A Visit from the Goon Squad (2010) by Jennifer Egan purports to tell the story of two people, however the cast of characters is much larger. Each chapter is written from a different perspective, and while Bennie (a musician and record producer) and Sasha (his protégée for a while) are either directly or indirectly involved in each storyline, the focus wanders quite a bit.
As you may guess, your openness to this–and your ability to track who’s who as the novel also moves around in time–will have much to do with your enjoyment. Egan is most skilled at character beats, and many of the smaller scenes will remain with you long after you put down the book: a young woman losing her way in Rome, vibrant descriptions of early punk shows, a woman working her way through a compulsion to steal from strangers.
The skill with characters runs deep enough that even the chapters that feel somewhat stilted–most notably one entirely in PowerPoint slides–contain enough information about the people involved to retain a clear place in the narrative.
I would have preferred the chapters to be chronological, finding it hard to track especially the peripheral characters as it moved, but m. had no such troubles (on the whole, she enjoyed the book more than I did, and that may be a testament to how well Egan captures a sense of the struggles and possibilities of the young). This also points to a difficulty in the book: the “Goon Squad” of the title is age itself, and Egan’s hold on the motivations of the older characters is a bit strained at points. But, her literary skill does shine throughout, and I would not be surprised if she has a masterpiece somewhere in her future.
#WhatIWishICouldDo
There is a confidence with which Egan sketches the way a character’s habits at one age impact them later in their development that is quite elegant. Her characters feel continuous and consistent, even the ones we meet as pre-teens and follow into early middle-age.