A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan

Tonight I went to my local bookstore for a reading and interview. The featured novel/novelist were So Much Pretty and Cara Hoffman, respectively. Hoffman came across as a very significant and solid intellect. She was self aware without being self-deprecating in that way women often are, where we/they constantly apologize for their work or their presence. I was interested in her book because it takes place in rural New York, but I learned it's more about violence against women.

At any rate, while I was there, I purchased A Visit from the Good Squad, Jennifer Egan's very recently Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. My mom was interested in reading it and I'm going to see her next week. There are no bookstores where my parents live and while she could order it from Amazon, could she get an autographed copy that costs nothing extra, is just there for the buying because the author lives nearby? No she could not.

The book is not mine. It belongs to my mother. But a little peek wouldn't hurt, why not, it will just be sitting there for a week ... within minutes I felt the urge to shun all human contact, to read at the bus stop, to read in line at the grocery store, to read while I'm on hold with New York City government. I was about 9 pages in when I started to think, who needs people when you have books. The feeling is similar to the one I had when I finally broke down and purchased Freedom, and I was happy it was rainy and miserable that day, because who wanted to do anything anyway.

This is going to be good.