A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

It has been a long while since I devoured a book in a day; I can put this down to having a full time job, busy weekends and it being a rarity that a book comes along that is that good. The literary planets aligned, and I found myself splayed on the couch for many, many hours, pretending I was a uni student, or a sullen teenager. Oh those were the days Cockatoo Mobile Library!

So what is this book about? It’s about time (the title’s ‘goon’), getting older, getting wiser, getting dumber, things you did in your youth and the things you do in your old age, regrets, disappointments, with the loose framework of music linking it all back in together. There is a chapter written entirely in the form of a Powerpoint presentation, and it is a delight. You won’t believe me until you read it yourself. It has a surprising turn of phrase: "the sun felt like it had teeth". The last chapter confounded me a little – I liked what she was trying to achieve, but not sure if she quite got there. But I’ve always been a stroppy ending reader – when I read a really good book, they could end it perfectly and I’d still be grumpy that the whole enterprise was over.

Over to you Hammill…see if you agree with the Pulitzer jury.