How Did Our Book Club Discussion Go? Jennifer Egan's "A Visit from the Goon Squad."

I was reading A Visit from the Goon Squad on my way down to the gift show on Sunday, when I ran into Lynn and Lisa from Beans and Barley.  More on the show in another post; we're now talking about Egan. Lynn told me that her book club had just read the book last week and had an terrific discussion.  This got me psyched for Monday.  Who wants a bad discussion?

Amusingly enough, people are consistently thinking that I've already read the novel. I  think it's because we wrote about A Visit from the Goon Squad a lot at Boswell. As it piled on awards, stayed on top of our bestseller lists, and even when we ran into the author in Brooklyn, there always seemed to be another reason for a mention.  But I hadn't read it, and as folks know, the in-store lit group's alternate name could be "What Daniel missed out on and feels bad about."

There's another reason why folks think I've already read A Visit from the Goon Squad.  A novel that you could argue was a collection of short stories? Check.  Structural creativeness? Check. Heck, the most-talked about chapter of the book is told in Powerpoint, and Egan tells that it almost didn't make it into the novel. A great sense of humor? Check. One of my first thoughts was, "Oh, this reminds me a bit of Frederick Reiken's Day for Night, with its gray sense of morality and playful sharing of themes and ideas, connections and coincidences,  I know you're shocked. I'll look at a piece of toast and it will remind me of something in that novel. Sigh.

The beauty of A Visit from the Goon Squad is as it rolls around in your head, the themes and connections, all start gelling. There's so much of this novel that plays off of music--the songs that make up an album, the technological change, and of course the way you don't generally fall in love with a song the first time you hear it; it's the second or third time that it plays that you freak out about the whole thing. I go back and read a story that I didn't quite get the first time around. Egan's narrative bubbles around in my head and gets better and better.

Did everyone like the book? No, there were a few negative folks. That's not bad; the best discussion is when people are divided. What was more interesting was that half the folks in the group who wound up loving Egan's novel would probably not have picked it up if it hadn't been our monthly selection. Even with all the awards, there are probably some audiences that need to be force fed the Goon. That said, I looked at Above the Treeline, and sales and a good number of indie booktores are monstrous, triple platinum and all that.

Suzanne was in love; this a book for my generation.  Egan totally understand her connection to music. I think she wondered what someone might think of the book who was younger.  Whereas Judy thought this was a book she could share with her kids.  She found it one of the more moving and profound books we've read of late.  Carolyn #1, on the other hand, had trouble with the book, and she did find herself thinking she was too old for it. I think Carolyn #2 is going to revisit, as the twisted plot and reoccurring characters got a bit confusing.  Where the heck is our scorecard? Julie didn't like it so much, but Anne and Nancy did (I know what you're thinking, but Heart did not attend the discussion), and both mentioned they never, ever would have picked up Egan's novel on their own.

It turned out to be a great conversation, just like Lynn promised. Just one interesting avenue of discussion was the reinvention of several of the characters' lives.  Was that necessarily akin to redemption? Why, to one reader, was having an affair less forgivable than doing successful PR for a murderous dictator, salvaging his reputation by convincing him to wear a jaunty hat? I could write a very, very long blog post about this, but I'd probably give away too much.  But if I may say that even if you're not in a book club, this is a book that gets better after you talk about it--so hook up with someone and start bouncing ideas off each other.

And Gloria found a book that she liked the second time around. Hooray!

If you're discussing A Visit from the Goon Squad with your book club, I would highly recommend reading at least one of Jennifer Egan's interviews. Here's the one in The Guardian.  Oh, and the website details the origins of all the components of the books, as well as some chapter-stories that didn't make it into the final novel.  Truly fascinating. And here are our upcoming in-store lit group discussions:

Monday, September 5, 11 am (yes, this is Labor Day):

Into the Beautiful North, by Luis Alberto Urrea

A comic novel filled with magical realism about a Mexican woman's search for the men who've disappeared from her town.

