A Visit From the Goon Squad; Jennifer Egan

A Visit From the Goon Squad; Jennifer Egan

Sound Library - 2010

When A Visit From the Goon Squad was first released in 2010, I recall quite a bit of hype over this novel and the fact that the author, Jennifer Egan, was award the Pulitzer Prize for her work as well.  I put it on my list and finally got to it .  The story started out with promise.

Sasha, a young woman in her mid-thirties, has had a troubled life. While she meets with her therapist at his office in NYC, we learn that the stealing is not because she needs or even wants something, it's just something she can't seem to resist. It has long been a problem for her. There is a somewhat funny incident in a rest room where she picks up a wallet a woman left on the counter and when she finds the woman frantic she gives the wallet back, begging her not to say anything. Sasha works for an aging record executive and former punk rocker at Sow Ear Records.

Just when I was getting invested in Sasha's story, she pretty much disappears from the novel. Then all sorts of crazy characters, there must be 10-12 of them, begin to appear and disappear from the story. The story jumps from present to past and back again, and the points of view change as well. Their stories are mostly centered around rock and roll.  The novel was just too disjointed for me for follow in audio format, and honestly, maybe I think I am just getting a bit too old for this type of story and writing. I doubt that I would have liked it even if I had read the print edition. Very disappointing.

Have you read this one?

1/5 stars
(Library Audiobook)

Fairy Tale Interrupted: A Memoir of Life, Love and Loss; Rose Marie Terenzio

Title:  Fairy Tale Interrupted: A Memoir of Life, Love and Loss

Author:  Rose Marie Terenzio

Publication Year: 2012

Publisher: Gallery Books

Edition: eBook / Kindle

Source: Purchase

Date Completed: 2/13/2012

Rating: 1/5
Recommend: no

I'm one of those people who has long been fascinated by the Kennedy mystique.  Remembering vividly where I was when I learned that President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and where I was when I learned that JFK Jr's plane en route to Hyannis had disappeared on the fateful day in July of 1999.  Since I haven't read much about JFK Jr's adult life, I couldn't wait to read this memoir, written by his executive assistant, who worked for him during the last (5) years of his life.

I had a hard time writing this review because, I was very disappointed by this book.  It was very boring, lacked any real depth or insight into the lives JFK Jr or his wife Carolyn Bessette.  The book did not even have any photographs of people, just a few photos with some hand-scratched notes.  I wondered as I read why the author waited over (12 Years) since the couple's death to write this book as well.

The author, Rose Marie Terenzio, had been working for a PR firm in NYC when her boss began a new business venture with JFK Jr, hence, how she landed the job as his executive assistant.  She shares day to day experiences about screening John's calls, keeping his appointments straight and the secrecy required working for such a high-profile individual, and the launching of George magazine.  She writes about when he began dating Carolyn, shortly after his mother died, and how he asked Carolyn to marry him while out on a boat fishing on Martha's Vineyard the following year.  We learn very little about their very small and private wedding on an island in Cumberland, GA, the planning which all had to kept a secret.  The reader does learn that John was a fly by the seat of his pants sort of guy, often disorganized, and known for springing plans last minute on his wife and others.

I guess what annoyed me about this book was the fact that while I was lead to believe, it was about lessons that Rosie might have learned from working for John, but what I was really left with after reading this book was a feeling of a lot of self-promoting by the author. She tells how she was envied because of her job.  How she was included in all of the special functions, getting the best seat to concerts, and how Carolyn took her under her wing, gave her a sense of style and often picked up the tab as well.  Rosie shared Carolyn's unhappiness about being badgered by the media, and photographers trying to snap shots of her every time she walked the dog or went for coffee. To me, those were things that most people already knew about Carolyn already.

Very disappointed I bought this book -- There really wasn't anything interesting or new to be learned about John or Carolyn.

Has anyone else read this book?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.

38 - A Gate At the Stairs; Lorrie Moore

Has anyone read this book?  Did I miss something?  I know I can't be the only one who thought this book was awful. I listened to about (7) of the (10) cds from this audio book, and had to skip to the last disc and end my pain.  The narrator: Mia Barron was fine, it was the novel itself that I had a problem with.

(I should have read this Publisher's Weekly blurb before, and not after):

Starred Review. Moore (Anagrams) knits together the shadow of 9/11 and a young girl's bumpy coming-of-age in this luminous, heart-wrenchingly wry novel—the author's first in 15 years. Tassie Keltjin, 20, a smalltown girl weathering a clumsy college year in the Athens of the Midwest, is taken on as prospective nanny by brittle Sarah Brink, the proprietor of a pricey restaurant who is desperate to adopt a baby despite her dodgy past. Subsequent adventures in prospective motherhood involve a pregnant girl with scarcely a tooth in her head and a white birth mother abandoned by her African-American boyfriend—both encounters expose class and racial prejudice to an increasingly less naïve Tassie. In a parallel tale, Tassie lands a lover, enigmatic Reynaldo, who tries to keep certain parts of his life a secret from Tassie. Moore's graceful prose considers serious emotional and political issues with low-key clarity and poignancy, while generous flashes of wit—Tessie the sexual innocent using her roommate's vibrator to stir her chocolate milk—endow this stellar novel with great heart.

MY THOUGHTS - I'm not sure what I was expecting, and honestly, I don't even recall reading any reviews about this book when it was released in 2009. I just saw it on the library shelf and went with it thinking it might be good. 

The  story for one had too many sub plots that never really all came together. It made an already disjointed novel drag on endlessly. In addition, there were unappealing characters, a narrator who rambled on and on -- saying very little, and one tragedy after another. On top of this the author's use of metaphors, flowery language, and attempts at humor only made matters worst. 

This book was PAINFUL. (Rating 1/5 stars) 

 Library Audio Book