Technology is also touched upon in other chapters of the novel. We see technology mostly through the emergence of handsets in A Visit From the Goon Squad. Egan specifically uses jargon that is extremely prevalent to the reader through “texting”. In the final chapter of the novel, “Pure Language”, the reader actually encounters a conversation done entirely through texting, otherwise known a “T’ing” in the novel, by Alex and Lulu. “tel me hEs betr in prsn”(Egan 326). The use of this language can almost be looked at as her view on modern day technology or maybe it is just a way to be similar to today’s society, either way it provides the reader with something that they know all to well.
In “Forty-Minute Lunch: Kitty Jackson Opens Up About Love, Fame, and Nixon! Jules Jones Reports” Egan uses another interesting format. This chapter is told through Jules Jones who is writing an article for the company he works for. The article focuses on Kitty Jackson and her new movie. The chapter is formatted very similarly to an actual magazine article with the tight alignment and footnotes. The change up in format almost is a nice break from the normal format of the novel. Initially when starting to read the chapter the reader becomes interested in why the chapter looks…show more content… The chapters are completely out of order, which makes the reading difficult. Someone once said “You can’t truly understand the novel until the second or third time reading it”. In each chapter the reader learns something new about a character’s past or future. At some points the reader does not learn about their past until later in the novel. Egan masterfully uses the nonlinear presentation of time in A Visit From the Goon Squad in giving the reader a fresh and new writing style. She places each chapter carefully and purposefully which forces the reader to take time and think about what is going on in the chapter and how it adds to the whole
