Jennifer Close, author of Girls in White Dresses

With a wry sense of humor, Jennifer Close brings us through those thrilling, bewildering, what-on-earth-am-I-going-to-do-with-my-life years of early adulthood. These are the years when everyone else seems to have a plan, a great job, and an appropriate boyfriend, while Isabella has a blind date with a gay man, Mary has a crush on her boss, and Lauren has a goldfish named Willard. Through boozy family holidays and disastrous ski vacations, relationships lost to politics and relationships found in pet stores, Girls in White Dresses pulls us deep inside the circle of these friends, perfectly capturing the wild frustrations and soaring joys of modern life. (from GoodReads)

Jennifer Close was born and raised on the North Shore of Chicago. She is a graduate of Boston College and received her MFA in Fiction Writing from The New School in 2005. She worked in New York in magazines for many years and then in Washington, D.C., as a bookseller. Girls in White Dresses is her first book.

A Visit from the Goon Squad Discussion #5

One part of the definition of "goon" is:

A bully or thug, esp. one hired to terrorize or do away with opposition.  How does that fit with this book?  How successful was Egan in expressing this concept?

In "A to B", Bosco says, "You don't look good anymore twenty years later, especially when you've had half your guts removed. Time's a goon, right?  Isn't that the expression?"

In "Pure Language", Bennie and Scotty are talking about what has happened to their lives.  " 'Time's a goon, right? You gonna let that goon push you around?' "  Scotty shook his head. " 'The goon won.' "


What are your thoughts about the passage of time?  What is your life story?  Is time a goon?

On November 1, we will begin discussing Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close.

A Visit from the Goon Squad Discussion #4: Sasha & Ted in Italy

"Good-bye, My Love" (p.157)  Sasha's Uncle Ted goes to Italy to search for Sasha, who had been missing for two years.  His journey is being paid for by his sister, Sasha's mother. 

Do Ted's recollections of her childhood explain Sasha's behvior?  To what extent is Sasha's "catalog of woes" representative of her generation as a whole?  How do Ted's feelings about his career and wife color his reactions to Sasha?

What does the flash-forward to "another day more than twenty years after this one" (p.175) imply about the transitory moments in our lives?

Discussion #3: Lou

Lou is in three consecutive stories:  "Ask me if I care", "Safari", and "You (Plural)". 

"Ask me if I care" is about Bennie and Scotty, Jocelyn and Rhea and Alice who are in high school in 1979.  Jocelyn has met Lou, a record producer from LA, who picked Jocelyn up hitchiking.    "... I'm waiting for Bennie. But Bennie is waiting for Alice, who's waiting for Scotty, who's waiting for Jocelyn . . . Jocelyn loves Scotty back, but she isn't in love with him. Jocelyn is waiting for Lou ...." (p.39 in my edition) Does this scenario seem familiar?  Do you think Jocelyn could run away to Lou's house in LA today without the police being called?  What kind of man is Lou?

In "Safari", Rolph and Charlie, Lou's oldest children, are on safari with Lou, his current girlfriend Mindy, and various hangers-on.  These events take place before the events in "Ask me if I care".  Why do you think the author has arranged her chapters in this order?  Does it add anything to the impact of the narrative?

In several stories, the narrator steps back and gives a quick summary of the rest of a character's life.  In "Safari", it is the 19-yr-old Samburu warrior who is part of the entertainment one night.  "The warrior smiles at Charlie.  ... Thirty-five years from now, in 2008, this warrior will be caught in the tribal violence between the Kikuyu and the Luo and will die in a fire. ..."  What does this information add to the narrative?  Did you find it disruptive or interesting?

Discussion #2: Bennie Salazar

Bennie Salazar is introduced at the beginning of "The Gold Cure" as being awash in "shame memories".  As the day goes on, he begins a list of these memories as a way of eradicating them.  Do you think this is a positive way to deal with the memories?  What does Bennie think the gold will do for him? 

On another note, do you agree with Bennie's opinion that digitization has ruined music?

 Bennie feels that music is "Too clear, too clean.  The problem was precision, perfection; the problem was digitization, which sucked the life out of everything that got smeared through its microscopic mest." (p. 24 in my version)

A Visit from the Goon Squad - Discussion #1

When we first meet Sasha, she tells her date, “I’m always happy…Sometimes I just forget.” Is this an accurate description of her? In the same chapter, we see her ‘writing [her] story of redemption, of fresh beginnings and second chances’. Do you feel that she got that second chance? Is it possible for someone with a chronic compulsion like hers to ever give up their self-destructive behavior; in short, by the end of the book do you think she’s cured of her kleptomania?  (from Between the Lines)

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

A Visit from the Goon Squad is a mash-up of interlinked stories with Bennie Salazar, aging rock producer; Sasha, his kleptomaniac assistant; and the people intersecting their lives.  Egan received the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for this work.  She was interviewed on Morning Edition - NPR in 2010.

The book is divided into Part A and Part B.  We will discuss the stories of Part A through October 15.  Discussion of Part B will begin on October 16 (or thereabouts).  Get ready to tell everyone what you think of Bennie, Sasha, Scotty, Alice, Jocelyn and Rhea.  How much do their lives from the late 70's to the late 90's resemble yours?