The Goon Squad Sparknotes

A Visit from the Goon Squad

In Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad, Egan writes about many loosely-connected characters in order to convey an overall message about time and how it is normal to have qualms with it. Each character's hopes, fears, and direct narration serve to portray the many different emotions people have towards time. The phrase "time is a goon (126, 332)" is stated twice at critical points in the novel, suggesting that time is an entity that beats you down. Egan uses an array of diverse characters in order to show time's many different dimensions and the various worries and fears one has about it. Over the duration of the novel, time is a reminder of loss and regret. All the characters, in some way, feel unsettled

about time. In this novel, time is accompanied by change.

When delving deeper into the characters' minds, the reader sees that the characters' true stressor is change perpetuated by time as well as regret. By neglecting to create a main character, Egan makes the reader focus more closely on the theme of time. Egan's message is that time is valuable and all humans struggle to cope with time and it's effects. Through the characters' worries about time, the reader is able to see that time is an entity that needs to be used wisely, because after time has passed one has to live his or her past choices, like Sasha, or the fact that they are not the people they want to be, like Bennie.

Throughout the novel, Bennie is reminded of time passing by when he compares his present life to his past life or when he remembers shameful events from his past. Bennie, a music producer and founder of his own record label, is one of the characters most affected by time. When the

reader is first introduced to Bennie, he is in his forties and struggling with sexual impotence and depression due to shameful memories. Bennie feels these memories, "raking over him and leaving gashes (31)." Bennie has come far from his simple beginnings and has made great successes, however his past stands in the way of his happiness.. In an interview with The Daily Beast, Egan explained that "time is the stealth goon, the one you ignore because you are so busy worrying about the goons right in front of you." This parallels both Bennie's life and the underlying theme of time. Without Bennie, the reader may not pick up Egan's message of how valuable time is and how people, in general, struggle to accept changes that comes with time. Throughout the novel, Bennie uses technology as an outlet to portray his grief. He sees time as a force that ruined his life which he translates into technology. Bennie's struggle with time manifests itself in his hatred towards the way music is produced, played, and distributed in the recent years. He believes technology, or "digitization (23)", killed the music industry and that it, "sucked the life out of everything that got smeared through its microscopic mesh (23)." However, Bennie's true problem is not the music industry, it is himself. Unfortunately, Bennie feels like he does not have control over his life and so he pours his frustration into the digitization of the music industry.
Bennies struggle with time passing is also why Bennie is so hopeful for Stop/Go and cannot see that they no longer are an asset to his label. Bennie remembers Stop/Go's sound as being young and gritty, however as years pass their sound becomes, as Sasha says, "unlistenable (33)." Nevertheless, Bennie is unable to let go of his faith in Stop/Go and realize how truly terrible they are. For Bennie this denial is not about Stop/Go. It is about him maintaining as much of "the good old days" as he possibly can. For Bennie, Stop/Go represents his past, a past where Bennie was someone he was proud of. By letting go of Stop/Go Bennie feels he is letting go of his past self. Bennie hates the progression of technology because it reminds him of that past self: young, confident, and uncompromising in his values of the music industry. By disconnecting from Stop/Go, Bennie disconnects from himself which is something he handles poorly at this stage in his life.
In Egan's non-chronological novel, Sasha’s story acts as bookends. The reader can easily use Sasha's age and whereabouts to pinpoint where in time a particular chapter is placed. Out of all of Goon Squad's characters, Sasha is arguably the most important for this reason. She is also the common thread between of the other characters. Within each chapter Sasha takes on a new meaning and shows the passage of time through her evolution. In Ted's chapter, the reader sees Sasha as an innocent child in an abusive home and later as a troubled teen. In Rob's chapter, the reader sees Sasha as someone who is loved and puts her life back together. The juxtaposition between the two chapters gives the reader the notion that a great deal of time as passed and Sasha has evolved with it. The audience sees the most change in Sasha, however, in the way she expresses herself through objects. In the first chapter, Sasha keeps the objects she has stolen in a pile on a table in her apartment. Sasha and her therapist have talked in great deal about why Sasha keeps the things she has stolen separate from the rest of her life. They think of reasons such as, "because leaving them untouched made it seem as if she might one day give them back; because piling them in a heap kept their power from leaking away (17)." Years later in Alison's chapter, Alison mentions that her mother, Sasha, uses "found objects (265)" to make sculptures outside there house in the desert. Alison says these found objects are junk, but Sasha says, "they come from our house and our lives (265)," therefore they are precious. Sasha transitions from a self-destructive adult who steels personal items from people in her life to an emotionally stable mother who creates art with the objects that make up her life. Sasha's transformation highlights the passage of time and the change that goes with it unlike any other character in the book.
In the last chapter of Goon Squad, Bennie and Alex, a man Sasha went on a date with during her kleptomania period, look for Sasha at her old apartment. They both wonder how she is doing and decide to visit her, however, Sasha is no longer there. Alex's mind flashes back to the brief night he spent with Sasha and the men experience a shared the feeling that time is passing by. This is the affect Sasha has on the the characters as well as the reader. Sasha arguably has the biggest story arc, and through that arc, Sasha forces both the reader and the characters to focus on time in a way that no other character does. Ending Goon Squad with Bennie and Alex's search for Sasha completes Egan's story fully and really shows how time has moved by so fast. Without Sasha as a bookmark, the impression of passing time would not be as prominent as it is.
Alison, Sasha's daughter, has a very different relationship with time than any of the other characters do.

