The rock musician-dominated milieu made me feel left on the wrong side of the velvet rope/ ( )

I probably need to reread this to fully grasp the connections between every single character, but there's a loose thread between Sasha, Teddy, Rob, Allison, and Lincoln that strikes me the most. Sasha, a runaway kid who was pushed into sex work at an early age, is discovered by her nonchalant uncle, Teddy, who for once in his dull and uninspired life, takes incredible strides to care for his niece. He stays up with her to see the sun, despite Sasha's protests and efforts at pushing him away. Years later, Sasha does the same for Rob, a closeted and suicidal young man who thinks of Sasha as the one person who anchors him to the world and all its beauty.

Rob's tragedy and Teddy's kindness reverberates across Sasha's life, and from the perspective of her daughter, Alison, we see that Sasha is transformed by the pain (and beauty) of her life. She loves her children fiercely; her son, Lincoln, is autistic, and we see Sasha treat him with the same gentleness and love that she treated Rob. Her son's interest in the pauses in music "connects him to the world," she tells her husband, who is momentarily frustrated at his son's hyperfixations. She indulges Lincoln, never wanting him to feel as lonely as Rob (and she) did. Maybe because once, a long time ago, Sasha's uncle waited for her till sunrise. Rob, Lincoln, and Alison may not know that, but this is the beauty of love. Time's a goon, a character says. But love, as Egan shows, ruptures time's tyranny, even if it is for less than a day.

There are sections (Selling the General and the news article on Kitty Jones) which left me cold at first, but on a second read, is neccessary in its cruelty - an alternate view of a life of another young girl who have survived a brutal sexual assault, and perhaps - we are left to wonder - isn't as lucky as Sasha, who had Teddy to look out for her. Kitty isn't given a chapter on her own (unlike Jocelyn) and that silence is just as damning as overt revelations that take place in the novel. Another character muses, "I want to know what happens between A and B." And isn't that what life is - getting from point A to B? So much happens in-between. For others, nothing at all. ( )

Romanzo moderno che sfuma nel distopico. E' bello l'intreccio delle vite raccontate come in una catena, la musica il filo conduttore. Molto carino il capitolo con le slide. Scritto veramente bene, brava J. Egan! ( )

Not really sure what I thought of it. I was intrigued by the non-linear narrative - it was well done for what it was….but that doesn’t mean I enjoyed it. It was just strange and left me somewhat disoriented - though I liked that much better than the scene told through PowerPoint pages that did not deliver on the climax it should have been.Sigh. ( )

Pulitzer Prize Winner