Jennifer Egan’s ‘Candy House’ is both a serious, frightening look at the technology world and an hysterical parody of it. How does technology infiltrate our selves and our lives…. How does technology take over our thought processes. My favorite chapter or section is “Rhyme Scheme”. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed an explicitly mathematical discussion nor have I ever laughed out loud because of one. What are the odds?! Well, I’m sure that can be calculated but I’ll leave it to the companies who devise algorithms to govern our every move.

Each of her characters is so well-developed you almost feel as though they are your next-door neighbors and can envision their thoughts as well as their physical spaces. Their back stories are fascinating but there are too many of them, from different generations, and it’s difficult to keep track. When their personal stories got totally weird it made me wonder if maybe a majority of the people around me have bizarre histories, rather than that being the exception.

Collective Consciousness - is both the accepted norm and the enemy rebelled against - “bring[ing] about the end of private life”. Memory externalization. Even the common go-to ploys in a novel or a rom-com can be and are reduced to an algebraic equation! Mapping human behavior via our basic inclinations has become the norm in 'Candy House'.

Egan deftly weaves together the present and the past through families of characters whose lives evolve in parallels or polar opposites, with their predecessors but somewhere along the way the characters are so hard to tell apart that the novel gets knotted and whatever plot line there is got lost for me.

'Candy House' is reminiscent of Dave Eggar’s 'The Circle' but on a grander scale. The “eluders” — data defiers — were never fully developed as an important story line as I think they should have, and so I didn’t feel a strong plot to carry me along. Interesting vignettes without a compelling thread pulling them together. In the penultimate chapter a character has an epiphany - “a galaxy of human lives hurtling toward his curiosity… The collective. He was feeling the collective without any machinery at all. And its stories, infinite and particular, would be his to tell.” That… would have been a fitting place to end the book. It also should have been the guiding star to ignite the plot in a more deliberate manner.

“There are still some mysteries left”
“Not every story needs to be told”
I’m feeling like maybe Jennifer Egan should have taken her own advice.

Ten years ago Jennifer Egan broke the mold with A Visit From the Goon Squad, wherein the then dominant music industry served as a societal microcosm. At that time the presence of tech was at the beginning of its invasive effect on the population, and while by that time there had been extreme advancement, the stunning acceleration experienced in the ensuing years has only proven more and more prevalent. So the dystopian quality of The Candy House in which the music industry is virtually a thing of the past, surpassed by tech, may in ten years be reality since nothing seems impossible in this world of possibility. This companion piece utilizing many points of view and dizzying variety of styles, is reminiscent of Goon Squad -- beautifully wrought interlocking chapters employing some characters from the former and others in their universe ("... a galaxy of human lives hurtling toward [his] curiosity ...") ("The collective ... And its stories, infinite and particular.") Masterful.

THE CANDY HOUSE is well done, but ultimately perhaps not for me. I tend to prefer a more traditional narrative and the myriad cast of characters here left me feeling a bit lost. I had trouble connecting to the characters even as Egan deftly explores the progression (regression?) of technology and social media. The prose is crisp and straightforward and she is obviously a very talented writer. Ultimately I felt like Egan wanted to explore this theme versus tell a story and therefore the novel lacks heart.

I just finished Jennifer Egan’s new opus, #TheCandyHouse, and want to get my review down right now, even though I’m not fully prepared by rereading both this book and Egan’s Pulitzer winning A Visit From The Goon Squad . As such I feel like I read #TheCandyHouse during a long. series of mini-strokes : I think I understood its gist but need further time with it to pick up all the subtle nuances. You see, the subject of the novel is collective unconscious’s - gaining the ability to remember all the things we have experienced but forgotten but to do so you open your unconscious to everyone else who’s also in the program. Think about this for a moment. It sounds like science fiction but with today’s warp speed advances in technology this scenario could be with us in the blink of an eye..Because of this #TheCandyHouse, while not being an overly long book, is certainly a complex one. It takes place in the past, present, and future, has a wide variety of interwoven characters, and is written in a many faceted style. It poses many questions but leaves it up to the reader to supply answers. For these reasons I can’t help but think by doing the rereading mentioned above many of the book’s mysteries would be resolved. I’m giving #TheCandyHouse 4 stars for sheer exuberance, but it wouldn’t surprise me if some readers rated it higher, while others go lower. I’d have to check my unconscious in a few years to see if I agree with myself.

