From The Book Review: Jennifer Egan on 'A Visit from the Goon Squad'

The Interview

The New York Times

News, Society & Culture

4 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 31 August 2024

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We’re off for Labor Day weekend, but are excited to bring you a great episode of The Book Review podcast. As part of The New York Times Book Review’s recent 100 Best Books of the 21st Century project, podcast host and Book Review editor Gilbert Cruz has been interviewing some of the authors whose books appeared on the list. In this episode, he talks to Jennifer Egan about her Pulitzer-winning novel, “A Visit From the Goon Squad.” They discuss the early challenges the book faced in finding an audience, the meaning of its title and Egan’s initial reluctance to decide whether the book was a novel or a story collection.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Lulu. Summer is sadly coming to a close, and our show is taking this weekend off, but we'll be back next Saturday with a new episode.
0:10.0	David will be talking to Will Farrell and his friend Harper Steele about a new documentary they've made together.
0:17.0	In the meantime, I wanted to share a great conversation
0:20.0	from our friends at the Book Review podcast.
0:23.0	It's part of a project that the Times Book Review launched at the very start of the summer
0:27.5	compiling a fascinating and debate-worthy list of the best 100 books of this century so far.
0:35.8	To go along with that project, book review editor Gilbert Cruz
0:39.1	has been interviewing some of the authors
0:40.9	whose work made it onto the list and I loved this recent
0:44.1	conversation he had with Jennifer Egan whose 2010 novel a visit from the
0:48.2	Goon Squad came in at number 39. In this episode they talk about that book's success after a slow start,
0:56.0	Egan's last minute edition of a PowerPoint presentation to the novel and some of her work since.
1:02.3	Enjoy.
1:04.0	I'm Gilbert Cruz,
1:08.0	editor of the New York Times Book Review
1:10.0	and this is the Book Review
1:12.0	Poppcast Special Edition.
1:14.4	This summer, in addition to our regular episodes,
1:17.0	we have a series of interviews with authors
1:19.7	whose books made our list of the 100 best books
1:22.4	of the 21st century.
1:24.0	Today I'm joined by Jennifer Egan, who released a visit from the Goon Squad in summer 2010
	...

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