Ain't No Rest For the Goon Squad

The first story in A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan centers around Sasha, a kleptomaniac trying to get her life back on track. Sasha often gets an uncontrollable urge to take what isn't hers, and unfortunately, is not quite strong enough to combat these desires. Strangely enough, Sasha does not take valuable objects; even when she steals wallets, she doesn't use the money contained in them.

The song Ain't No Rest For the Wicked by the popular band Cage the Elephant focuses on a similar issue. The characters in the song steal and cheat out of necessity, however, as is outlined in the lyric "money don't grow on trees/ I got bills to pay, I got mouths to feed/ Ain't nothin' in this world for free". Aside from this divergence, the characters in the song are strangely parallel to Sasha.

As hard as Sasha tries to control her urges, she can almost never keep them contained. Not once in the story are we given an incident where Sasha suppressed her cravings, although once she was forced to return a wallet that she stole from a woman in the bathroom. Even though Sasha can't control herself, she still wants to change her ways.

In the song, Sasha's feelings bare a stark resemblance to the chorus. With twangy guitar in the background, the narrator belts out "Oh no, I can't slow down, I can't hold back/ Though you know I wish I could". Sasha feels trapped in an endless cycle of uncontrollable impulses and wishing she could "fix" herself, just as the characters in the song do.