Short Story Look In — Great Rock and Roll Pauses by Jennifer Egan

Sarah Thomas
3 min readJun 5, 2022
Photo by Firmbee.com on Unsplash

Hi there. I’m a creative writer focusing on writing a collection of short stories. I’m reading and looking into different stories as part of that mission.

Each week I’ll craft a brief article about a short story I enjoy, looking at three elements that writers can apply to new writing.

The Great Rock and Roll Pauses by Jennifer Egan

Synopsis: A teenager explores her family’s behaviour and the meanings behind their actions on a PowerPoint slide.

Story Home: A Visit From The Good Squad — or here on the author’s website.

The Writer

Jennifer Egan is an award-winning short story writer and novelist. Her novel/short story collection, A Visit From the Good Squad, scooped the Pulitzer Prize in 2011. She’s just released a follow up to this, The Candy House, so you can find a lot of interview content online. Here’s a writerly chat about her process and a later interview specifically about her follow up novel.

For those reluctant to say goodbye to a short story character, Jennifer’s work offers hope that they don’t have to be tucked away after just one story.

1. The Character and POV

--

--

Sarah Thomas

Storyteller, ex playwright (produced), award winning screenwriter, always writing. Creating story-based content for businesses. Based in Aberdeen.