Lightning does not strike twice and some things don't need a follow-up and it turns out that that's the case in both instances for this book vis-a-vis A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD. Told in the same time-and-character-and-genre-hopping structure as its 'sibling' novel, THE CANDY HOUSE is Egan's attempt to... well, to do what, really? That's kind of my big question with this book. Where GOON SQUAD's focus on time and mortality was playful and clever and concrete, this book is trying to grapple with similar issues but also with the (as it is called several times throughout) 'candy house' of social media / interconnectivity and the ways that giving up our data for an easier life is a Bad Deal. Even as I tried to describe that just now, I found myself once more frustrated by the lack of coherence to the novel -- it just feels like a draft still, like she didn't quite figure out how she really wanted to talk about the issue at hand.
Don't get me wrong, there's great writing here (because of course there is) and some of the sections are as moving as anything. And it's a joy to notice familiar names and put together the connections to the world we visited once before -- except where David Mitchell and Emily St. John Mandel and the like seem to be connecting their worlds out of a joy of the doing, Egan's feels forced. "Hey remember Sasha?!!!?!?" instead of the accidental joy of realizing that the person here is connected to that other person from before.
It's not a bad book, but it suffers because of the expectations heaped upon it. And thems the breaks, really.

Another fantastic book by Jennifer Egan.Her novels are so unique so involving.This was a 5 star read for me as was Welcome to the Goon Squad.I will be recommending her new novel and gifting it to my book club.#netgalley #scribnerbooks

Thank you to Scribner and to NetGalley for the chance to read and review Jennifer Egan's forthcoming book, The Candy House. I loved this complex, weaving, and thought provoking novel. Not sci-fi, not fantasy, not even cautionary though at first I thought it might be a deeper analysis of social media similar to Egger's The Circle, it is literary, an intersecting set of short stories that come together in fascinating ways.

What truly stood out to me was the themes on parenthood, so many characters experienced some form of parental loss or neglect, or other loss and loneliness, a sense of seeking connection to a parent, or perhaps an idea of a parent or other family/friend, was often elemental in the bigger stories of consciousness and memories. As a developmental psychologist I found this theme wonderfully explored with a deft touch. Similarly, themes on intellectual property, on understanding and predicting human interactions and behaviors was elegantly presented. I loved the probing ideas of a "proxy person", of putting memories out there but blocking feelings at times, of looking up someone to satisfy that "whatever happened to" question we all have (and often find ourselves in social media rabbit holes trying to answer this question anyway). It's funny how so many of the characters, so vivid and real in the writing, seemed more adrift and lost despite this movement to a bigger sense of connection and connectivity. Clearly there is a lot to consider in this well crafted novel that suggests so much about human connection.

I can't wait to read this one again, to go back and explore new themes and the ones mentioned here, with a new perspective. This is one that I will share with my literary fiction book club!

where to find my review in the coming weeks
https://www.dont-stop-reading.com/
https://www.instagram.com/pageus_of_books/
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/131395833-meghan-pageus
amazon
B&N
https://twitter.com/PageUs_Meghan
and this one will be listed on some of my lists as a bookshop.org affiliate

I am a huge Jennifer Egan fan so I was very excited to read this. I finished it quickly and I am still thinking about it. I loved all the memorable characters and how their stories intertwined. In fact, chapter by chapter, I became more and more excited to read on to see where things were going. There is a futuristic theme through this that works, but it took me some time to get comfortable with it (similar to Klara and the Sun). I would have chopped out the Lulu chapter, though. It was just too hard to read. Overall, a book worth reading. I will likely remember the characters for a long time and will continue to think about this book- I think that is what makes a great book?? Thank you Netgalley for a ARC.

Fantastic book! Always love what this author writes! Looking forward to future books by this author!

This is an interesting follow up to Egan’s previous book, A Visit from the Goon Squad. This is also innovative and thought provoking, making you think about social issues such as privacy, memory, and self.

We live in a fertile time for prophecy of the doom and gloom variety, particularly in the shell-shocked wake of the Trump presidency and in the continuing grip of a global pandemic. In “The Candy House,” Jennifer Egan’s “sibling novel” to her 2010 Pulitzer Prize-winning “A Visit from the Goon Squad,” the author gazes into the proverbial crystal ball to examine the potential human costs of vastly enlarged social media.

