JULES
Joules is Stephanie's older brother, who comes to live with her ad Bennie after spending 5 years in a correctional facility, for attempt of rape. Joules graduated from NYU, and became a magazine editor eventually winning a Pulitzer prize. Although all of his past success, he is now struggling to reincorporate back to society. Joule's treated his bipolar condition, but notices his sisters indifference. All Joules want is to get back to his old life, and leave the past behind. He gets a second chance when he gets the opportunity to write on Bosco.
Joules is Stephanie's older brother, who comes to live with her ad Bennie after spending 5 years in a correctional facility, for attempt of rape. Joules graduated from NYU, and became a magazine editor eventually winning a Pulitzer prize. Although all of his past success, he is now struggling to reincorporate back to society. Joule's treated his bipolar condition, but notices his sisters indifference. All Joules want is to get back to his old life, and leave the past behind. He gets a second chance when he gets the opportunity to write on Bosco.
DOLLY/ LA DOLL
La Doll, earlier in the story, is considered a source of influential power in New York. However, she has a party known to everyone as "The Party"; everyone there is burned by the oil from an overhead lamp. Consequentially, she has to serve time in prison and therefore becomes a 'has-been', she becomes Dolly. A couple of years later, she does public relations for a living; she is trying to make a dangerous general seem less genocidal. After her job is done she takes her daughter, Lulu, and moves upstate to open a small gourmet shop. Dolly shows how easily time can change a person and evolve the way they live. She is a living embodiment of the evolution of time and people.
Rob Freeman
Rob is Sasha's deceased friend. He had previously tried to kill himself but was saved; people tried not to upset him after his attempt. He had problems with his sexual identity and often struggled with his love for Sasha and the fear of his lust for other men. When he and Drew went swimming in East River he drowns after Drew is unable to save him. Rob is the epitome for how harsh a life can be. He could not overcome the problems and identity issues he was having and through his use of second person in his chapter he forces the reader to deal with the same problems he deals with.
Drew Blake
Drew is Sasha's college boyfriend who she marries years later. When they are younger, he and Rob go swimming in East River. He is unable to save Rob which causes a rift to form between him and Sasha and they break up. They later meet again and marry. They have two children, Alison and Lincoln; he and Lincoln have a hard time communicating with one another. They are able to later connect through the silence, a pause, in their lives. Drew shows the personal growth that most characters in the novel have to go through. He begins as an average boy who smokes and drinks then, gradually, changes into a father who connects with and loves his family.
LuLu Peale
Lulu is the daughter of Dolly. When she first appears in the text she seems to have lost some respect for her mother after her time in jail; she stops calling her mom and instead calls her "Dolly". Despite her mothers fall from grace she manages to hold onto her own reputation at her school, Miss Rutgers's School for Girls. When her mother goes on a trip to meet with the General Lulu goes along with her. After the job is done, her mother moves them upstate and Lulu becomes integrated into a new public school. No one knows who her mother used to be so she no longer feels the same shame about her mother. When she later meets Alex, she is Bennie's assistant. She has become very good with technology and is Dolly her mom again. Lulu represents how culture and technology affect the younger, more impressionable generation. She grows up in the culture of New York and around the growing technology in society.
Rhea
Rhea is the childhood friend of Bennie, Scotty, Alice, and Jocelyn. She is very insecure about herself going so far as to dye her hair green to take attention off of her freckles. She often notices the affairs of those within the group of friends (She likes Bennie, who likes Alice, who likes Scotty, who likes Jocelyn, who likes Lou). After one of the Flaming Dildos performances, Lou invites them back to his apartment; it is here she notices a shift in the group. Lou has a talk with Rhea to tell her there is nothing wrong with her freckles. Later, Rhea and Jocelyn are contacted by Bennie to see Lou before he passes away; Rhea has been in Seattle with a different last name. Rhea is a good representation of the affects people have on one another. She continually tries to change herself to meet the standards of other people, however, her conversation with Lou gives her a new perspective.
Noreen
She is the neighbor of Bennie and Stephanie during their time in Crandale. She has three children but is not within the social circle of the women in Crandale. She causes Stephanie to question her role and her place in this new society often, not through her words but through her presence.
THE GENERAL
The General is Dolly's client, trying to change the way people see him, he is trying to hide the fact that he is a genocidal dictator. He believes that if he can improve his social rank and earn sympathy from Americans, then the CIA will stop trying to assassinate him. As a cause of all of this conflict, the General has become a men who rarely smiles, he seems to be numb . His character serves to expose the boldness of the youth spirit, as Kitty confronts him with his flaws.
Jocelyn
Jocelyne is a part of Bennie's friend group. She is cough in a love triangle within it, as Scotty is in love with her, and Jocelyn claims to be waiting for Lou. Lou is an older man who she meet walking in the street one day, he is rich and sweeps Jocelyne off her feet. He persuades her to do drugs and engage in public sexual relations. Jocelyne and Rhea, her best friend since the 4th grade, find them self's being "Lou's girls" something that damages their friendship forever. Jocelyne faces Rhea in Lou's dead bed, where she realizes that she has accomplished nothing over the years.
