Chabon mentions Pynchon

[Bekah]

Egan is truly not one of my favorites but the only book I've read is that Pulitzer winner,  "A Visit From the Goon Squad,"  which was kind of funny,  but like a Gen X'er reminiscing and growing nostalgic about the music and times of the '60s.    Some here might like it - it's heavy on the old music biz.   Meanwhile,  I'd be interested in reading The Keep - like I think Egan's got talent but Goon Squad didn't appeal to me.  -  Otoh,  I might not like dated meta literary devices in the hands of anyone these days -  see Tom McCarthy or Richard Powers - they're okay now,  not stunning.   

Re the Goon Squad from The Guardian: 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/mar/13/jennifer-egan-visit-goon-squad

"The title of Jennifer Egan's new novel may make it sound more like an episode of Scooby-Doo than an exceptional rendering of contemporary America, but don't be fooled. The book received rave reviews when it was published in the US last year, and for good reason; it has since been named a finalist for several prestigious American prizes. Egan has said that the novel was inspired by two sources: Proust's À la Recherche du Temps Perdu, and HBO's The Sopranos. That shouldn't make sense but it does: Goon Squad is a book about memory and kinship, time and narrative, continuity and disconnection, in which relationships shift and recombine kaleidoscopically. It is neither a novel nor a collection of short stories, but something in between: a series of chapters featuring interlocking characters at different points in their lives, whose individual voices combine to a create a symphonic work that uses its interconnected form to explore ideas about human interconnectedness. This is a difficult book to summarise, but a delight to read, gradually distilling a medley out of its polyphonic, sometimes deliberately cacophonous voices.  

Bekah

On Oct 27, 2012, at 12:28 PM, kelber at mindspring.com wrote:

> Bekah, what are your thoughts on Jennifer Egan?  I've only read The Keep.  It held my interest, but the "meta" aspects of it seemed a little trite, and it pretty much fizzled to nothing at the end.  Haven't read her Pulitzer prize-winner. 
> 
> Laura
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
> 
>> Because US publishers like women to write the far more lucrative  "women's books"   as does Jodi Picault,  and maybe the better women writers,  Barbara Kingsolver,  Anne Tyler,   Marilynne Robinson etc.   Women authors are fully accepted in the nonfiction and crime genres.   There are a few who can slip by into praiseworthy literary fiction (whatever that means) - Cynthia Ozick is one.   Karen Yamashita,  (! -  I, Hotel )  Toni Morrison (fading),  Gish Jen (newer) are some others - Julie Otsuka maybe.   
>> 
>> Zadie Smith is still more British than American,  and the very British Hilary Mantel is excellent now with the Cromwell stories.  Rowling's new one - Casual Vacancy was … interesting but … she's no Zadie Smith by a long shot. 
>> 
>> Shirley Hazzard is from Australia now in the US - I doubt she has another book in her.  Alice Munro (Canada) is also aging now - as is Ozick.  
>> 
>> Bekah
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>> 
>> 
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