Okay, so this was something.
From the description: “In a breathtaking array of styles and tones ranging from tragedy to satire to PowerPoint, Egan captures the undertow of self-destruction that we all must either master or succumb to; the basic human hunger for redemption; and the universal tendency to reach for both—and escape the merciless progress of time—in the transporting realms of art and music.“
That sums the book up better than I can. I have to add though, that in addition to jumping around between characters, the book jumps also in time. So it was quite a ride and I had to take a few staring-into-space pauses to organize the characters, how they are connected to each other and where we could possibly be in time.
My favourite stories were “Safari“, “A to B“, “Selling the General” and of course the wonderful PowePoint form story “Great Rock and Roll Pauses by Alison Blake“.
I am still struggling with the last story though – it takes place in the future and kind of took me out of the whole thing. But all in all, it was a wonderful book, as the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction might suggest, and I am definitely keeping my eye out for more Jennifer Eagan.