In 2016, idealistic visionary Bix Bouton, building on new scientific discoveries, creates a memory-searchable software program called “Own Your Unconscious,” which essentially enables people to save their brains to an external hard drive. An additional feature allows anyone to upload to the “Collective Unconscious” database in exchange for access to same, a development that results in many instances of social good—missing people found, criminals caught, the effects of dementia reduced.

But, of course, social-based tech also has flip sides: Napster laid the foundation for the destruction of the music industry, Facebook obliviated privacy, etc.—the bottom line being that apparent freebies come with a price, or as Hansel and Gretel would learn: never trust a candy house.

It’s a scalp-tingling premise, but “The Candy House” is neither a sci-fi “what-if” thriller nor a cautionary social message book, although elements of both appear. While it’s being called a “sibling” novel to “Goon Squad,” that is a bit of an understatement; it’s more a Siamese twin—joined at the hip, with almost every single major character and a large number of minor ones from the first book populating the second, while employing the same loosely-linked narrative style that has background characters in one chapter taking center stage in the next, all within a disjointed time structure that flashes forward and back. And though much of “The Candy House” is set further in the future, many events from the first book are briefly synopsized here, providing context for new incidents.

Fans will enjoy catching up with Bennie, Sasha, Lulu, Ted, Stephanie, Bosco, and numerous offspring, but “The Candy House” offers much more than a “where-are-they-now?” update. While readers may feel slightly letdown when characters are introduced and then dropped for long periods, Egan is able to maintain interest because she’s a masterful writer—telling her tale in different voices (first, second, and third person) and formats (including text messages) in interlinked chapters that have the carefully crafted concision and precision of stellar short stories. And the scenarios are wildly diverse, ranging from a man driven to flat-out screaming in a crowded bus just to see “authentic” reactions, to a pair of neighbors who are neither quite plumb on the sanity level engaging in a heated dustup over fence placement (a laugh-out-loud funny sequence, one of several in the book).

Those who have read Egan’s last work, 2017’s “Manhattan Beach”—an excellent historical novel that was more traditional—will likely find this one to be more challenging, as may those unfamiliar with “Goon Squad.” But for adventurous readers, this is a rewarding book about ideas, language, and most importantly—at the risk of sounding tautological—how people are human, able to surprise and be surprised, ultimately and defiantly irreducible to a mere set of algorithms. (Thanks to NetGalley for providing an advanced digital reader copy)

Jennifer Egan, as always, writes wonderfully and in well-rounded terms. I loved how Egan wove this story together, keeping characters at center.

I honestly didn't think I'd like this book. The premise kind of repelled me, even though I work in Tech, but I ended up devouring it in less than a day. I do think the idea of Mandala and the Collective Consciousness/Upload Your Unconscious is appalling for the most part, both from an Intellectual Property standpoint and because I wouldn't want people to know my thoughts. I can be catty and mean-spirited, or just bored.

On the other hand, I understand that it could eliminate crime and brain disease. I work in data analytics for a major healthcare company.

But that's not why I devoured the book. Despite the appalling premise, the characters were appealing (mostly!). I generally don't like short stories and this book could be classified as such, but they're interconnected stories.

I do think it would be helpful, however, to have some sort of key reminding the reader who so-and-so is, because there are so many characters. In a hard copy, you could just have a diagram with people and relationships, but if you really want to prove you're high-tech, you should include hyperlinks in the ebook versions. You could have hyperlinks for places like the Crandall Country Club so that a popup would mention that Molly, Colin, and I can't remember the other kid's name (see!) were all members (plus, Lulu visited). Or a popup for Miranda Kline mentioning that she wrote the book on Affinity, but was also the mother of Lana and Melora.

Any way, this book is kind of a tour de force, magnum opus sort of book. Each of the chapters is a vignette, but they all tie together and there are a lot of strange events occurring in different timelines. It reminds me a bit of The Goldfinch, but while it is as far-reaching and beautifully written, it is also more centered and controlled. I didn't like The Goldfinch, but I like this book, in spite of myself. And I don't like sci-fi or fantasy, not in books or tv/movies.

Thank you to both NetGalley and Scribner for providing me an advance copy of Jennifer Egan’s latest fiction novel, The Candy House, in exchange for an honest review.

I will preface this review by saying that I am not the biggest fan of the author. However, this is the first novel that I have thoroughly enjoyed by the author since she published, The Keep. Between the clear prose, the intricate oddities interwoven throughout the chapters, and the character development, The Candy House finally made me realize why Ms. Egan is considered a brilliant writer.

