The Pulitzer Prize-winning author reflects on EW’s best book of the decade a decade later.
Over a decade ago,Jennifer Eganhad a fateful evening in a New York hotel.
Fans of her 2010 novelA Visit From the Goon Squadwill recognize this scene.
Egan looked down at the disembodied purse and thought to herself: I could take this wallet.
And in that moment, the opening chapter of her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel began to take shape.
“I connected with the perspective of the person who steals,” the author explains.
“A lot of it has been superseded by reality, so it reads more like verisimilitude.
It’s nearly impossible to talk aboutA Visit From the Goon Squadwithout talking about Microsoft PowerPoint.
(If you’ve written a novel in PowerPoint, let us know.)
Egan had attempted to use the format but was struggling with bringing it to fruition.
Once the book hit shelves (complete with PowerPoint), it struggled to find an audience.
As Egan puts it, “It started bombing immediately.”
Egan, along with her team at Penguin RandomHouse, began to feel anxious.
They began looking for something on which to cast blame.
“It felt like everything changed overnight,” she says of the award.
“We live in a world that cares so much about labels and status.
Maybe we’ll talk again in 14 years and compare.”
