Week 15.2: Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad

Reading:
Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad, 234-340 (not as long as it seems)

Discussion Questions:
1. "Time's a goon!" How does this theme of decline, of being beat up by time, apply nationally and to nature in the last two chapters of the book?

2. Recall in the first chapter that in describing Sasha's efforts with her therapist, Egan writes, "[T]hey were writing a story of redemption, of fresh beginnings and second chances" (8-9). For a book about decay, there are a number of happy endings. How does the book manage this tension in the end?   

Week 15.1: Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad

Reading:
Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad, 186-233

Study Question:
1. Bring in four passages, two from each chapter, that exemplify the themes that we have discussed in the book thus far. Explain your reasoning with each of these passages. Make sure to transcribe the passage in full before your explanation.

Week 13.2: Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad

Reading:
Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad, 39-83

Study Questions: 
1. In "Gold Cure," the second story we discussed from last session, Bennie evaluates the history of rock music as one of diminishing returns. If the high watermark of authenticity was the punk rock of the late 1970s, the present moment of "Gold Cure" is one of thoroughgoing banality. Digitally produced, all the music sounds perfect and all of it is garbage. In "Ask Me if I Care," the narrator, Rhea is an old high school friend of Benny's and a collaborator in his band, The Flaming Dildos. How does she also marshal a discourse of authenticity but how does she also show the instability of such a discourse? How do we know if we are authentic?

2. There are several moments in "Safari" when the narrator breaks up the action to inform the reader of what will eventually happen to the characters long after the events of the story/chapter. Why do you think Egan does this?

Week 14.2: Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad

Reading:
Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad, 137-85

Study Questions: 
1. Both "Selling the General" and "Forty-Minute Lunch: Kitty Jackson Opens Up About Love, Fame, and Nixon!" concern themselves with the public relations industry. How does this speak to the theme of authenticity that we have discussed previously?

2. Both these stories focus on Kitty Jackson. What does the juxtaposition of the two chapters do?

Week 14.1: Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad

 Reading:
Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad, 84-136

Study Questions:
1. Bosco, decrepit old rocker, declares in "From A to B" that, "Time's a goon, right? Isn't that the expression?" (127). Clearly, this made-up expression is important to the novel given the work's title. What does it mean that time is a goon? What is a goon? How does this expression help clarify the themes of the novel, particularly in the previous chapters?

2. A Visit from the Goon Squad has been described as a "networked" novel, meaning that it builds its meaning through the social network of the characters. Draw a map of the relationship between all the characters that we have encountered thus far. Grades will be determined on the basis of completeness and legibility.

Week 13.1: Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad

Jennifer Egan (b. 1962) is the author A Visit From the Goon Squad, which won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, and the LA Times Book Prize. Egan's novel consists of a series of interrelated short stories that document the lives of people involved in the music industry. The short stories date back from the 1970s to the near future.

Reading:

Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad, 3-38

Study Questions: 
1. Using internal evidence from the book, including citing book pages and passages, establish when each of these short stories takes place?

2. Opening chapters of a book tend to be contractual. They tell you what type of book you are about to read and hopefully, they teach you how to read the book. What sort of things seem important to this book?