Tournament of Books: Matchup Four

Matchup Four is the best of the first round in the Morning News Tournament of Books; the winner here could have the strength to go all the way. I think. 
A Visit From the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan v.  Skippy Dies, by Paul Murray
Judge: Anthony Doerr
Challenger One: A Visit From the Goon SquadJennifer Egan's book, which I've actually read, thank you very much, is a sprawling epic (but short) that spans decades, continents, and lifestyles. It's written as a collection of tightly linked short stories with recurring characters and themes. One of them, Sasha, is a young idealistic girl who gets caught up in rock music, drugs, and the music industry. Egan's imagination is formidable, and her ideas complex and well executed; if I hadn't read this book I'd dismiss it as rock-opera lite, but don't - it's an excellent book despite its one almost-too-much gimmick, which is a chapter told entirely in PowerPoint slides. 
Challenger Two: Skippy DiesPaul Murray's book, on the other hand, is Irish; a boisterous tale of schoolboys, one of whom, Skippy, dies in the first chapter. Throughout the next 660 pages, it wanders through levels of middleschooldom I don't want to remember, dabbling along the way with quantum physics, video games, pornography, and Irish folklore. All in all, this could everything anyone has ever wanted in a novel.
The Judge: Anthony Doerr is the winner of the 2010 Story award for his collection of stories, The Memory Wall. As a rising young lion of the literary world, Mr. Doerr will no doubt want to impress us with his tight readings and keen insights; I think his tooth for literary meat will be satisfied in both of these novels.
Summary: I pity this matchup - both of these have the chops and the fans to go all the way; it's a pity they got clustered together when the other bracket is filled with relative lightweights. *sigh*. Both were nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award, garnered huge sales and have legions of adoring fans. (In literary circles, a legion is about fifty people. But still.) Egan's book was bold, grabbed for the brass ring and mostly got it; Murray's book sounds good as well, and if he executes as well as Egan, this is a tough draw for one of these books. I don't know, it sounds like a toss-up, though the loser will likely crop up in the zombie round.
Winner: Jennifer Egan, only because I read her book.