This book won the Pulitzer prize for fiction in 2011 and is very quickly racking up a bunch of accolades from literary critics all over the world. You would think that when it comes to writing style and technique, every trick in the book has already been tried, but you will be surprised to find that Jennifer has a few more tricks up her sleeve. In "A Visit from the Goon Squad" she jumps back and forth in time, that a few authors have tried before, most notably by Audrey Niffenegger in "The Time Travellers Wife". However in addition to this, she complicates matters by using a different character to narrate each chapter. If that is not enough complication to deal with, there is one chapter that is completely written in PowerPoint. Initially, I thought that it was just a gimmick, but later got to understand and appreciate the message that the author was trying to convey in the PowerPoint.
The book is quite entertaining and once you adjust to the time and narrator changes you will find it quite enjoyable. The author has more lofty goals than just providing entertainment. Towards the end she explores what future social networking will be like and how it might be used as a marketing tool. Interesting stuff, and highly recommended for sure.
