A Visit from the Goon Squad

When Dinaw Mengestu called this his favourite book of 2010, I had no idea what a startlingly original and moving piece of work this would be. While on the outside, a book about outsiders and their lives and loves throughout loose timelines in the punk music industry, it feels like it's a book about loneliness, about growing up and growing old.

The 'goon squad' here is the passage of time. I'm not spoiling anything for you by telling you that. You get it very quickly.

Sasha and Bennie drift in and out of each other's lives, in and out of the lives of others. Egan shifts time and space to show both Bennie and Sasha in their formative years and in their twilight years, skipping over the inbetween, a clever narrative device that allows you to fill in your own gaps. Sasha, a troubled kleptomaniac and an anxious mother; Bennie, a priapic upstart and a corporate self-satisfied shell - both love and lose and become their own best and worst versions of themselves.

Told in an enigmatic way, flipping between narratives, characters and timeframes with ease, Egan paints portraits of some beautifully designed yet ultimately doomed to disappointment characters, making this a brilliant piece of work from a master of wry emotiveness.