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Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
Fate
In A Visit from the Goon Squad, fate unfolds with an indifferent hand, often disregarding individual desires and intentions. While the story is very focused on the ideas of lives interlocking and of coincidence, it never suggests that destiny is a kind or benevolent force. The novel’s unusual chronological structure also reflects this theme. Instead of a linear story, where cause and effect have a relationship with time, A Visit from the Goon Squad bounces around between timelines and suggests that it’s not that simple. The reader can see this very clearly in almost every section, but it’s perhaps most obvious in Sasha's story.
Destiny deals events out to Sasha with a dispassionate hand, even though she’s probably the most important character in the book. Although Sasha means well, she has problems which she seems completely unable to resist perpetuating for herself. Her kleptomania, her desire to escape her father, and her boundless need to understand and be understood cause her just as much sorrow as happiness. Despite her efforts to control her life, fate places her in situations that force her to confront her issues. Confronting them doesn’t mean they’re solved, however. There’s no direct correlation between hard work and fair rewards in this novel. Even when Sasha changes her ways and begins making art instead of stealing, it’s still a hobby that relies on her making the best of whatever life throws her way. She’s still cobbling together a life from debris, whether it’s stolen or not.
Bennie Salazar's career in the music industry also illustrates the theme of fate. Getting mentored by Lou Kline sets him on a path to success, but his ear for music and his own stubbornness prevent him from maintaining his upward trajectory. Projects cease to appeal to him when they become mainstream. Acts he believes are destined for greatness, like Stop/Go, fizzle out seemingly at random. Despite his passion for what he does, fate disregards his intentions. This happens on scales from the cataclysmic to the minute. The reader sees it in traumatic, accidental events like the circumstances that lead to Rob drowning. It can also be found in things as minuscule as Rhea’s freckles, tiny random sprinkles of melanin from sun exposure that have nothing to do with her value or her intentions, but which profoundly affect her life.
Lou Kline's life is another example of destiny's dealings, although for Lou, the needle of fairness seems disproportionately tipped. His life has tragedy in it, undoubtedly, but he also doesn’t get legally or financially punished for his predatory sexual behavior, infidelity, or drug abuse. He lives a hedonistic lifestyle until old age, and then survives a stroke for long enough to reconcile with Jocelyn and Rhea. The character of Lou calls attention to the indifference of fate; on the one hand, this once-powerful man is dying rapidly and has lost a son and most of his friends. On the other, he lived almost his entire life without experiencing any real consequences for his choices.
Identity and Self-Perception
In A Visit from the Goon Squad, the many narrators spend a lot of time figuring out how characters navigate the limits and fluidity of their self-conception. Because the reader encounters many of Egan’s characters from different people’s viewpoints, the stories call attention to the fact that one’s own self-perception is often more fiction than truth. The use of first, second and third person writing positions also adds to the feeling of seeing people and situations from several angles.
Rhea’s story is full of the fluid, often awkward boundaries of teenage self-understanding as she transitions from being a self-conscious punk rocker to living a conventional adult life. Her early years are preoccupied by a desire to fit into the punk scene and to be loved by Bennie. When this doesn’t come easily to her, she believes that it must be to do with her appearance or something unknown that’s missing within her. She tries unsuccessfully to find the source of the problem, only to learn that the issue was self-perpetuating. The solution was to grow up, which she could only do at her own pace. The older version of Rhea still holds onto some feelings of inadequacy, but they’re subordinated to her stable family life. This shift illustrates how identity can change significantly over time, and part of that change includes finally truly seeing and understanding oneself.
Sasha’s also gropes around to find the source of her unhappiness and alienation, not finding it until much later in her life. Her kleptomania and her attendance at Coz’s psychology practice are two sides of the same search for self-understanding. Bennie and Scotty reconcile in Scotty’s story, although the uneasy peace they form doesn’t seem genuine until much later in the book. Neither Bennie nor Scotty know themselves particularly well at any point in their lives. Bennie is not white—Egan implies he might be Latinx or Pinoy—but he pushes against being read that way for most of his life. Bennie is also obsessed with clinging to the songs he loved from the past, even though it’s hurting his career as a music executive. When he eventually hires Scotty it’s only a partial capitulation to accepting newness. Even the music for toddlers Sow’s Ear Records specializes in in “Pure Language” still feels like part of Bennie’s past if Scotty is making it. Scotty himself lives in a dreamworld of suspicion and delusion for a lot of his adult life. He convinces himself that he’s happy, although it’s perfectly clear this isn’t the case.
Mortality
This section contains spoilers!
The title of A Visit from the Goon Squad refers to the idea that time will move forward relentlessly, no matter how hard people try to stop it. Like a deal made with the mafia, there’s no way to escape it. In the novel this usually manifests as a profound fear of aging out of fulfilling one’s potential. Many of the novel’s characters are disproportionately preoccupied with aging, even though the novel itself pays little attention to the rules of linear time. For example, as she gets older, Sasha becomes increasingly aware that her time on earth is limited and that she’s made mistakes. Although Sasha’s life does change as she grows and matures, she’s very conscious of the time she previously wasted. The passage of time gives Sasha perspective, but it also is a reminder of the limited days she has to make the life she wants.
Bennie Salazar’s story also points to the extreme measures people will take to stave off death and decay. Bennie buys pure gold flakes, allegedly from a Mayan temple, and eats them at every meal in an attempt to preserve his youth and virility. Bennie’s fear of losing relevance is linked to his anxiety about his diminishing sexual liveliness. He’s lost all sexual interest in his wife, and only feels a fleeting stirring of desire at random moments with Sasha. His dedication to preserving the purity of music is an extended metaphor for his relationship to mortality. He wants to create something that lasts.
Lou Kline’s story explores mortality through his hedonistic lifestyle and its consequences. Lou's refusal to acknowledge his aging leads to a stroke, leaving him physically impaired. His story illustrates the inevitable connection between aging and the physical decline that accompanies it. In contrast to this, Rob’s story links the themes of fate and mortality together; he is young and able-bodied, and a suicide survivor. Despite his strength, he drowns in the freezing East River when he chases after a fleeing Drew.
The novel’s structure, which shifts between different periods in the interrelated lives of characters, emphasizes the effects of time on the characters. By presenting events out of chronological order, the author allows readers to see the long-term consequences of actions and the ways in which realizing their mortality forces them to readdress their choices. This structure calls attention to the interconnectedness of past, present, and future, suggesting that though everyone experiences time differently, no one can escape its grasp.
