Throughout the course of this class and the novels we have read, I noticed a recurring theme among the experimental techniques used by the novels’ authors. It stemmed from the questions asked in class-how is this novel experimental? How is this other novel also experimental, and how do the experimental techniques differ from of complement […]
The all-powerful Network has very accurately become “God” in A Visit from the Goon Squad. It sees all, connects all. It is the thread that ensnares all facets of life into its web. As such, Goon Squad reflects real life concerns about networking. Nowadays, digital networking is the subject millions, if not billions, dote upon in […]
[IMAGE BROKEN] The word “Goon” may mean a great many derogatory things. Hearing this word we may instantly think of large, hulk-y brute or mentally-questionable oaf. But Goon may also mean something a little more. The book, which is entitled A Visit from the Goon Squad, gives the readers a preconception of what the book […]
(this is essay 2 of the Blogging project suite) If a pervasive sense of loneliness runs through Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad (in a way, I should add, gave me the good kind of sad feeling), so too does a desire from many of its characters to maintain control– control of each […]
Children. You love them or you loathe them. Without children, there would be no adults. Likewise, without adults, there would be no children. So where in this cycle does Jennifer Egan’s novel A Visit From the Goon Squad happen to fall? Egan focuses on children in a subtle but big way throughout her novel. The relationships that […]
Across its many characters, times, and settings, it quickly becomes apparent that in the world of A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, things are not as they seem, and are in fact the result of a carefully-constructed artifice from the characters, and perhaps even the reader. Within Goon Squad, numerous people across […]
Taking a course on experimental literature, I expected to encounter books with unfamiliar formatting, interesting graphic components, and quirky content (like footnotes and appendices). What I did not expect were experimental assignments. I am comfortable with traditional essays, so completing projects with components that were unfamiliar to me was pretty intimidating. And while some projects […]
Our group was fortunate in the line up of projects with book subjects. It’s actually a lot more difficult to pinpoint projects that did not lend themselves to highlighting and analyzing thematic aspects of their literary counterparts. Specifically, I’d like to explore how the following projects worked and did not: House of Leaves as a […]
A Visit from the Goon Squad uses lack of chronology as a characteristic of an experimental novel. Egan’s writing style, for this specific plot, uses many characters and different points of view that are not always directly connected to each other. However, as English Majors, we all know that a main character is a normal […]
After finishing A Visit from the Good Squad, I spent a lot of time considering Sasha’s character. I wanted to understand why the author uses Sasha as a common thread amid the other, more peripheral characters. I reached the conclusion that Sasha earns a central role in the novel because of her receptivity to—and retention […]
When I first started reading A Visit From The Goon Squad, I didn’t really like Sasha at all as a character. I thought that she was going to turn into a low life and not going to succeed. However, when we get to chapter 12, we see her as a mother with two kids and […]
This weekend, while reading the ending of A Visit From the Goon Squad, I went through a horrible crisis that some of the characters in this novel would agree with was nearly life changing; my phone broke. As many, if not most, of the people in our world today do, I have my “life” […]
From cover to cover any reader can feel the music pulsing from the pages of A visit from the Goon Squad. Not only is every band under the sun listed throughout but also the sounds of the city and the feelings that the characters (particularly Bennie) experience when they listen to the music. My favorite scene […]
A Visit From the Goon Squad highlights many of the important stages of life, one in particular being teen angst. Rhea, Bennie, Jocelyn, and Scotty all have their own struggles during high school, however, out of all of them, it seems as though Jocelyn is the one most affected later in life by her choices […]
Egan’s writing style goes against any traditional sense of chronology, but it is still easy to see the dysfunction of characters communicating across generational gaps. Egan seems to be using generational differences as a way to show the issues with society; possibly to unravel the reason for divorce, homelessness, or career shifts. This is evident […]
This semester, along with my English and biology courses, I am taking a class on contemporary Spain. The other day, while discussing the recent trends of Spain’s immigration and emigration—a discussion that naturally followed the semester-long discourse we’ve had on Spain’s national identity—, Dr. Saxton-Ruiz posed an interesting question: Assuming they had never stepped foot […]
Throughout A Visit From The Goon Squad, Egan has chapters where each one has a specific point of view. For instance, we have the first chapter told in third person as the narrator voices Sasha, the fifth chapter told in first in Jocelyn’s voice and chapter ten told in second person seeing through Rob’s perspective. […]