My one gripe with this novel is that it did not seem to contain a plot. In fact, the experience was more akin to reading a book of short stories that were loosely tied together by an overarching theme, with the brief mentioning of a character from a previous chapter. If you are seeking a futuristic story featuring memory technology, there are many other fiction novels that I can recommend on the subject instead.

The Candy House is borderline literary fiction and possibly could have started as an advanced writing assignment on linking characters through backstories. As with any novel, some characters were more intriguing than others. I particularly enjoyed the continuation of the Lulu the Spy story—definitely, an interesting format! I also liked the chapter with M and Lincoln, the entire concept of holding an art show in the desert that can be viewed from a hot air balloon, and the youngest Kline sisters spending time with their father who is a famous record producer.

On the other hand, I could have done without the last thirty pages or so of the novel. I realize the story needed to come full circle, but I would have been more than happy to stop after the chapter with the longest email chain that I have ever read in my life (even if it was innovative and funny at times).

If you are not familiar with the author’s work, I repeat do not go into this novel thinking you are going to be reading a cool sci-fi novel. I suggest you ignore the book blurb, create a new space on a family tree every time you are introduced to a new character, and read this purely to restore some brain cells you might be lacking now that every blog/newspaper/publicist requires you to write at a sixth grade reading level.

I am a huge fan of Ms. Egan, she is one of the best writers of our era. Her new book rolls through a slew of characters, perspectives and time periods focusing on the power of memory. The characters revolve around a new technology that allows us to download our consciousness and memories, giving everyone access to it. The book and writing is beautiful and it is intriguing, creative and thought provoking. Unfortunastely, I think the book is still a bit of a disappointment. There are SO many characters and perspectives and they don't quite coalesce as Ms. Egan did so successfully in prior books. A visit from the Goon squad is one of the best novels of the last 25 years, hands down, but the Candy House does not live up to that fantastic book. It is still very creative, well worth reading and better than most of the novels that get published. Egan is, and always will be, a must read.

Thanks to Netgalley and Scribner for the ebook. I was so excited to get this one being a huge fan of the author and this being called a ‘sibling novel’ to A Visit from the Goon Squad. This book starts with a character named Bix Bouton, a tech superstar, who will create a technology called Own Your Unconscious, that allows you access to your lifetime of memories and the ability to see other people’s memories if you add yours to the general collective. The book runs through dozens of characters who are in one way or another either for this technology or actively resisting it. It also has glimpses of a few characters from Goon Squad, but concentrates more on the children of those characters, all of whom are so much fun to spend time with. This is a whipsmart book that’s written in different styles and questions the technology we use everyday and the technology that is just around the corner.

It’s a rare feeling to read a book where the author is in absolute command, and a wonderful feeling to know you are in such sure and confident hands. The Candy House is just such a stunning, supremely confident book, and Jennifer Egan just such a writer.

It will be commonplace to characterize this novel as a series of short stories with connective tissue, but I don’t think that’s what Egan is going for here. Her loose-connectioned approach is in many ways her theme - that we are connected yet still mysteries to each other, that technology makes us more knowable while the true connections are physical, personal. This feels like a multi-perspectived novel in which each chapter, disparate as each is, serves a singular story.

Like in this book’s cousin, A Visit From the Goon Squad (which shares some characters), Egan plays with form, matching the right approach to the right character or chapter. There’s nothing as formally audacious as the PowerPoint chapter of Goon Squad, but if anything, her playfulness better serves this novel and seems a little less of a stunt (not to say that it was merely a stunt in Goon Squad).

I can’t recommend this book highly enough.

Excellent story! Totally engrossing!. Looking forward to reading more by this author! Could not put this down!

Jennifer Egan writes novels that seem to predict the future possibilitiesif we, as a society, continue in our constant search outside ourselves for our own truths. In this book, there are interconnected relationships among several families. The basis for their involvement with each other is the ability to spy on each others' pasts, if they agree to allow themselves to be spied on.

The premise is that technology has progressed (regressed?) to permit the totality of someone's life experiences to be accessible to anyone who cares to access them, if you sign up to allow your own memories to be accessed.

The individual stories told in the first and second person are interesting. But trying to follow the myriad characters and their real life vs virtual connections becomes confusing.

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC.