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Foreshadowing
Key Examples in A Visit from the Goon Squad
Genre
Explanation and Analysis:
Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad is a work of fiction that experiments with many literary genres, adopting features from both the short story and the novel, as well as from unconventional forms.
In one respect, A Visit from the Goon Squad resembles a short story collection: each chapter tells its own story, is given its own unique setting, and focuses on a select band of characters. Egan assembles these stories in a non-chronological manner, with every chapter beginning a new, independent timeline that does not follow from the previous chapter. Indeed, some suggest that these connected short stories might be compared to a vinyl record: Egan divides her stories into two collections, Part A and Part B, not unlike the A and B sides of a physical record, with the stories representing songs from a musical album. Therefore, the structure itself of A Visit from the Goon Squad incorporates the motif of music central to the plot.