To Alison, time holds her mother's mysterious life before kids. It does not worry her or cause shame like it does Bennie. Egan conveys Alison's chapter and daily life through a PowerPoint journal that she keeps. Through this journal, the reader picks up on the subtle details of Alison's life as well as the lives of her parents and autistic brother. As mentioned before, Alison is one of Sasha's two children that she has later in life with her husband, Drew. Drew and Sasha first dated in college. For Alison, time is a mystery rather than a worry or catalyst to feelings of regret. Alison's mystery is born when she finds a picture of Sasha in a book by Jules Jones called Conduit: A Rock-and -Roll Suicide. In this picture Sasha is young and with the rock star Bosco, "before he got fat (258)." To Alison, this book is evidence that her mom once had a completely different life then the one she lives now. This intrigues her. However, Sasha refuses to deluge any information about her past life. She tells Alison that, "It feels like another life ago (259)," or, "It's all so imbued with my own memories (259)." While most of the other characters in Goon Squad are worried about time passing or with how they have changed with time, Alison is concerned with how Sasha changed with time. One could argue that Alison's age and naivety are the reasons she has yet to worry about time,

however. As a twelve year old, Alison has not come to a place in her life yet where is feels regret or like she has spent her time unwisely. Sasha, on the other hand, has. The juxtaposition between the two characters becomes clear when the reader thinks about how different the two perceive time. Sasha focuses on her new life and tries to disregard her old one, while Alison focuses on Sasha's old life and tries to uncover all of its secrets.
One could also argue that Alison presses the subject of Sasha's past, because it makes Sasha uncomfortable. Alison considers her life's work to be to make people uncomfortable. She believes Sasha is her first "victim, therefore, Alison feels she has the right to pry into her mother's past. Alison makes both of her parents uncomfortable when she asks questions about how their mutual friend, Rob, drowned. While this is not really portrayed as a mystery, it is still an event from Sasha's past life that Alison knows little about. Although Alison asks questions about Rob, both of her parents provide very little in response. Through Alison's constant questioning, the reader is remained of how different the stages in one's life are. As previously stated, Sasha goes from innocent child, to runaway teen, to responsible mother, all within a few chapters. Sasha's evolution paired with Alison's curiosity gives the reader a sense that time moves quickly. Characteristics that once were prominent, such as kleptomania and emptiness, give away to other qualities, such as motherliness and responsibility. Through these traits, the reader can see how Sasha changes with time. Alison helps the reader focus on that. Through Alison's perspective, the reader also gains a different perceptive on time. She shows that time does not have to be feared. Sometimes time is just a marker for life's changes, just like Sasha is. Because if Alison, the reader sees time in a less frightening light.
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan is a story about time and the affect it has on people. Throughout this non-chronological novel, the reader encounters many characters who relate to time in different ways. All of the characters have some sort of qualm with time which manifests itself in different outlets of their lives. Bennie expresses his frustration with time and his middle-aged self by focusing his frustrations on music technology and denying the downfall of Stop/Go. By handling his emotions this way, Bennie puts off dealing with his fear of time passing by. Sasha, on the other hand, has regrets about her past. Sasha is very important to the readers in terms of time, because Sasha marks where in time a particular chapter is. Throughout the book, Sasha has a hard time dealing with her past. In order to cope, she lies about her age and her past as well as develops kleptomania. Alison, Sasha's daughter, holds one of the few opinions of time that is not accompanied by fear or regret. Through Alison, the reader sees the past as the holder of her mother's mysterious past life. Egan, purposefully creates an array of characters to show off time's many different dimensions. Through indirect narration, each character becomes more vivid and each storyline contributes to Egan's message about time. In Goon Squad, Egan conveys a message about how valuable time is and how people as a whole struggle to cope with it. Most of the characters' main concern with time is change. Bennie is upset with how he has changed over the years, while Sasha changes for the better. Through Sasha the readers grasps how forcefully time creates change. The phrase, "Time is a goon," appears many times throughout Egan's book. This may be the best way Egan sums up her novel. Throughout the book, the reader sees that time is a scary and power entity. Through her array of diverse characters, Egan displays her argument and her message beautifully. Without a web of loosely-connected storylines, Egan would not have been able to portray both so powerfully