📚 #BOOKREVIEW 📚
The Candy House by Jennifer Egan ⭐️⭐️⭐️ / Pages: 352 / Genre: Fiction

I liked the premise of this book, which centers around a company that can save your memories so you can access them whenever you want to relive them as well as share them with others. The people who developed this technology involves a huge blended family with several half siblings plus another family with four siblings. Each person gets their own story which is woven in with the other stories. In the end it was very confusing and it would’ve helped if they included a family tree so it would be easier to follow. This would make for a good movie or tv series where a skilled editor can help frame this into an easier to follow story.

I give it a 4 stars for characters and stories, but 2 stars for structure, followability, and frustration. So three stars total.

The Candy House by Jennifer Egan is a companion novel to A Visit From the Goon Squad (2010). This book stands alone, however. It deals with themes of mortality and morality in it's interconnected stories. The author's ability to create compelling stories from various points of view and various styles of expression is impressive, and keeps the reader wondering what is around the next corner. Recommended for fans of David Mitchell.

The Candy House reads like a series of short stories, written by different authors, that slowly weave together the concept of how involved should technology be in our every day lives? If someone was to upload their own memories to share with others, do the other people in that memory lose their privacy? No one particular technology is called out by name but it's clear who is being referenced. For those readers who grew up pre-Internet, this novel will be a good reminder how much social media has entrenched into our daily lives. Could you imagine explaining Facebook and Instagram to someone in the 1980's? The thought of someone seeing our parents dorky vacation photos would have been mortifying. Now it's a need to be seen. Daily.

The concept of technology and privacy is timely, and the book is a worthy read even if it does bog down a bit.

Jennifer Eagan is one of a kind. Candy house was a most complicated story-I wished I had kept track of the characters at the beginning.. Going back and forth in time and connections to each other was an interesting twist. Bix is an incredible tech person and he launches an app that will save your memories and distribute them. A real commentary on today's social media platforms.

Great fiction is born not just of the story itself, but the manner in which the story is told. It sounds simple, but from simplicity springs truth.

Narratives that are built around a central conceit while spinning out multiple perspectives, for instance – tricky business. When done well, they can result in absolutely mesmerizing literature. When done poorly, well … we’ve all seen what happens when the spinning plates begin to tumble from their poles.

Jennifer Egan’s new novel “The Candy House” very much occupies the former space, a hypnotic decades-spanning tale reflecting the juxtaposed light-and-dark possibilities looming in our very near future. There is no crashing literary dishware here. Instead, we get a sweeping epic rooted in the potential (and potential ramifications) that comes with the logical endstages of our societal tendency toward the sharing of experience and memory.

All of it, by the way, conveyed through a series of interconnected stylistically diverse vignettes that run the gamut – some are more traditional narrative constructions, while others veer into the abstract and/or absurd. We have email exchanges and second-person instructions, stories of tech billionaires and music producers and unsettled housewives, with the overarching tale playing out over multiple generations and venturing from our more-or-less present into an all-to-plausible future.

Attempting to condense the plot of “The Candy House” into a short synopsis is a fool’s errand; this narrative is too wide-ranging and thrillingly weird to lend itself to such an exercise. However, the central conceit from which our story spins out is this: a brilliant man named Bix Bouton and his company, the aptly-named Mandala, creates the next step in social media, the ability to upload and externalize our memories. From there, we get something known as “Own Your Unconscious,” which allows every single one of your memories to be easily and instantly accessed … and lets you share those same memories to a collective, which in turn grants you access to all the memories of anyone else who has engaged with the collective.

From that central event, “The Candy House” spirals rapidly outward in what feels like barely-controlled chaos. We bear witness as the consequences spread, through secondary, tertiary and quaternary connections. So many people – families and friends and more – impacted by what is discovered in the shadows of memory shared by the masses … and perhaps even more deeply impacted by those memories that have not been shared.

Ultimately, this is not a book reliant on plot – though the story Egan has crafted is plenty compelling, make no mistake – but rather about the in-the-moment reading experience. As we are pulled through the varying perspectives, with the connections – some overt, others subtle – playing out contextually, we’re steadily eased into the rich depths of the world that has been built for us. We come to exist in this place, a place that is different from where we are, but not so different that we’re unable to conceive of the path from here to there.

