82 pages 2 hours read

Jennifer Egan

A Visit from the Goon Squad

Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 2010

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Introduction

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.

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