Lou a character from Jeniffer Egan’s noval A Visit From Thee Goon Squad, or rather her compilation of stores that connected by one charter and never time. Egan a novelist featured in the New York Magazine who first lived in Brookline and San Francisco. Lou though a character Egan develops and redevelops in the matter of three chapters. At times I wish I could take Lou and pound into his head the things his missing. As an eighteen year old its surprising that I can find these moments with a “grown “ “adult”. He “cant tolerate defeat” “He has to win” “Albert is nothing…What matters now is that Mindy understands this”(79). Egan ‘s incredible strong diction in the use of “can’t” “has to” “nothing” reveals the characters she’s creating. A character needing do mince, needing control of something, and needing to assert his power through control of a human. Egan revels this farther when stating “But Charlie does know her father. He’ll marry Mindy because that’s what winning means”(80). Egan uses Lou’s daughter to magnify his problem. His addiction presents so promptly that his own daughter sees it.
I want to rip Lou from the pages Egan fills and tell him everything he misses by only looking for control in his relationships. Yes he gets to be the hero of ever situation, but what has Lou sacrificed for it? He misses so much, a daughter starving for attention, a son with wisdom beyond his years “’I don’t think those ladies were ever watching birds”’(83). I want to tell Lou how destructive he’s being, how selfish he’s being. A few pages later though Lou a miner character in a story some one else lives the role of the main character. Some how though I still want to tell him Lou you have no control let it go and just live, but he’s just a character in a book that for three hundred and thirty one pages has life through me.
I also felt even more angry against Lou when Egan involved his children in the story-line. The fact that his son understood his father while still looking up to him eventually commit suicide made matters even worse. How could Lou, a reckless druggie, live long and die of a stroke while his intelligent son failed to understand his worth in life. Instead of worrying about women, Lou should have kept closer watch of his children. Egan's inclusion of the enraging character contrasts against those who care about others: Sasha, Bennie, Scotty, La Doll, and Alex. Perhaps Egan wanted to make the other character's problems seem less insane for at least they acquire the humane emotion of empathy.
ReplyDeleteThis anecdote about Lou really set me off in terms of anger as well because of Lou's constant negelect of his children! You know that a situation is out of control when your daughter believes "there's a charge for...her father's attention" (61). This neglect should never be apparent in a relationship between parents and their children. It will only lead to negative actions which we see with Rolph as later on in his life he commits suicide. A father who focuses more so upon his girlfriend than his children during a family vacation should be no father at all.
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