“How did you get so old? Was it all at once, in a day, or did you peter out bit by bit? When did you stop having parties? Did everyone else get old too, or was it just you? Are other people still here, hiding in the palm trees or holding their breath underwater? When did you last swim your laps? Do your bones hurt? Did you know this was coming and hide that you knew, or did it ambush you from behind?”
Goon: a bully or thug, especially one hired to terrorize. Time is a goon. Just yesterday, I was in kindergarten. Graduation was nowhere on my mind. In fact, being anywhere near the age of eighteen was untouchable, part of a completely different universe. Today, I anxiously await graduation and feel butterflies thinking about college in the fall. Tomorrow, I will be eighty watching my own grandkids grow up and walk proudly to receive their diplomas wondering how I’ve become an old woman, losing my youth, but gaining a whole lifetime. Characters in Jenifer Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad similarly experience the effects of time.
Time changes people. When Sasha’s uncle unexpectedly finds her, he barely recognizes her. The little girl he knew years ago is not the same as the woman standing in front of him. She is independent, living on her own, and fully grown up.
Scotty and Bennie also barely recognize each other when Scotty visits Bennie at his office. The old band mates are not the same men that toured together in the past. Bennie became a producer, completely immersed in a more luxurious life, while Scotty lives a more relaxed life. He shows this when he offers a raw fish to Bennie at his office.
Alex reflects on the man he used to be when remembering Sasha. He looks at these memories like those of a man he used to know. He remembers how he used to go on multiple dates, but never really settled down. He must somewhat miss this now lost part of himself as he feels excitement at the thought of maybe actually seeing Sasha at her apartment again.
All of these characters must accept changes in their own lives and in others’ lives. Egan shows time’s rule through flashbacks and flash forwards all throughout her novel. She gives the reader glimpses into characters’ stories at many different moments in time and from an array of different perspectives. Each chapter displays the changes time forces on character’s personalities and relationships with others.
Time is a goon. It takes away and gives relationships and wrinkles, all while pushing people to become new versions of themselves. No one can hide from it. I cannot stop myself from growing up or going to college, no matter how much I want to stay my present age forever. Some of people I know today in high school will be completely unrecognizable in ten or maybe even four years. Fully aware of time’s tyranny over us, we all must keep trudging on, hoping that the person we are tomorrow is even better than the person we are today.
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