A Visit from the Goon Squad

• Genre: Fiction; literary
• Originally Published: 2010
• Reading Level/Interest: College/Adult
• Structure/Length: 2 parts; 13 chapters; approx. 352 pages; approx. 10 hours and 7 minutes on audio
• Protagonist and Central Conflict: The lives of Sasha, a kleptomaniac with a troubled past, and Bennie, the music executive who employs her, intersect with many other characters over the span of decades.

Jennifer Egan, Author

• Bio: Lives with her husband and sons in Brooklyn, New York; her stories have been published in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, Ploughshares, GQ, and others; a former president of PEN America; her novel The Candy House was selected as one of President Obama’s favorite books of 2022
• Other Works: The Invisible Circus (1994); Manhattan Beach (2017); The Candy House (2022)
• Awards: National Book Critics Circle Award (2010); Pulitzer Prize (2011); L.A. Times Book Prize (2011)

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:

• Time
• Meaning
• Identity

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:

• Gain an understanding of satire and how it can be used as a commentary within this novel and novels in general.
• Analyze short paired texts to make connections via the text’s themes of Time, Meaning, and Identity as well as its form.
• Evaluate in structured essay responses Egan’s use of form and satire and the ways in which this novel critiques static notions of genre.