Writer Jennifer Egan Visits FSU
On February 10th, as part of FSU’s annual 7 Days of Opening Nights arts festival, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award winning author Jennifer Egan made an appearance explaining how writing her acclaimed novel, A Visit From the Goon Squad, was akin to creating a concept album.
The event took place in the elegant University Center ballroom and attracted a casually dressed crowd eager to hear the well-spoken Egan deliver her speech and a reading from her novel. Many FSU English Department faculty were in attendance.
Before Egan herself came to the stage, the audience was treated with the presentation of the Dean’s Prize award, given to Kerry James Evans, an FSU doctoral student. The announcement of his award was met with thunderous applause and a few loud cheers from those that knew him. After accepting his award, Evans went on to wow the audience by reciting three of his poems.
After a brief introduction highlighting her brilliant writing and achievements, Jennifer Egan came to the stage. Before diving into the reading from her book, Egan spoke about what inspired her to write A Visit From the Goon Squad, detailing two separate events. The first, which will be at once familiar to anyone who has read Goon Squad, depicted a moment in which Egan spotted a woman in a bathroom carelessly leaving her purse on a counter while using a stall in New York City. Egan just couldn’t believe this woman’s faith in other humans not to steal it. The other event had Egan as a victim of a wallet theft. The latter of these two stories had the crowd in stitches as Egan related that after her wallet was stolen, she received a phone call from someone claiming to be a Citibank employee assuring her that she could help with the situation. Trusting, Egan gave the voice on the line her old PIN number to confirm it was her and then gave the voice a new PIN for the new card that was apparently coming in the mail. It turns out the voice on the phone was the thief and she ended up over-drafting Egan’s account.
“Did she have any sympathy at all?” Egan said looking up at the crowd. “Was there any human connection?” This line of thought is what got her going. The interest in the thief’s thought process, not the victim’s, got her writing. She continued to connect the bathroom story to her thief, inventing Sasha, one of the main protagonists of the novel.
“I was immediately hooked from the beginning of the first chapter,” said Anneliese Morrison, an FSU sophomore. “The way Egan jumps back and forth between the narration of Sasha relating her kleptomaniac tendencies to a shrink and the actual moment Sasha steals gave some really cool insight into the mind of a thief.”
After she had written the story on Sasha the kleptomaniac, Egan noted that she had a nagging interest to write a story about a supporting character from Sasha’s story; her boss, Benny. This story became chapter two, and at this point, Egan knew she was on to something. Each subsequent chapter came from a new perspective, usually from a minor character in a previous chapter. All of these stories take place at different periods of time in no particular order. Think Pulp Fiction, but deeper, more satisfying, and without all of the murders.
“It’s basically like a concept album.” Egan said about Goon Squad. She couldn’t be more right. Dealing with different perspectives, time, rock n’ roll, and unique styles of narration—one chapter is written entirely as a Powerpoint presentation—Egan’s work of fiction comes off as a distant relative of famous concept albums like The Who’s Tommy, which she loved so much growing up.
The concept album discussion generated a lot of attention from those in attendance. “I’m a huge fan of concept albums, dating back to the Beatles and David Bowie, all the way up to Radiohead and Sufjan Stevens; those albums are magnificent because each explores a single theme, be it a character (like Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust), place (Sufjan’s Chicago), or just a general societal worry or vibe (Beatles’ Sgt. Peppers or Radiohead’s Ok Computer), “ said Rob Stephens, a graduate student professor, after the event. “Egan’s reading clicked with me because she’s using the novel in that same tradition; each chapter, like the individual song of a concept album, uses different color palates and textures in order to explore the character’s life. She’s even playing with form in a similar way as a concept album by experimenting with Powerpoint presentations and even (though it didn’t make it into the book) epic poetry, much like the Beatles experimented with circus music (in “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite”) and new textures in Sgt. Pepper’s.”
Egan followed her concept album discussion with a reading of the first chapter of the book. Although many in attendance had already read A Visit From the Goon Squad, the reading was met with smiles and knowing laughter as Egan’s thoughtful and penetratingly honest prose drifted through the ballroom.
As she concluded the reading, Egan was met with prolonged applause from the audience. She then opened the floor to questioning from fans, teachers, and aspiring writers.
In response to a question about humanity’s ever increasing technological dependence, Egan said, “I do think it is obtrusive and distracting, but I have faith in the depth of human beings.”
This sentiment was shared by Stephens.
“100 years ago if people traveled from Tallahassee to Gainesville, they just talked to each other and watched nature” he said. “They daydreamed. I think, because we can constantly be connected and on screen, our brains don’t have time to daydream, to contemplate the self, and to rest during the day. But, I think Egan’s right to have good faith in people, that they will make the most of new technology and find ways to integrate it so that it doesn’t take over our minds.”
