2018/01/31 by Melissa J. Strong · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Contemporary Literature and Criticism #Digital Games and Media #Cinema and Media Studies
paper · doi:10.1080/00111619.2018.1427544
openalex publication_date 2018/01/31 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06
A Visit from the Goon Squad conceives of time as a brutalizing force. Passing years ravage characters who wonder where time went. Time is central to the story and to the nonlinear way Jennifer Egan tells it, with thirteen chapters alternating perspectives and shifting between past, present, and future. Much of the scholarship on the book to date addresses its negative treatment of time. However, this essay argues that time is not always rough in Goon Squad. Hopeful opportunities emerge during disruptions to linear narrative and challenges to measurable clock time. Approaching the novel through the lens of kairos time—Paul Tillich’s term for the possibility of the eternal—uncovers opportunities for wholeness and healing in a work frequently characterized as hopeless and near dystopian. Kairos fosters human connections, links younger and older selves, and offers possibility to characters who fear time is running out.