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December 5, 2010
50 Down, 2 To Go "A Visit from the Goon Squad" (52 Books, 52 Weeks)
Jennifer Egan's latest novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad, has been garnering critical acclaim and has landed on almost every list of the year's best fiction. These honors are well-deserved, the book is ambitious and possibly my favorite novel of the year.
A Visit from the Goon Squad is skillfully told by multiple narrators and leapfrogs back and forth in time from chapter to chapter. However, the non-linear storyline is never confusing. In Egan's masterful hands these characters' linked stories form an impressive whole. I think my friend Jodi Chromey was dead on when she wrote of the book, "What makes Egan so wonderful is that she manages to be experimental and fresh while never making the reader question whether what she’s doing is total bullshit or totally genius." I couldn't have said it better myself.
My next book is William Woys Weaver's book Culinary Ephemera: An Illustrated History.
also at Largehearted Boy:
other 52 Books, 52 Weeks reviews
Online "Best Books of 2010" lists
Online "best of the decade" book lists
Online "best of 2009" book lists
Online "best of 2008" book lists
Book Notes (authors create playlists for their book)
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
