Rec | A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD

Rec

📔

A visit from the goon squad - jennifer egan

stories over time of a cast of characters loosely linked through the music industry
In a post-modern style like not too dissimilar to vonnegut
each chapter can be seen almost as a stand alone vignette
edit: after re-reading your ask, I’ll admit not the weirdest book, but it’s also definitely not run of the mill narrative fiction.
If you want weird, read Naked Lunch by William Burroughs. One of the most banned books of all time for a reason, grotesque, obscene, challenging, but imo definitely worth the read and I’ll be rereading it sometime. Helps to read along with a study guide to make sure you’re following what’s going on.

@_aidan

Mar 6, 2025

see likes

Comments (1)

Make an account to reply.

@ludwig

Really interesting how big the difference in complexity is between these two. I guess that's part of deal with literary novels, but a lot of these kind-of-(maybe-post-)modernist-ish-y-? noveld just have no middle ground. Vonnegut and Egan are both fairly easy to understand while Naked Lunch is just extremely challenging

Mar 11, 2025

Related Recs

Rec

📖

exquisite corpse

great book if you're a freak like me. little horror fiction novel about gay serial killers and their intertwining love lives in 90's new orleans. people call this novel one of the grossest most shocking books of all time, so naturally i had to read it. i devoured the book in the span of three days and loved every second of it (despite how scary it is haha). super interesting commentary about living with aids and fascinating portrayals of the psyche of a serial killer. wouldn't read this one if you are at all squeamish, it's very descriptive in its gore and unflinchingly real. this book reminded me of if an ottessa moshfegh novel had a fucked up gorey baby with a gregg araki movie.

@axem3n_

Jan 17, 2025

Rec

💖

A TOUCH OF JEN

It's kind of like if influencer culture took shrooms and then made love with three self help books and a sci-fi novel. The book had an incredibly slow build up, but I didn't find it boring at all, and in fact had a hard time putting it down the deeper in I got. Bottom line, even though it was less 'horror' than I was anticipating, I would recommend this book if you're looking for a surrealist read and a wild story line.
Also I think about this book whenever I get into a hot tub, so there’s that.

@kkolbrich

Jun 11, 2025

Rec

🏢

A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD

play “music” by Madonna. Every chapters a short story but they connect in some way to previous chapters. like one chapter will be about a music execs penis problems but the previous one was about his assistant talking to a therapist about her kleptomania then the next ones from the perspective of a member of the boss‘s high school rock band during the 70s or 80s. Music! Streaming vs cassettes, who will leave the ring alive? Pretty good so far but I’ve been slacking! too busy on this darn phone. There’s probably a chapter about that.

@becca-1

1d ago

Top Recs from @_aidan

Rec

⭐

10 Minute Chili Garlic Silken Tofu

the only thing I make where I'm like, yeah I can just straight up eat this whole block of tofu. take silken tofu (i usually do straight out of the fridge or shelf stable packaging), put some green onions, garlic, chili (flakes, crisp, whatever), soy sauce, sugar, and pour hot oil over top. kind of feels like a science experiment and takes 10 mins to make. ingredients don't have to be particular, sometimes I just do cold chili crisp or ginger scallion oil on the tofu. good over rice with stir fry veggies or by itself I linked a recipe from Sarah's Vegan Kitchen, she has a lot of cheap, easy, filling, vegan recipes

@_aidan

Mar 3, 2025

Rec

☕

BLACK GAS STATION COFFEE

It does the job. Always there when you need it. No pretension.
Also one of the most effective cures for constipation out there.

@_aidan

2d ago

Rec

🚲

Salsa

my friends with salsas get more compliments on their bikes than anyone else. the geometries are better for more casual (comfortable) riding. plus no weird part fitment/comparability issues if you ever want to swap stuff out
(pic: my partner’s salsa)

@_aidan

Mar 2, 2025