Never read anything by Jennifer Egan before, but it won the Pulitzer Prize, so was on my reading list. Very well written book, with short sentences, all five senses present, descriptive details where it matters and interesting events. It says it is a novel but it is actually a set of short stories with overlapping characters and voices. Works better than Cloud Atlas though.
Sasha and Bennie seem to be the main characters, as most of the stories touch on them. It is interesting to see them described in vignettes from their teens to their 60s (in Bennie’s case). Ups and downs in life , from teenage prostitution and drug use for Sasha to a Midwest housewife life. For Bennie from teenage pink rebel with a band through a record executive which snorts gold flakes for potency and still manages to cheat on his wife multiple times , until a second marriage and kid in his 60s with an ethnic wife half his age.
We also hear about Alex and Scotty and a few other characters , but their stories (in their voices) are just there to support Bennie and Sasha. The 12th chapter (PowerPoint) is a bit too much , even for an experimental novel.
It is a good and fast read, but it feels like something that was intended to be good and fast , rather than a life work that the author felt compelled to write regardless of commercial success. This was written to be a commercial success and be in top lists.
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