The moral and ethical ramifications of technology-as-connective-tissue are all over this book; even as we see the many benefits that come with the logical endgame of social media “sharing,” we’re also confronted with the potential downsides that – in theory – far outweigh any of the positives that might be derived from such a world. Striking the balance between respect for and distrust of technology is difficult – we need it, even if we don’t want to need it – but Egan does it with seeming effortlessness, even as she continually asks tough questions.

In this crazy-quilt patchwork, we’re left to live within the parameters of the experiences of the extensive dramatis personae. There’s something truly remarkable about it all; while one might have moved across immense distances in both time and space in the matter of just a few chapters, the line connecting the book’s beginning and end remains unbroken.

The comparison has been made to electronic dance music; indeed, there’s a build-break-drop delineation specifically at work here. It makes sense – there’s a pulsating rhythm at the heart of this novel, an enigmatic thumping that raises the heartrate and sends endorphins shooting through the synapses. There’s no disputing the musical influences at work here, both structurally and stylistically.

Egan is unafraid to challenge the reader, trusting that we will be willing and able to go along for the ride. There’s something deeply satisfying about that trust; it allows us to fully invest ourselves in the experience. It’s rare to feel like you’re operating in tandem with a writer, but Egan seems to be inviting us to collaborate – in “The Candy House,” the writing and the reading go hand in hand in a way we don’t often experience.

It's rare to realize in the moment that you’re reading a book that you’ll never forget. But that’s what it was like, working my way through “The Candy House.” The combination of story and storytelling is something that feels both foreign and familiar, an evolution of sorts. Egan doesn’t make it easy on the reader, but that’s by design – and it is undeniably worth the effort.

What would you do if you could upload all your memories and they were part of a global collective for all to share? Intricately plotted, Egan explores the pros and cons of such a scenario with the beloved characters from A Visit From the Goon Squad along with their next generation. Bittersweet and moving, The Candy House is filled with likeable and quirky characters wrestling with complex decisions giving the reader and unforgettable experience.

"The Candy House" by Jennifer Egan is the kind of book I love reading--smart, inventive, challenging; it's a kaleidoscope of characters, eras, settings and events that with every chapter swirls into a fascinating and colorful new focus. I don't want to give too much away here--the fun of "The Candy House" is in watching Egan snap all the pieces of her mosaic narrative into place. But it's important to note that it's absolutely not necessary to have read :"A Visit From The Goon Squad" to thoroughly enjoy "Candy House" (although I for one will be heading to read that earlier book very soon). It's only April, but I know that "Candy House" will make my list of the top 5 books I read in 2022. Can't wait to see where Jennifer Egan takes her prodigious talent next. Highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with an ARC of this title in return for my honest review. Loved every minute!

I loved Manhattan Beach so much that I keep giving this author more chances. The Goon Squad was so so. I wanted to like this book but it felt too experimental to me. I may give her another chance because the writing is done well.

This is Jennifer Egan’s long-awaited follow-up to Pulitzer Prize winning “A Visit from the Goon Squad”. But as she wrote that 12 years ago, and published Manhattan Beach in between with no inkling she was working on a sequel, perhaps “long-awaited” is inaccurate. I was blown away by the creativity and rich, complex characters of the first book - probably one of my favorites of all time. Those chapters read as short stories, albeit with interconnected characters. You saw different points of view, not of the same events, but of their lives, creating a mosaic. Reading about a new character and realizing it was the same person mentioned in a previous chapter but now seen years on felt akin to spotting “Easter eggs” in movies - a surprising and delightful treat.

“The Candy House” delivers more of the same experimental fiction and introduction of a motley crew of characters tied to each other in some way, and to the chief characters of the preceding sister novel. Much has been written about the all-PowerPoint chapter of Goon Squad; here there is a chapter entirely made up twitter-verse speak. It is actually a funny, at-times searing unfolding of a modern day female Mata Hari at work (and one of the new central characters in The Candy House), but each episode was actually published as a Twitter entry in 2012 by the author, and later compiled and published as a short story called “Black Box”. Here, she includes it in her new novel as Lulu the Spy, and retrofits the storyline to include this absolutely brilliant chapter.