Kitty jackson
Kitty Jackson is introduced in the novel as a once famous actress, who has fallen a few steps down the social ladder after being attacked by reporter, Jules Jones. Kitty, who we learn was once an irresistible icon with an aura of purity and beauty surrounding her, fell into a state of unkemptness and removed herself from the public eye. Kitty is recruited to help in a publicity campaign for the General, a role she begins to treat as her opportunity to make waves again. Her approach this time is to be a more direct form of her former, elusive self. This lands her a spot in new social circles and launches the second leg of Kitty's career. The ups and downs she experiences are all results of the decisions and actions of other characters,
LIncoln
Lincoln is the son of characters Sasha Grady and Drew Blake. It is with Lincoln that the concept of time begins to change within the novel. Lincoln is obsessed with musical pauses and strives to find meaning in the soundless periods of songs. By deciding what effect each style of pause has on its audience, Lincoln helps the reader grasp the concept that each moment in time, especially the monumental ones during which time seems to stand still, will leave and impact on who you are as a person. Lincoln, also brother to Ally, provides an example of the changes in Sasha's life by this point.
alex
Alex is one of the very first characters in the novel. He is shown, first, in connection to Sasha while they are out on date. Though his actions are minimal, his presence causes Sasha to feel conscious of her habits, inner thoughts, and skewed morality. In the last chapter, Alex and his wife meet with Bennie, his family, and Scotty.
Lou kline
It would be easy to say that Lou Kline is one of the books most controversial characters. He is first introduced as a strange man whom Jocelyn is hooking up with. However, after moving past this situation, it becomes clear that Lou is not malicious, and in fact developed a relatively solid connection with the young girls of the Goon Squad. This connection is reiterated in a following chapter as we see Lou on his death bed, reconnection with the girls he once spent many fun filled times with. This longing for his past becomes sad when we see, in another chapter, that in the middle years of his life he never appeared satisfied. Lou lived in a manner of always searching for the next best thing. Ultimately, he died with a lack of true connections to others.
Bosco
Bosco is a very self aware character. It is through his brutal honesty with his own irrelevance, and poor health that Egan present the concept of identity of time. Bausch's motivation to revamp his image as a last ditch effort for fame before death becomes known as his Suicide Tour. This idea, taken literally in the tour form, can be translated to other characters desire to test the limits of their identities. Sasha's escapades in Europe, Jocelyn's relationship with Lou, and Jules' assault on Kitty Jackson were all similar attempts to push the boundary between a comfortable stability and extreme personal change.
Scotty Hausman
Scotty is described as magnetic, people are inclined to follow him though he is quiet. He is the silent leader and lead guitarist of The Flaming Dildos. Scotty lost his mother when he was young and in response he began to stare at the sun resulting in vision problems and became more closed off. Scotty’s effortlessly charming persona makes him very alluring to women, they can’t help but be fascinated by him. He later marries and divorces an infatuated Alice, and in this time Scotty drastically secludes himself from the outside world. He reaches a low point of his life and seems utterly lost, diminishing his position in life and society to “X’s and O’s”. In the end we see Scotty reappear as the original, soulful, unrefined guitarist and performer he used to be that is truly himself when on stage immersed and lost in his music.
Alison
Alison is the daughter of Sasha and Drew. She loves them, and her brother Lincoln, despite the slight discord within the family. Through the use of a power point diary, she expresses her thoughts and feelings about her life and family. She discusses certain aspects of her family life, such as her brothers, and sometimes her own, obsession with pauses. She also shows humor within the chapter, often times naming annoying habits that her mother displays. Alison is a good representation of the affect of technology on the younger generation. She uses technology to do something that, as her mother even suggests, she could write in a paper diary. The growth of technology has impacted her, and others in her generation, immensely, as shown throughout her power point diary.
Alice
Alice is a member of the original Goon Squad. She is the most well off of all the kids, lives in a big house, and has a mother that is eager to serve the group snacks. Alice is the third girl in the group and, because she is newer, Rhea and Jocelyn struggle to let her in. Alice represents a character struggling with her identity and attempting to fit into a group where she is clearly the odd one out. Later in the book, Scotty looks back on his failed marriage to Alice, still idolizing her and wishing to be the version of himself he was with her.
Chris
Chris is Bennie and Stephanie's son. As a younger child he lived in Crandale with his parents. After his parents divorce, he and his father go to counseling together. His father does and gives him things his mother does not like in an effort to have a "Betrayal Bonding"; the counselor, Mr. Beets, said that is a bad thing. Chris shows how time can force people to grow and mature as when he is younger his father makes bad choices. However, as time goes on and he grows up so does Bennie.
Kathy
Kathy is a woman in Crandale who Stephanie befriends. She and Stephanie become friends through tennis and eventually become "Steph and Kathy". However, it is later discovered that Kathy and Bennie had slept together, forcing an end to their new bond. Kathy shows how easily a person can change and cause chaos within relationships and other people; one person can destroy relationships and change lives.