Time's a Goon.

This novel sets out to send a message: as time goes on trends fade, and as those trends fade it is replaced by the next hot topic of discussion. That new topic will eventually become a thing of the past as tomorrow's generation has created something bigger and better. This constant cycle of replacing and adapting is addressed by Egan through an array of characters. She depicts them throughout different stages of their life, well adapt to society's culture and what was expected of them by their generation. As a teen, Bennie was focus on his drive to make it as a punk rocker, complete with a Mohawk and a dream. When he reaches adulthood Bennie is still in music business, however he has lost his drive to make it as a musician. He has become a record executive, conformed to what society expected as having the dream to become a musician is unfitting and unrealistic. Readers see how time and expectation shaped the course of Bennie's life, taking his dreams and aspirations and crushing them, crushing them into thin pieces of gold to be poured upon the coffee cup that is life. Goon Squad is a novel about aging, about being forced to grow up, and being forced to accept it.

 

Why is fitting this book into a defined literary category such an imperative and daunting task? Does it add to the plot discovering once and for all that Goon Squad is in fact a novel? The form is challenged throughout the book only adding to the storyline, so the necessity to categorize Goon Squad only takes away from its overall effect. There needs to be no definite form in literature; unique narrative thrives off the complex blending of genres and writing styles and to constrain such elements is to eradicate innovation in literature. The emotional response Goon Squad draws from its readers wouldn't have been accomplished if the novel was constructed any other way. The PowerPoint, newspaper article, and second person writing style works. It's crazy but they work. We see inside the mind of the characters, they become real to the reader, taking on a persona of their own, one in which a narrator would be unable to capture.

 

 

 Pushing boundaries, breaking from tradition, and separating from the norm, these ideals have become a part of today's society, one that champions originality and encourages creativity. Egan takes the notion of new and unexpected and runs with it, as no one could have predicted the end result. What Egan creates is an innovative novel that captures the reader's attention with its constant spanning of time and characters as each chapter's perspective is up for grabs. I have never read a novel like this before. I have never had the experience of reading a book and not knowing which characters were to be introduced, what stories were coming, and which time period the story was to be taking place. What results is a novel that requires one to think and engage in what's happening and because of the effort required of the readers there is an attachment to the characters as you've become invested in their stories and lives.

 

 

What is going to become of my generation when our children are the innovators? Egan gives us a hint of the future with her final chapter of speculative fiction. She warns of children becoming reliant on technology at a young age and that marketing has become directed to appeal to their age group. This thought scares me. I am afraid to think that I am going to become the grandmother who annoys her grandson, begging him to explain this shiny new contraption or the bright new gadget. Readers are shown how time can pass a person by and how society, with its superficial standards, is continuously striving for the next innovative breakthrough.

 

 

"I used to rule the world, seas would rise when I gave the word; now in the morning I sleep alone, sweep the streets I used to own."

 

Time's a goon.