A Visit from the Goon Squad

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussion of mental illness.

Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

1. Egan’s novel jumps between different time periods and narrative styles, including traditional prose, a magazine article, and even a PowerPoint presentation. How did this unconventional structure affect your reading experience? Did it enhance or detract from the story?

2. What did you think about Egan’s portrayal of the evolution of the music industry from the 1970s through the 2020s? How does it compare to other works exploring the music business, such as Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity or Don DeLillo’s Great Jones Street?

3. “Time’s a goon, right?” becomes a refrain echoed by both Scotty and Bosco in the novel (332). How does this question connect to Egan’s title and her exploration of time?

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. Sasha’s kleptomania begins as a damaging compulsion but eventually transforms into artistic expression through her sculptures of “found objects.” Have you ever experienced a negative habit or behavior that you were eventually able to channel into something positive?

2. Bennie struggles with authenticity and identity, feeling excluded from the wealthy social circles he aspires to join. When have you felt pressure to deny aspects of yourself to fit into a particular social or professional environment?

3. Throughout the novel, characters experience moments when music transports them emotionally or connects them to their past. What song or album has had the most profound impact on your life, and how has your relationship with that music changed over time? Would you consider it a soundtrack to a specific period in your life?

4. Rob describes feeling like two people at once, narrating his story in second person as if observing himself from outside. Can you recall a time when you felt disconnected from yourself?

5. Characters like Bennie, Sasha, and Lou all express anxiety about aging and the passage of time. What’s your relationship with the idea of getting older? Do you share any of these anxieties, or do you view things differently?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. In the later chapters, Egan portrays a future in which communication technology has evolved to the point that people prefer texting to talking face-to-face. How accurately do you think the novel predicts our evolving relationship with technology? What aspects feel particularly correct or farfetched?

2. Cultural attitudes toward “selling out” shift dramatically across the decades portrayed in the novel. Alex’s discomfort with social network marketing contrasts with Lulu’s dismissal of ethics as an antiquated concept. How have definitions of authenticity and integrity changed in contemporary society since the time periods depicted in the earlier chapters?

3. Relationships like those between Lou and Jocelyn, or Jules and Kitty, reveal significant power imbalances and exploitation. In what ways do these dynamics reflect broader societal patterns you’ve observed?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. Why might Egan have chosen a fragmented, non-linear narrative structure for this novel? How do these separate stories work together to create a cohesive whole?

2. What is the significance of recurring symbols like sunrises, birdsong, and stars throughout the novel? How do these symbols help connect the disparate chapters and develop the book’s themes?

3. Many characters appear as both protagonists and supporting figures across different chapters. How does seeing these individuals from multiple perspectives affect your understanding of them? Which character’s portrayal changed most dramatically when viewed through different lenses?

4. Paired or mirrored characters populate the novel, such as Bennie and Scotty or Rhea and Jocelyn. What function do these character pairings serve in the novel’s exploration of identity?

5. Alison’s PowerPoint chapter reflects the future world’s shift away from traditional text. How does this formal experimentation connect to the novel’s larger concerns with time, technology, and communication?

6. Egan’s approach to time in A Visit from the Goon Squad places it in conversation with other non-linear narratives, such as Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. How does her approach differ from other writers’?

Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.

1. Describe a chapter you would like to add to A Visit from the Goon Squad. Which character would you focus on, and at what point in their timeline?

2. Imagine creating a playlist for this novel. What songs would you include to capture its essence, and how would you arrange them to reflect the book’s non-linear structure?

3. The closing scenes project into the 2020s, imagining how technology and society might evolve. If you were to write a chapter set 10 years beyond that point, what changes in music, technology, and human connection would you envision?

Need more inspiration for your next meeting? Browse all of our Book Club Resources