A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan

This is a very odd book, a story told in a series of interconnecting vignettes from different points of view. They start with Sasha, a kleptomaniac music industry executive with commitment issues. The vignettes move back in time with snapshots of people closely and distantly connected to Sasha, although at first it’s not at all clear where we are going or how it will all connect. This happens with a sudden leap forward to Sasha’s future and a particularly annoyingly structured entry from her daughter. It all ends back where it started, although much later in time, with the connection of two men who were in Sasha’s life in very different ways. It’s an interesting way to paint a picture of a life - in fragments, memories, perceptions and tangents. The whole does give a movingly bleak picture of how women move through the world, dealing with the damage inflicted by men. It is reminiscent of a Robert Altman film, with a bewilderingly large array of characters and some hit and miss storylines that add up to a not-quite satisfying result.