A Visit from the Goon Squad has centered around several different characters. Sometimes it's first person, and sometimes third. This gives us a chance to see all the different sides of each character. The stoty also goes through different time periods with ease. There are many results from this. The main one is that it gives us as readers a chance to meet several different people, such as Sasha, Alex, Lou, Jocelyn, Rhea, Alice, Scottie, Rolph, and Steph. However, I believe the most intereting character in the story is Bennie by far. We get to see different discriptions of him by different people, and get to see him throughout multiple time periods.
Chronologically, we see Bennie as a young man in a garage band named The Flaming Dildos. He seems to be very social and punkish. Rhea portrays him as extrrmely handsome and well adjusted. Next we see him as struggling to adapt to a high lifestyle as country clubs and such. He seems to br losing Steph little by little at this point. Steph makes hum look like the bad guy. Earlier in the book but later in time, we see Bennie crunble. He needs gold dust to feel sexually potent. His relationship with his son has been criticized by a therapist. He flirts witn Sasha to no avail. He becomes a thing of the past.
Egan's style of writing shapes Bennie into the most well rounded character. He rises and falls (but not in that order) just in the first 150 pages. Bennie is very thought provoking and is definitely someone to look for in the rest of the book.
I agree with your analysis. I think that Bennie has the most interesting back story of all of the characters, and Egan has given him a very complex identity. He seems to be at the center of the book.
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