This, and other elements of the story like the epistolary chapter involving at least 20 characters communicating by email, to me was like consuming the most delicious meal. You never want it to end!

If this is not a ringing endorsement of this book, I don’t know what is. I do realize that experimental fiction is not for everyone and this book is challenging. If you’re looking for something enjoyable but a bit mindless, this is not that book. If you want a provocative reading experience that will stay with you for years to come - regardless of whether you enjoyed it or not - check out The Candy House.

The Candy House is more like a House of Mirrors, with many facets, reflections, smooth surfaces and images that reveal and distort. Jennifer Egan's latest creation is no confection, however; with its unconscious-owning counters, eluders, and techno-freaks, this is a vision of technology run rampant. Complex, you bet! The Candy House makes its prequel, The Goon Squad, seem like the Cat in the Hat by comparison. I can't say I liked what I read -- that is to say, the vision she offers is kind of disturbing and repellent. Warning to those who jump into this one after her most recent: this is no walk along Manhattan Beach; it's more like battling furiously against a riptide of roboticism. Wake up, we're drowning!

The Candy House, the latest novel by acclaimed author Jennifer Egan, will definitely not be going on my top ten list of favorite 2022 books. Maybe not even on my top 25. Nevertheless, this much anticipated follow-up to Egan's A Visit From the Goon Squad, will definitely please many readers. Her followers will, no doubt, be thrilled with her recent work, however this reader, not being well-versed in her style, was left bewildered and less entertained than I was hoping. As always, I am grateful for the opportunity to have read this advanced copy and wish Ms. Egan much success.

In the near future, we can all externalize our unconsciousness and store it in a cube, retrieving all our memories/life experiences from our brain only to watch them again. Naturally, people decide to turn this into a collective consciousness, allowing anyone to watch, say, hundreds of individual experiences of a concert from 1965. And woven throughout The Candy House is an amazing array of characters who in some way are connected to Bix who figured out this thing that changes the culture quickly, dramatically and forever. This book is a kaleidoscope of people and experiences, families, the music industry, a band everyone knew made famous by a mentally ill ex-military author who's sister's ex was one of the folks who spent his life counteracting the intrusion of the own your unconscious and their family took care of Lulu while her mother was in prison and she somehow is aware she has a famous father but her mother won't tell her who. Lulu's story is my favorite, weaving through the book, pure and yet traumatized, apparently repeatedly but in one part of her life she engages in public service that is captured in my favorite chapters that turned out to be a former New Yorker story -- figures. Meanwhile, Bix got his idea when he read Miranda Kline's book about a Brazilian indigenous people so divorced from the rest of the world that she can study their contained social structure to develop an algorithm and write her book "Patterns of Affinity" that led to the success of all social platforms. And Miranda was once married to Lou, a record producer who had two children with each of his three wives. Don't get me started on Lou's kids or Lou or his wives... I would love to understand, by the way, how Jennifer Egan's brain works because while I find her writing and her story and her characters amazing I can't imagine being a person who could put this book and all its story lines together. It is the journey of The Candy House, strung together with these interconnecting people at various times that makes the book, which is certainly not plot driven or chronological but makes so much sense and gives one far too much to chew on. I think.... I'll read it again.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of Jennifer Egan’s The Candy House. I have read all of her books and this one doesn’t disappoint. I’m always impressed with her style and complexity of writing.

What a fantastic companion to A Visit from the Goon Squad. I loved every chapter of this and have decided I'll read anything by Egan. Definitely will recommend both books.

This one was hard for me to finish. The majority of chapters were long and hard for me to keep an interest in. I also lost the connection between some chapters and the overall "story" that the author was trying to weave together. Not really what I expected based on the description of the book. Too many characters to keep track of and after finishing I just don't really see the point of the story. Just not a book for me.

