Since 1917, the Pulitzer Prize has been a very prestigious award for distinguished works in journalism, literature, and musical composition. Although the Pulitzer was originally centered around journalism, many other categories, including fiction, are very sought-after. The Pulitzer Prize has no set criteria, however the award has a history of awarding work that displays American life at the time when the work is published. Also, Pulitzer Prize winners are required to be American citizens. When Joseph Pulitzer created the prize for novels, he said “the American novel published during which shall best present the whole atmosphere of American life and the highest standard of American manners and manhood.” In A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan creates an excellent portrayal of American life in the twenty-first century.
One major aspect of American life that’s explored very thoroughly in this novel is the vast changes people’s lives undergo when they exit young adulthood. Back in the early eighties, the main characters in this story were on essentially the same path. Bennie, Rhea, Scotty, Jocelyn, and Alice were once just kids in the same band but as time passes they grow apart more than one can imagine. At one point, Bennie is a rich record producer with a wife and a kid, while Scotty is very poor and divorced. Later, Bennie’s hit bottom until he finds Scotty and makes him a successful musician. Another example of lives changing drastically over time is the character Lou. When Lou is middle-aged, he has many connections to different people. He has two kids who he goes to Africa with. He gets married again and has two more, and then two more with another marriage. Jocelyn runs away from home to be with him. Despite all of these relationships, Lou still ends up alone. In the chapter "You (Plural)," Lou is on his deathbed and no one is there for him. When Rhea and Jocelyn visit him, he is in the house alone. Jocelyn then realizes the reason for his loneliness is that he’s a horrible person who led her and his son Rolph down a terrible path. He had a long-term influence on Jocelyn, who had a good childhood but then turned to drugs for her entire young life, causing her to still live with her mother in her mid-forties.
Another aspect of modern day American life in is technology. Jennifer Egan shows technology coming into the story in a clever way, by writing parts of the book in different ways that clearly indicate the use of technology. For example, in chapter twelve, which Alison narrates, she uses a Powerpoint presentation to talk about her family. Because Alison is twelve years old, it makes sense that she would use technology to express herself, and this style makes her thoughts very clear and easy to understand. Another example of Egan integrating technology into the novel is the use of “text talk” in the later chapters. Although this would typically be seen as extremely poor writing, Egan’s innovation here is rather brilliant because it show the true way people communicate now, and the reference to technology’s influence is strong as well.
Throughout this novel, Jennifer Egan made huge effort to create a representation of American life, and she was very successful, as the book does just that. Between her brilliant storytelling, weaving together storylines to show the effect of the passage time, and the clever way she integrated technology into the story more and more as time passed, it’s evident why she won the Pulitzer Prize. Her innovation with different styles combined with the well thought-out chronology used made A Visit From the Goon Squad the obvious choice.
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