is hard to put down and easy to pick up. Written with a wit so sharp a reader might hurt themselves, it held my attention from the introduction of its first character, Sasha, the former assistant of music executive Benny Salazar. Sasha is a kleptomaniac with a wry sense of humor and a hopeful, but realistic outlook. During her stint as the book’s protagonist, she reflects on her attempts at recovery, her relationship with Benny, and the pleasure she takes stealing; screw drivers, a child’s scarf, a note found in a lover’s wallet, bath salts, et cetera. The novel’s point of view then gracefully shifts to Benny himself, like a relay racer handing off a baton, and the story takes up, not from where Sasha left off, but before, during a time when she was still employed by the aging, desperate Benny Salazar.  Benny, for his part, laments his divorce and his apparent loss of libido during the day-in-the-life-of snapshot of his life that is chapter two.  The novel next picks up, over 30 years earlier with the tale of Benny’s high school friend in 1979. Here we are treated to a glimpse of the emerging Punk scene in San Francisco, and are also introduced to Benny’s future music industry mentor, Lou, as seen through the eyes of seventeen year old Rhea. The novel then journeys back five years earlier to an African safari and the point of view of Lou’s then lover and nanny of his children during a ten-day African safari.  The novel continues to introduce several other characters all somehow connected to Benny and/or Sasha as it winds back and forth through time.  Each of these segments or chapters could easily stand alone as a short story, as each is vivid and captivating in its own right.  Each and every person is written with care and insight, and as a fan of character-driven stories, I couldn’t be more pleased with their development. If you’re looking for a well-written book with a thoughtful and intimate take on human frailty and redemption, A Visit from the Goon Squad is available for checkout at the Delphi Public Library in hardback, audio, and EBOOK format.

-Jennifer Wilson

Frog Music by Emma Donoghue

Author of the best-selling novel “Room,” Emma Donoghue, establishes a successful return to period fiction in her new novel Frog Music, proving once again that she is as adept at creating historical worlds for her readers as she is at weaving contemporary tales.  Frog Music, set in 1876 San Francisco, paints a colorful and disturbing portrait of this then-burgeoning young city.  Narrated by the brassy burlesque dancer and “lady of the night” Blanche Beunon, a recent immigrant to The City from France, the novel chronicles the events surrounding the murder of Blanche’s new-found friend, the larger-than-life, cross-dressing frog catcher Jenny Bonnet. Interestingly, the tale is based on actual persons and events meticulously researched by Donoghue in preparation for the novel. 

Seldom am I able to continue enjoying a novel after it has killed off my favorite character (Jenny the Frog Catcher) no matter how deftly written the prose.  Fortunately, however, Blanche turns out to be a bit of a phoenix and The City proves to be something of a character itself.  Reading this book, I found myself alternately amused, fascinated, and horrified by 1876 San Francisco and its denizens, learning about such various things as early small pox vaccinations, baby “farms,” and back alley “cribs.”  Far from being pigeon-holed as a strictly historical-fiction genre piece, this novel would appeal to any lover of juicy murder mystery.