Monday, October 3, 7 pm:

The White Woman on the Green Bicycle, by Monique Roffey

The story of a troubled marriage set amidst the political turmoil of 1950s Trinidad.

Saturday Gift Post--I Shop for Cards at a Wonderful Book store

After Jim Higgins' kind words in the Journal Sentinel's Recommended Reading blog (much thanks!), I realized I better make sure that I do a gift post today.  That was a bit of a worry, since I have so many other things to write about.  We've got several great events coming up where I loved the book (Dean Bakopoulos, Danielle Sosin), plus I've been away for a week, so what can I say about gift items?

I did see some good stuff at the show. Several vendors we sell (Blue Orange, Out of Print) made their first showings at Book Expo this year, and several others (Folkmanis, Peter Pauper, Moleskine) had new product for bookstores to see.  The big news at Moleskine, by the way, is that red and sky blue volants are discontinued, replaced by yellow orange and two shades of green (darker than the old pastels that were discontinued last year).  Yes, I take this stuff seriously.

There are not too many card vendors that show at Book Expo, and I had missed the yumtastic New York stationery show by a few weeks.  In New York, however, it's easy to get ideas for new product--just walk into any cool store.  They aren't so happy when you write stuff down, but I tend to buy my samples, as I like a good card, and that seems like a win-win for everyone.

Having spent my last few shows wandering the New York bookstores, I asked Amie if she'd accompany me on the only substantial free block of time to see the quickly-turning-into-a-legend Greenlight Bookstore in Fort Greene.  I know there are other great stores that have opened (Word, Jenn!) but Greenlight is on the C line and our hotel was on the C line, and it really was kismet, especially when we got out of the subway at Lafayette and my stomach smelled New York style pizza.

Two slices of Sicilian from Not Ray's** later, we went into a brightly lit mini-temple of reading, with piles of paperbacks, solid staff recs, friendly booksellers (Angel, Pat) and bookcases that were eerily reminiscent of Calatrava's Milwaukee Art Museum. Oh, plus our old pal Alexis, new friend Rebecca, and a Norton rep. I had a very strong fondness for Greenlight already, partly because they started up just about when we did, and partly because I had been following Jessica (did get to see her on the convention floor!) and her business plan very closely. It was a great idea to share it with the public, and even greater that Greenlight was the result.

So I'd normally talk about books, but my eye was drawn to their great collection of cards. No pedestrian selection for them.  Lots of local lines (including Seltzer, which Ididn't know was borough born), letter press, postcards, all with a grace and whimsy that I love.  Rebecca, who buys the cards, offered me lots of great ideas, in addition to us oohing and ahhing over several of the designs. I am thinking of forming the Loyal Order of Bookseller Card Obsessives.  Details in another post, I guess.

So there I am running around, a bit loud, yapping about anything that catches my eye, picking up a signed copy of Alison Espach's said-to-be-scrumptious novel The Adults* (we started with one, and sold...way more than one...wish it got a full year in hardcover so I could hand-sell it at Christmas, but the paperback is in September) when Rebecca says something like "You should meet Jenny" so I turn around and yes, it's Jennifer Egan, in to sign some stock.

Scream, scream, scream***. Et cetera.  Ms. Egan remembered walking into the Iron Block (downtown) Schwartz to sign stock for The Invisible Circus.  On top of all her talent, a good memory.

Two signed hardcovers of A Visit from the Goon Squad (Amie got one too, it's also available in paperback) later, our cloth bags were full, and we headed back to the C train, but not before Rebecca led us to one last treat, a hole-in-the-wall French bakery in Clinton called Patisserie.  Maccarons too? For a side trip, this turned out to be a whole lotta highlight.  And it worked as a gift blog post.  Win win.

*Don't forget.  Many titles now available as Google ebooks at the same price as the competition.  You can download these titles from us at our website!  I know, I'm surprised too.

**The pizza was fine. But I'm sorry, that place tisn't "romantic", as claimed in the Yelp review.

***Too much caffeine. I was running a sleep deficit and made up the difference with many cups of black tea.