I have been looking forward to this book for so long, and it does not disappoint. Jennifer Egan has such a lovely way of creating memorable characters, and as I read through their loosely connected stories, I found myself caring deeply about them all. The Candy House is described as “a sibling novel” to A Visit With the Goon Squad, which I remember absolutely loving when I read it years ago (though I’ll admit I’m due for a reread). However, I don’t think you need to have read that book to enjoy The Candy House. It's a stunning take on identity and privacy in our modern world and our desire for connection. I loved it.

I just reviewed The Candy House by Jennifer Egan. #NetGalley

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for my ARC in exchange for my honest review. This book was published April 5, 2022.

I read “A Visit from the Goon Swuad” in anticipation of this somewhat related sequel. I didn’t love that book (3 stars) and that should have been a clue.

To be honest, I’m not even sure what happens in this book. The premise sounded promising and possibly futuristic, with the ability to save and swap memories. But I found the book utterly confusing. And weird. And boring.

If it wasn’t for the ARC it would have been a DNF.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review, and my apologies for a very late review! OOPS!

This was a pleasant surprise. A follow-up "sister" novel to the 2010 novel <I>A Visit from the Good Squad</I>, <I>Candy House</I> features a cast of various characters spanning 2010 through the 2030s. Just as in the previous novel, Egan trades between points of view and takes extreme liberties with the style. While there were no PowerPoints in this one, this makes it extremely intriguing and infuriating particularly when there are vignettes that are more enjoyable. The plot explores what would happen if we could download our consciousness (and subsequently maaaaybe putting it online for all to see). In its very subtle way, <I>Candy House</I> discusses what makes us most human and the complexities of what we share with others, strangers, and the internet.

When I first picked this up, I wondered why I'd requested this one. It's super confusing and nothing makes sense for such a long time, but it's also incredibly intriguing and smart. But then things began to fit together a bit more and it made for a very interesting experience.

If you enjoy weird, contemplative lit fic that requires a bit of work and energy to read, this is a great one to pick up. I wouldn't say you even have to read the "first" one first.

Smart and interesting, gorgeously written and tightly plotted. Intriguing characters that were developed then we spent no more (or very little/tangential) time with them. It all connected - but didn't have the sense of building toward something. Still - I enjoyed it!

This book started out very strong, and the premise is great. It reminded me of one of my favorite Black Mirror episodes, “The Entire History of You,” in which memories are all recorded and can be played back.

The Candy House felt like a bunch of short stories loosely tied together by a thread, that thread being an invention called Own Your Unconscious. Founded by mythical entrepreneur Bix Bouton, OYU allows individuals to upload their consciousness (their memories, feelings, sensations, etc) to the cloud. You can access and feel others’ unconsciousnesses too, but you have to give up yours in order to see others - capitalizing on our inherent nosiness and curiosity.

I was hoping for this tech to play a central role in these stories - for example, showing how its unique impact in a variety of situations that would be transformed having access to memories like this. But it was a totally minor background character, getting a shoutout or mention here and there, without actually changing much of the world of these characters (despite characters’ assertions to the contrary).

I really enjoyed the first few chapters of the book, especially seeing the way each narrator’s life intersected at a random point with the previous narrator, creating a sort of zigzag pattern of how everyone fits together. But the further into the book I went, the more convoluted these intersections became, to the point where I simply could not keep track of the sheer number of stories, timelines, and relationships. (It started out as x person is the cousin of the previous narrator and went all the way to x person is the son of the person whose dad discovered the previous narrator’s band and did drugs with him in the woods decades ago.) It got to the point where I found myself not caring about the characters - I think I would have cared more had the characters been more closely related or if they had not been related at all.

Finally, the writing style varied so much from chapter to chapter. Many of them are typical third person, but one is a detached second person story, another is epistolary, taking place entirely over emails/messages, and some of them just sound and feel very different from each other, not always in a successful way. These disparities left me a little disappointed in the collection as a whole.

Overall, I was hoping that the execution of this concept would have been a bit stronger - it started off well, but I don’t know that I’d recommend it. Thank you to Scribner for the ARC via Netgalley!