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Paper Cuts, the Times Book Review blog, 8/19
“At dinner with a friend recently, the subject of writers’ Web sites came up, and this friend mentioned Jennifer Egan’s website, which she said was “incredible” or “amazing” or some such superlative…I went home and, as soon as I had a spare moment, looked up Egan’s site. That “moment” turned into at least an hour.
The Morning News/Robert Birnbaum, 8/18
“Let’s put it this way: I would hesitate to call anything satire in our culture. Or futuristic.”
The Fader, 8/17
“To those of you who have found much of what you do soundtracked—and if you are on TheFADER.com, we’re guessing that is you—it’s a strongly moving book about time and growth, and what’s exciting about being young and old, and what’s difficult about both.”
Riff City/Channel Thirteen, 8/11
“Egan might be better than every music critic ever at describing both how music is made and what listening to music feels like.”
More Intelligent Life/The Economist, 8/5
“The miracle of “A Visit from the Goon Squad” is that nothing—not even a section devoted to an extended PowerPoint presentation—feels forced.”
NPR’s “The Takeaway,” with John Hockenberry and Lynn Sherr, 8/3
“If you’ve read any of Jennifer Egan’s previous work, you know that her writing style is rarely predictable. In her new book, “A Visit From the Goon Squad,” she takes that unpredictability to a whole new level.”
New York Magazine’s Grub Street
An interview in which Egan unwittingly reveals that her vocabulary when discussing food on the phone is limited, and that her kitchen is a mess.
Huffington Post, 7/27
“Ok. She’s not always cozy. Instead she’s intuitive. Ironic. Intense. Insightful.”
NPR’s Morning Edition, 7/26
Interviewed by Lynn Neary
“According to Egan, the novel is a flexible and sturdy form, capable of withstanding the changes and challenges brought on by new technology. As a writer, she says she aims to hold on to the best of the past while having fun with the best of what’s new.”
The Millions, 7/12
“This is where Egan’s genius lies. She engages with philosophical questions and is formally daring, and yet, and yet!, her work is emotionally moving, the stories and characters always compelling.”
Dossier, 7/9
“As Egan’s fans know, her style varies from book to book and this collection is a testament to her wide-ranging mastery of voice and tone.”
Guttersnipe, 7/1
“Guttersnipe reached Jennifer Egan at home in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, where she was enjoying some time off following a book tour. Music journalism, Jagermeister as an artistic choice, and the future of books were among the topics.”
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 7/4
“I really wasn’t thinking of anything but breaking open a cliche I wanted to understand,” she says, “and out of this came this guy I was just nuts about.”
Guernica/a magazine of art & politics
Egan talks with Temple University’s Joshua Lukin, who knows her work better than she does.
The Daily Beast, 6/29
“Egan is an iconoclastic and original fiction writer, hewing to her own genre-bending path and creating fresh starts with each new book. Her finely tuned cultural antennae, her elegant language, and the unpredictability of her imagined universes make reading her work an adventure. Her work is supremely intelligent, psychologically acute, seriously playful, attuned to cutting-edge technology.”
St. Louis Courier-Journal, 6/28
“Part of the joy of reading “Goon Squad” is the thrill of recognition that comes from being fully introduced to a character who has been alluded to in a preceding chapter.”
Express from the Washington Post, 6/28
“In general, Egan is less interested in telling her own story than she is in describing the world from her own point of view.”
Bookotron, 6/28
“What I am frankly most curious about is how the novel will be received by the science fiction community.”
The Paris Review, 6/25
Drinking Diaries, 6/13
Philebrity, 6/17
“We wish they made more novelists like Jennifer Egan these days.”
Wall Street Journal, NY Region, 6/15
“Brooklyn-based novelist Jennifer Egan has accomplished the tricky feat of using metafiction techniques without sacrificing old-fashioned storytelling.”
The Leonard Lopate Show, WNYC, 6/10
Salon.com, 6/13
“Trying to “follow” the “plot” of “Goon Squad” is like trying to count the pores on your arm while tripping: tempting, yes, but a distraction from all the pyrotechnical fun.”
Bomb Magazine, Summer issue
Interview with Heidi Julavits
“Egan is a super-thinky writer in quasi-disguise, a writer who alchemizes Big Ideas into works of emotional intensity and architectural intricacy, the result being sneaky books you can recommend to those friends and relatives who demand “recognizable” characters and thumping storylines, but whom you hope might find tantalizing, beneath these vibrant entertainments, the buzzing circuitry of Egan’s mighty brain.”
Why is Good Writing about Sex so Rare? Discuss
The Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 4th, 2010