NPR: Word of Mouth, 3/28/11
“Jennifer Egan, MS Powerpoint, and the Rock n ‘Roll Pause”
Interviews
BBC News Online
BBC News: Entertainment & Arts, 4/1
“I myself have been robbed many times in many ways – the most egregious being the time someone stole my wallet and then phoned me posing as a bank employee and got me to give her my pin number.”
Granta
Granta: Online Interview, 3/18/11
“I’m someone who doesn’t necessarily lunge to read ‘experimental’ work, because for me that word tends to connote abstraction, even a kind of severity, rather than a reading experience that might be fun.”
NEA Podcast
National Endowment for the Arts Podcast: Interview with Josephine Reed, 3/24/11
Psychology Today
Psychology Today, 3/25/11
“Hang in there. If things don’t go your way in this round, they may very well the next.”
The Wall Street Journal Speakeasy
Wall Street Journal Speakeasy, 3/24/11
“My cats are a big part of my work life. They’re in and out of here all day long.”
EMusic Interview
EMusic, 12/20/11
“One area I find weirdly unpleasant is actually telling my kids stories, like my father used to do.”
Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews, 12/15/11
“In a way, maybe [GOON SQUAD] is a response to the bewildered renegotiation of my relationship to the world.”
The Nervous Breakdown
Satellite Sisters
Irish Echo
Irish Echo, 9/29
“Everything about the past…is a construction of that present. I wasn’t there. You weren’t there. We’re all imagining it together.”
The Austinist
The Austinist, 10/1
“Hah! I wish I’d known how to use PowerPoint in time to help me with organizing this wacky book.”
Opening Lines
Opening Lines (a website devoted to artists’ beginnings), 9/15
“I’m sorry to say that my crowning achievement [in high school] was a play about the group The Who. I don’t think that’s something I’ll be sharing with the world. I’m not even sure about where it is.”
Cooking the Books
Cooking the Books, with Emily Gould, 9/29
Egan assists in making chocolate-dipped macaroons while discussing cabbages and kings.
Mary Literary
Mary Literary, 9/7
“At first I wanted to be a doctor…I was a kid who wanted to dig up graves and look at bodies.”
HITS “Daily Double”
HITS Magazine’s “Daily Double,” 9/7
“The subconscious can be a very powerful force. And thank God for that, because without it, I would have a sub par IQ.”
Paper Cuts/Website
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
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
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, 13 Online
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.”
The Economist
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.”
The Takeaway
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”
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.
Off the (C)Huff
Huffington Post, 7/27
“Ok. She’s not always cozy. Instead she’s intuitive. Ironic. Intense. Insightful.”
NPR, Morning Edition
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.”