read: a visit from the goon squad
I'm leery of composite novels—their fits, their spurts, their stops and starts—but Jennifer Egan writes with a unifying vision and startling clarity. Even the fabled PowerPoint-presentation chapter transcends gimmickry and packs an emotional wallop. The only real misstep is the cyberpunk-lite epilogue, an overweening codicil where the author does far too much telling and not enough showing.