I was casting about for something interesting to read and I came across ‘A Visit from the Goon Squad’ by Jennifer Egan — who could resist a title like that?

Jennifer Egan won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for ‘Goon Squad’.  It is a brilliant non-linear story told from the viewpoint of multiple characters whose lives have all merged, intertwined and diverged. 

Pulitzer Prize awards aside, I was hooked at the title.  I was expecting something like an Elmore Leonard novel with gun toting ex-hippies or some-such, but the ‘Goon Squad’ in Egan’s novel is time itself.  And we’re all gonna get a visit.

The characters in the novel are forced to deal with getting older in various ways.  The book examines how life and time does not always bring what youth expected it would.  Therein lies the whole point.  Forget about the characters, take a look at your own time –time already spent, time remaining. 

How are you going to greet that Goon Squad when you recognize it on your own front porch?  Do you resign yourself to taking a beating?  Shoo it away with your best weapons?  Welcome the squad in for coffee?  How do you deal with time when it comes knocking for you?  

Like all of life’s best questions, there is no answer.  Let’s distract ourselves instead with this week’s episode.  Contentment is for Cows; Scene Eight has been posted.

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Enjoy!