Author: Jennifer Egan
Pages: 288
Published: 2010
Genre: Fiction
Rating: DNF
Jennifer Egan’s spellbinding new work circles Bennie Salazar, an aging former punk rocker and record executive, and Sasha, the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Bennie and Sasha never discover each other’s pasts, but the reader does, in intimate detail, along with the secret lives of a host of other people whose paths intersect with theirs in the San Francisco 1970s music scene, the demimonde of Naples, New York at many points along the way from the pre-Internet nineties to a postwar future, and on a catastrophic safari into the heart of Africa. We meet Lou, Bennie’s charismatic, careless mentor; Scotty, the young musician who slipped off the grid; the uncle facing a failed marriage who goes in search of seventeen-year-old Sasha when she disappears into Italy; and the therapist on whose couch she dissects darker compulsions.
Thoughts: I really, really tried to like this book, but I just couldn't and quit reading it after about 80 pages. While I understand the intent of Ms. Egan, I really couldn't understand the concept nor grasp it. My major complaint about the book was that I could never really understand where I was nor the time period that was being written about. Hence I couldn't get my head around it and was starting to get confused about what was going on.
2429 / 15000 pages. 16% done!
