Character Analysis: A Visit From The Goon Squad

“A Visit From the Goon Squad”
Who Knew? I generally read books for pleasure that have an exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement. When I sit down to read, I want to find out what happens next. I have never taken the time during or after reading a book to ask myself, “what was the theme of that? What am I taking away from that book other than the chronology of events?” But, I have been forced into changing my ways. After reading “The History of Love”, “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”, and “Let the Great World Spin”, I have gotten my first taste of something I never knew existed: postmodernism. Learning about this genre of writing has pushed me into expanding my boundaries and thinking in an abstract way that
Bouncing from one protagonist to the next, “A Visit From the Good Squad” starts with Sasha, who works for a man named Bennie, who is a record label executive, and was once a protégé of Lou. Lou, an older man, dated Jocelyn, who hung around with Bennie when he was younger and in a band called the Flaming Dildos. Lou eventually marries Stephanie, who tries to rescue a washed-up rock legend, Bosco’s, career. Stephanie’s brother, Jules, is a celebrity journalist covering Bosco’s story, who was charged with raping Kitty Jackson, who eventually ends up working for Stephanie’s publicist, La Doll, who is working to soften the image of a genocidal dictator. In the end, Sasha disappears into the desert with her college boyfriend, Drew, to raise their family, Bennie, who is accompanied by Alex, who had a short rendezvous with Sasha in the first chapter, continues on in musician production, including his old friend Scotty who once loved Jocelyn. This intricate labyrinth of stories, which is only part of the complete list of stories in the book, shifts between narrators from chapter to chapter and still manages to give the effect of a real life experience to the reader. I think the shifting point of view makes the book more dynamic. Having multiple perspectives reinforces the ways in which “A Visit From the Good Squad” is postmodern; it allows us to see how each character
Their helplessness is shown through their degeneration over time, also shown within the nonlinear timeline. There is no way to avoid time. The “goon” is inevitable. There is almost never an optimistic outlook from the characters. In the book, time strips each person of his or her youth, innocence and success. Bosco questions, “how did I go from being a rock star to a fat fuck no one cares about?” Lou strips Jocelyn of her innocence, casually forcing oral sex upon her at a concert, and Scotty, stripped of his success as an adolescent, being rejected by Jocelyn and ending up as a janitor, somehow finds that success again in his older age. The characters see the world in constant motion, but they are standing still. They are slowly becoming part of the past. We, as readers, can see just how time has changed them through this nonlinear timeline. “You grew up Alex, just like the rest of