Aging is an issue that everyone deals with. I know that I'm still very young, but I'm starting to face the world of people I knew as babies entering high school and my friends getting married and having kids. I'm also at the point where I feel as if I need to balance my interests in the styles and lifestyles of whatever subcultures I might find myself entrenched in and the working world. When you're a student, you can get away with pretty much anything as far as style and lifestyle goes but when you have to go into the office and work a consistent schedule, things change.
Anyway, A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan tackles these issues along with the aftermath of being "cool" in high school. The story follows two different people in the music business, Bennie, a punk-turned-record-executive, and Sasha, his assistant with sticky fingers and a mysterious history. (doesn't that sound like the back cover of a novel?) The first two chapters are from Sasha and Bennie's perspectives, respectively, and the rest of the book shows their lives from the points of view of those around them. The story follows Bennie from high school to late middle age, and Sasha from her late teens to early middle age. Both Sasha and Bennie go through periods before their professional careers of reckless, youthful living, which ends up stalling the progression of their professional lives before they are able to flourish.
A Visit From the Goon Squad discusses aging in a candid way, which brings to light many of the dilemmas that every generation feels. The fear of loosing relevance, trying to keep relevance, and loosing it by trying too hard. Bennie is hit the hardest with this dichotomy, as his career as a record executive is a roller coaster through the story. He constantly has to fight to find the next big thing and, as he gets older, this gets harder. This is a reality for pretty much everyone, the fight between age and relevance. There is a line in the last chapter that sums up this feeling as Bennie says to his friend Scotty, "Time's a goon, right? You gonna let that goon push you around?" (332).
The last chapter gives a peek into the near future, a time when my generation's children are just at my age now. Included in this, is the idea that the next generation will be "clean," meaning that they will not have piercings or tattoos after seeing all of our assorted body art age and deteriorate. Quite an interesting aspect seeing as I'm just at the point where I'm adding more and more... I definitely recommend this novel. It won the 2011 Pulitzer, which I feel is greatly deserved.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Freedom
After taking an extended hiatus from reading Freedom by Jonathan Franzen to finish the Harry Potter series before the movie, I finally finished Franzen's latest novel early this week. I have to say that I loved The Corrections and the way that Franzen created a set of completely unlikable characters, with an ending that showed the tenderness that these seemingly cold-hearted, issue ridden people were capable of. Freedom creates the same kind of pity for characters who embody all that we are afraid of.
Freedom focuses on characters when they are at low points, professionally and relationally. This is true for each character except Patty. Patty's story spans a much longer period of her life than the rest of the characters, but her life over that long span, seems very empty and pitiful. Each of the characters embodies what I strongly fear, and what I believe much of my generation to fear: not really doing anything of importance with our lives. Patty and Walter both have ambition and potential but when they end up living deep in gentrification, their lives become mundane and inconsequential. This is one of my biggest fears, I'll admit that. And I believe that much of my generation feels the same way. We grew up in the "I believe I can fly" era, where we were taught the gospel of unlimited potential. While this may have opened up doors for a lot of people, it made more children, including me, prone to dissatisfaction. Franzen nailed this one on the head in the stories of each character.
The different parts of the book touch on different point in each characters' lives, and the different points tiptoe around the successful times. We don't hear from Patty when she is happy being a mom and a neighbor, we don't hear from Walter when he is first working for the conservancy, we don't hear from Richard when he is in his successful new band. Through this, Franzen shows a way of life that is ordinary and that anyone can identify with. We can all identify with dissatisfaction, stagnation, and failure, but not everyone can identify with a fulfilling, successful career, or loving family.
This is a short entry, mostly because I really just want to get it out there to prove that I haven't been living in a cultural wasteland, but also because I read Freedom over a long-ish period of time and I can't remember a lot of the themes that I wanted to touch upon. Anyway, I'll probably write a Harry Potter post (about the movie) after I see it for the third time (but the second didn't really count because I fell asleep during a lot of it). Currently, I'm reading A Visit From the Goon Squad, and I'm enjoying it so far.
Freedom focuses on characters when they are at low points, professionally and relationally. This is true for each character except Patty. Patty's story spans a much longer period of her life than the rest of the characters, but her life over that long span, seems very empty and pitiful. Each of the characters embodies what I strongly fear, and what I believe much of my generation to fear: not really doing anything of importance with our lives. Patty and Walter both have ambition and potential but when they end up living deep in gentrification, their lives become mundane and inconsequential. This is one of my biggest fears, I'll admit that. And I believe that much of my generation feels the same way. We grew up in the "I believe I can fly" era, where we were taught the gospel of unlimited potential. While this may have opened up doors for a lot of people, it made more children, including me, prone to dissatisfaction. Franzen nailed this one on the head in the stories of each character.
The different parts of the book touch on different point in each characters' lives, and the different points tiptoe around the successful times. We don't hear from Patty when she is happy being a mom and a neighbor, we don't hear from Walter when he is first working for the conservancy, we don't hear from Richard when he is in his successful new band. Through this, Franzen shows a way of life that is ordinary and that anyone can identify with. We can all identify with dissatisfaction, stagnation, and failure, but not everyone can identify with a fulfilling, successful career, or loving family.
This is a short entry, mostly because I really just want to get it out there to prove that I haven't been living in a cultural wasteland, but also because I read Freedom over a long-ish period of time and I can't remember a lot of the themes that I wanted to touch upon. Anyway, I'll probably write a Harry Potter post (about the movie) after I see it for the third time (but the second didn't really count because I fell asleep during a lot of it). Currently, I'm reading A Visit From the Goon Squad, and I'm enjoying it so far.
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