Tuesday, June 19, 2012

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

This book had some very good reviews. There is a back page comment that this is a writer reaching for literary greatness. Another comment says that it is clever and deft and conceals its craft. I somehow feel that the critics hardly knew what to say about this book so they reached for phrases an obtuse as Egan’s writing.  . 

Well all I can say is that my copy of A Visit from the Good Squad is mostly untouched as I just couldn't;t get past page 90 and getting that far was a struggle. I almost want to call this rubbish. It has an incoherent plot, characters that fail to interest as they are far from any sort of real life people I have ever known and nothing happens to motivate the reader to read on.

Its not often I read a book that I feel this way about so I’m interested in how other people found it. Hearteningly I read a comment in the latest Mslexia magazine about someone else being unable to finish it  -so I’m not alone. Let me know what you thought about it … maybe I’ll understand the writing and the reviews a little better with some help from others.

No comments:

Post a Comment