"A Visit From The Goon Squad" by Jennifer Egan

Short stories are probably my favorite story medium. Where there are times that I love a long sprawling epic allowing ample time for plot & product development I favor short stories. The skill it takes to create something impactful in such a short amount of space always fascinates me. I also like how a skillful author can narrow down their scope to focus minutely on one topic or theme. This book by Jennifer Egan is a break from my typical short story reading as it is almost like a Mosaic where each short story is part of a much larger, deeper story. The stories all circle around Bernie, a music producer & his assistant Sasha as well as people who come in and out of their lives. There are stories ranging from when Bernie & Sasha are both young and old, there is quite an age difference between the two if you were wondering. The first story is about how Sasha has an uncontrollable urge to steal small items that are important to their owner and much later in the book there is a story from her youth that gives a curious insight into why. There is another reoccurring character Kitty, a movie star who escapes from an attempted rape in one story that helps catapult her from a b actress into a star. The actual story of the attempted rape is told by the reporter who was in jail for it after we had already gotten to know how he was dealing with life after prison. I'd actually read the second story in the book about Bernie when he's lost his producing touch in an issue of Granta last year and didn't realize that it would be in this book. When I reread it I enjoyed it just as much, which says a lot.

The order of the stories may not be the most important part of the book but it's important as the author plays with our emotions about the characters as the stories progress in their non linear sometimes random feel. The impression after finishing the book is that the order is in no way random and feels preconceived as part of the concept but I'm only guessing. The writing style is good, with a lot of quotes that I found worth saving.

Finding books like this that make me look at something I love in another way is fun and why I like exploring new authors. On an unrelated note this is the first book I've read on my brand new Kindle that I received as my big gift this Christmas. Overall, I liked reading on it. Took a little getting used to but I can't say how much I love the built in dictionary that gives the definition just by putting the cursor next to the word.