Someone, I think it was Laura, advised me to just read Goon Squad straight through. This is excellent advice. For this is one of those novels where you keep switching perspective and seeing characters from different angles/times. If you read it slowly, you'll probably forget things and then be all "Wait, who is this girl and why are they in Africa and why does this one sentence seem fraught with meaning?"
Things I love in books:
1. Switching perspectives
2. Backstory
3. Sentences like "Ted deliberated this question while downing three espressos in the hotel lobby, letting the caffeine and vodka greet in his brain like fighting fish."
Now I know that some of you -- those who have held out this long -- are all "Yeah, but it's probably overhyped and I don't want to be all bandwagony and why should I care about this book booooo," so when you see me talking it up, you're like,
To you I say: THIS BOOK IS FANTASTIC AND MADE ME FEEL OVERWHELMED BY THE UNIFIED YET SEGMENTED NATURE OF HUMANITY AND ITS NEED TO EXPRESS ITSELF THROUGH ART.
I was mainly overwhelmed by the -- I guess well-known? -- PowerPoint chapter. Now GRANTED, I had cramps when I was reading it and had just taken a pill with a shitload of caffeine in it, but that only makes my crying over it 80% less legit. That's still TWENTY PERCENT of real feelings.
Normally I'm kind of an asshole in my Kindle notes. My notes for this book are the following:
"AHHH BOOK"
"Ugh. Yeah, this is good."
"omg"
"Well shit."
"This book fills me with fucking joy."
Books that stop and tell you exactly what's going to happen to an ancillary character for the rest of their life make me flail about from happiness. Remember that movie trend that started maybe with Animal House where at the end it would freeze frame on the various characters and be like "Blahblah married This Person after getting his degree in Zoology. He was later mauled by a seal." That trend never should have ended. It was the best.
Read this book. It is great. I say that with the confidence I gave to The Sisters Brothers and Middlesex. Good job, Jennifer Egan, showing that writing is a damn art form.
Things I love in books:
1. Switching perspectives
2. Backstory
3. Sentences like "Ted deliberated this question while downing three espressos in the hotel lobby, letting the caffeine and vodka greet in his brain like fighting fish."
Now I know that some of you -- those who have held out this long -- are all "Yeah, but it's probably overhyped and I don't want to be all bandwagony and why should I care about this book booooo," so when you see me talking it up, you're like,
To you I say: THIS BOOK IS FANTASTIC AND MADE ME FEEL OVERWHELMED BY THE UNIFIED YET SEGMENTED NATURE OF HUMANITY AND ITS NEED TO EXPRESS ITSELF THROUGH ART.
I was mainly overwhelmed by the -- I guess well-known? -- PowerPoint chapter. Now GRANTED, I had cramps when I was reading it and had just taken a pill with a shitload of caffeine in it, but that only makes my crying over it 80% less legit. That's still TWENTY PERCENT of real feelings.
Normally I'm kind of an asshole in my Kindle notes. My notes for this book are the following:
"AHHH BOOK"
"Ugh. Yeah, this is good."
"omg"
"Well shit."
"This book fills me with fucking joy."
Books that stop and tell you exactly what's going to happen to an ancillary character for the rest of their life make me flail about from happiness. Remember that movie trend that started maybe with Animal House where at the end it would freeze frame on the various characters and be like "Blahblah married This Person after getting his degree in Zoology. He was later mauled by a seal." That trend never should have ended. It was the best.
Read this book. It is great. I say that with the confidence I gave to The Sisters Brothers and Middlesex. Good job, Jennifer Egan, showing that writing is a damn art form.
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