'A Visit from the Goon Squad' destined to be an American classic

I finished reading “A Visit from the Goon Squad” by Jennifer Egan on Wednesday, and I predict that this book will one day be viewed as a classic of American literature.

This may happen sooner than later if fans of the book have anything to say about it.

Published in 2010 by Random House, “A Visit from the Goon Squad” reads like a collection of connected short stories in that each chapter is told from the point of view of a different character in settings from that range from New York to California to Africa and Europe. The story also jumps around in time from the present day, to the sixties and to the near future.

Most of the point-of-view characters are connected in some way, whether they know it or not. Many of them are involved in the music industry, while others are related or were friends or associates at some point in the book’s timeline.

“A Visit from the Goon Squad” reminded me of William Faulkner’s famous novel, “The Sound and The Fury.” Both novels jump around in time and are told from a variety of unusual, contrasting points of view. I would say that this is more artfully done in Egan’s novel, but that’s like saying that a Whopper is better than a Big Mac. Both are pretty darn good.

If you’re into books, I’ll be surprised if you haven’t heard of “A Visit from the Goon Squad.” It’s been on the best-seller lists for months and has raked in a number of big awards, including the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. It was a finalist for the 2011 PEN/Faulkner Award and for the 2010 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction. It also won the 2010 Salon Book Award for Fiction.

As you might imagine, “A Visit from the Goon Squad” is considered one of the best books published in 2010. Publisher’s Weekly, The New York Times, Time Magazine and the American Library Association named it on their lists of the best books of the year. The novel also won The Morning News’ annual Tournament of Books and The New York Times named it the New York Times Notable Book of the Year (Fiction & Poetry).

Fans of “A Visit from the Goon Squad” will also be pleased to hear that the book is being adapted into a series for HBO. I don’t have HBO, unfortunately, so I’ll have to wait for it to hit NetFlix.

I thoroughly enjoyed “A Visit from the Goon Squad” and appreciate why it won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It’s also safe to say that I’ll be fan of Egan’s from now on. Her other novels include “The Invisible Circus” (1995), “Look at Me” (2001) and “The Keep” (2006). She also published a short story collection in 1993 called “Emerald City.”

In the end, how many of you have had a chance to read “A Visit from the Goon Squad” or any of Egan’s other books? What did you think about them? Which did you like or dislike and why? Let us know in the comments section below.