A Visit from the Goon Squad

“She and Coz were collaborators, writing a story whose end had already been determined: she would get well” 

This statement draws attention to the relationship between storytelling and time. Coz is Sasha’s therapist, who she hopes will help her overcome her kleptomania. As readers, we see what happens in the moment from the perspective of the 3rd-person narrator: Sasha steals a stranger’s wallet, returns it, then steals an object from Alex’s wallet. In tandem with this relatively neutral perspective, we also see Sasha’s reflection on her behavior, as she recounts it to Coz. With this statement, the 3rd-person narrator acknowledges that Sasha’s story can influence her reality. Even as we are told that she will get better, we recognize that this is an intention that has not yet been—and may never be—fulfilled.

“It jarred Sasha to think of herself as a glint in the hazy memories that Alex would struggle to organize a year or two from now: Where was that place with the bathtub? Who was that girl?” 

This statement foreshadows the end of the novel, when Alex makes his next appearance, this time working with Bennie Salazar himself. In “Found Objects,” as Sasha observes that Alex will have forgotten about her in a year or two, we become aware of how little hope she has in her future, how little sense of connection she feels to the people she meets. By the end of the novel, however, although the statement proves true on one hand—Alex’s memory of her is fractured and hazy—we see that her life has progressed in such a way that she is no longer physically or emotionally in this place, that while Alex revisits the space and struggles to remember, Sasha has found a full new life somewhere far away from here.