Overview:
"Goon squads" were originally groups of violent thugs who would beat up anyone opposed to certain labor unions and corrupt political machines. Later the term "goon" came to refer more generally to any violent thug, and this is where the book draws its central metaphor. In one story, a character named Bosco declares: "Time's a goon, right?" , referring to the way that time and fate cruelly rob most of the book's characters of their youth, innocence and success. As Bosco complains: "How did I go from being a rock star to being a fat fuck no one cares about?"Some of the book's characters do end up finding happiness, but it is always a limited happiness, and it is rarely in the form that they intended. In an interview, Egan explained that "time is the stealth goon, the one you ignore because you are so busy worrying about the goons right in front of you."
Many of the book's characters work in the music industry, particularly the rock music business. Rock and Roll, with its emphasis on youth culture, plays into the book's themes of aging and the loss of innocence.
As Egan says, "my 9-year-old loves Lady Gaga and refers to Madonna as ‘old school.’ There’s no way to avoid becoming part of the past."Rock music was also central to the marketing push behind the book, although the actual text does not focus directly on musicians or music making. Egan said she knew Rock and Roll only as a consumer at the time she began writing the book and had to do a lot of research on the subject.
Egan said the story was inspired by two sources: Proust's In Search of Lost Time, and HBO's The Sopranos. It is a novel of memory and kinship, continuity and disconnection.
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And Blessed Are The Ones Who Care For Their Fellow Men!
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