A Visit from The Goon Squad

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Introduction:

This book is formed like a cassete tape: thirteen chapters in two parts: A & B, six for A and seven for B. Each chapter like a different song: told in different point of view, different character, different times, and different style. And (here’s the good one) a chapter that entirely written in the form of power point presentation. YES, POWER POINT PRESENTATION! Wkwkwkwkwk.

As a tribute for the beautiful beautiful mind of Jennifer Egan, I’ll try to write this review in the form of a song. In fact, a symphony. From Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 5 in E flat major. One of the most beautiful symphonies in the world.

Review No 5 in Calibri 11 minor

1. Tempo molto moderato – Allegro moderato (ma poco a poco stretto) – Vivace molto – Presto – Più Presto

“Time’s a goon, right?”. Against the goon of time. Bennie Salazar. Sasha, only Sasha. One a once punk rocker – record executive. The other is his secretary; past-haunted woman, travelled the world, long red hair, long standing compulsion to steal. We listen to the voice of her mid-thirties life, directed to the ear of a therapist. Then time fly fly flies. To earlier times. Daughter of broken marriage. Teenage runaway in Tokyo – Hongkong – Mainland-China – Naples. Coping with suicidal tendency in college. A facet of time with each visit. A visit from time. A visit from the goon squad.

Bennie Salazar welcome you in his mid-forties, divorced, struggling to form connection with nine year old son, once a successful record executive – now in lowest point of his carrier. We take the goon squad, visiting the late seventies to meet Bennie’s squad: high schoolers punk band, ready to made their first gig, daring to made their first recording under the hand of Lou Kline: womanizer record exec, Bennie’s would-be mentor. Dreams sadness expectations disappointments love conquests romance family young-spirit old-age: time’s gifts for life.

2. Andante mosso, quasi allegretto – Poco a poco stretto – Tranquillo – Poco a poco stretto – Ritenuto al tempo I

The structure. It’s music flowing. A different time, a different chapter. A different song.

Music of Jennifer Egan. Music of her words. Past to present to past to distant future, seamlessly assembled. Joyful transition. Each time a different song. Each time another singer. Cast of voices, a multitude of narrative styles. Chapter, short story, journalism report with footnotes, power point presentation. Power point presentation, ladies and gentlemen :D. Whether it’s the third person, you, or I, those stories will get to your heart.

Marvelous delicious read, you Jennifer. A.S. Byatt will have to wonder. Atwood will reconsider. Rest in peace the Bronte sisters. The world will be your reader. As I, my heart flutter.

3. Allegro molto – Misterioso – Un pochettino largamente – Largamente assai – Un pochettino stretto

Dreams sadness expectations disappointments love conquests romance family young-spirit old-age: time’s gifts for life. Music itself is life. What we can’t say with words we say with music. Music is a strong theme of this book. Aspects of the music: dynamic soul searching notes and voices; another one: pauses. Pause.

“Great Rock and Roll Pauses”. Favorite chapter. The one in power point. Beautiful beautiful chapter. Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Garbage, George Michael, Semisonic, Police, and many more. In beautiful power point graphs. Love this chapter so much.

From her, words voices:

“‘I’m always happy’. Sasha said. ‘Sometimes I just forget'”

“If I had a view like this to look down on every day, I would have the energy and inspiration to conquer the world. The trouble is, when you most need such a view, no one gives it to you”

“The pause makes you think the song will end. And then the song isn’t really over, so you’re relieved. But then the song does actually end, because every song ends, obviously, and THAT TIME. THE. END. IS. FOR. REAL.”

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The Knife of Never Letting Go

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don’t got nothing much to say”

With that loud bang of first sentence, this fast-pacing page-turning make-your-heart-beating and not for the fainthearted book begins.

The dog is Manchee, a (it turns out) loyal, friendly, funny and (sometimes) fierce, talking dog that reminds me to Dug on Up (the movie with the balloons if you don’t remember…. YOU DON’T REMEMBER “UP” ?!!!). The boy is Todd Hewitt, the last boy of Prentisstown – the last settlement in the New World, who is walking Manchee to the swamp to find some quiet because “the swamp is the only place anywhere near Prentisstown where you can have half a break from all the Noise that men spill outta theirselves, all their clamour and clatter that never lets up, even when they sleep, men and the thoughts they don’t know they think even when everyone can hear. Men and their Noise”.

Apparently the New World have the gift of Noise that enabled men to sound their thoughts, enabled every men to hear every other men’s thoughts. It’s the leftover from the war, the war men had with The Spackles, alien-like creatures that was original inhabitant of New World. Even though men won the war, The Spackles had successfully spread the Noise germ, the germ that create the Noise of men, the germ that killed all women in New World. That was the history of New World that being passed down generation to generation, from father to son, from man to boy, to Todd, the last boy of Prentisstown, 12 year and 12 month, another thirty days to being a man (with two moons, it was thirteen month for a year in New World).

Being the last boy surrounded by full grown men, the world of Todd is full of boy’s problem: loneliness, no dad, no mother (dad died in the war, mom died because of the germ), strain of farming chores (being raised by Ben and Cillian, the farmers that was Todd’s dad and mom’s neighbor) and a seemingly stupid troublesome dog, a birthday gift he don’t even want. Wich he walked to the swamp that day. That fateful day when he found…. quiet. A hole in the Noise, “like a shape you can’t see except by how everything else around it is touching it. Like water in the shape of a cup, but with no cup”.

The thought of quiet, heard by Ben and Cillian, when Todd came back to town, made them “‘Oh my God’, and then, without even moving or looking away, he says, ‘We have to get you outta here. We have to get you outta here right now‘”.

And that was only the last sentence of page 39 of the book. From there on it was only thrill, a roller coaster journey of young Todd Hewitt escaping from a town who become an army, into another settlement, bringing with him the quiet, which turn out to be in the shape of a girl. Viola Eade. What he thought was real turn out to be lies, his life, and the girl’s life in danger, and the world is not what he think it is. Reality, turn out to be a scary, horrid thing. And men can be monster.

WHAT A BOOK. WHAT A BOOK. For a 25 years old, I was surprised that a book with “Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize” could be that scary, thrilling, and wonderful wonderful book for a grown up. I stumbled into this novel, the first of Chaos Walking Trilogy in Periplus Plaza Senayan. It only took me the backcover synopsis and four point something rating on Goodreads to buy all the trilogy at once. And turn out it was not a disappointing buy. I recommend it to everyone. READ THIS BOOK EVERYBODY, READ THIS BOOK.

I only write this review to brace myself and ready my heart to start reading, The Ask and The Answer, part two of this trilogy.

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Such is Life – taken from Skippy Dies, a book by Paul Murray

You know, you spend your childhood watching TV, assuming that at some point in the future everything you see there will one day happen to you: that you too will win a Formula One race, hop a train, foil a group of terrorists, tell someone “Give me the gun”, etc. Then you start secondary school, and suddenly everyone’s asking you about your career plans and your long-term goals , and by goals they don’t mean the kind you are planning to score in the FA Cup. Gradually the awful truth dawns on you: that Santa Claus was just the tip of the iceberg – that your future will not be the rollercoaster ride you’d imagined, that the world occupied by your parents, the world of of washing the dishes, going to the dentist, weekend trips to the DIY superstore to buy floor-tiles, is actually largely what people mean when they speak of “life”. Now, with every day that passes, another door seems to close, the one marked PROFESSIONAL STUNTMAN, OR FIGHT EVIL ROBOT, until as the weeks go by and the doors – GET BITTEN BY SNAKE, SAVE WORLD FROM ASTEROID, DISMANTLE BOMB WITH SECONDS TO SPARE – keep closing, you begin to hear the sound as a good thing, and start closing some yourself, even ones that didn’t necessarily need to be closed…

Suatu Hari di Sebuah Kopaja

Suatu hari di sebuah kopaja saya menumpang sambil berdiri. Kopaja penuh dengan pegawai-pegawai pagi berdesak-desakan. Suatu saat di dekat sebuah jembatan penyebrangan seseorang hendak turun. Setelah mengetuk atap kopaja, dia bergerak menuju pintu sampai tidak sengaja dia menyenggol saya. Dia sempat tersenyum minta maaf. Saya sempat mengangguk dan tersenyum balik. Setelah kopaja berjalan kembali, tanpa pikiran suatu apapun, secara refleks tangan saya meraba saku celana: mengecek dompet dan handphone.

Saya tertegun dan malu.

Dosa apa kita sampai bisa tinggal di dunia seperti ini?