Genre Fiction
![Jennifer Egan - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_a_jennifer_egan.jpg)
The Candy House: A Novel
* Named a Top Ten Best Book of 2022 by The New York Times Book Review, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Slate * Named a Best Book of 2022 by The New Yorker, NPR, Oprah Daily, Time, Harper's Bazaar, Entertainment Weekly, Esquire, Vogue, and many more! *
"A compelling read that showcases Egan's masterful storytelling." -Time
"Dazzling." -Vogue
"Radiant, exhilarating." -Slate
"Mesmerizing…A thought-provoking examination of how and why we change." -People
From one of the most celebrated writers of our time comes an "inventive, effervescent" (Oprah Daily) novel about the memory and quest for authenticity and human connection.
The Candy House opens with the staggeringly brilliant Bix Bouton, whose company, Mandala, is so successful that he is "one of those tech demi-gods with whom we're all on a first name basis." Bix is forty, with four kids, restless, and desperate for a new idea, when he stumbles into a conversation group, mostly Columbia professors, one of whom is experimenting with downloading or "externalizing" memory. Within a decade, Bix's new technology, "Own Your Unconscious"-which allows you access to every memory you've ever had, and to share your memories in exchange for access to the memories of others-has seduced multitudes.
In the world of Egan's spectacular imagination, there are "counters" who track and exploit desires and there are "eluders," those who understand the price of taking a bite of the Candy House. Egan introduces these characters in an astonishing array of narrative styles-from omniscient to first person plural to a duet of voices, an epistolary chapter, and a chapter of tweets. Intellectually dazzling, The Candy House is also a moving testament to the tenacity and transcendence of human longing for connection, family, privacy, and love.
"A beautiful exploration of loss, memory, and history" (San Francisco Chronicle), "this is minimalist maximalism. It's as if Egan compressed a big 19th-century novel onto a flash drive" (The New York Times).
"A compelling read that showcases Egan's masterful storytelling." -Time
"Dazzling." -Vogue
"Radiant, exhilarating." -Slate
"Mesmerizing…A thought-provoking examination of how and why we change." -People
From one of the most celebrated writers of our time comes an "inventive, effervescent" (Oprah Daily) novel about the memory and quest for authenticity and human connection.
The Candy House opens with the staggeringly brilliant Bix Bouton, whose company, Mandala, is so successful that he is "one of those tech demi-gods with whom we're all on a first name basis." Bix is forty, with four kids, restless, and desperate for a new idea, when he stumbles into a conversation group, mostly Columbia professors, one of whom is experimenting with downloading or "externalizing" memory. Within a decade, Bix's new technology, "Own Your Unconscious"-which allows you access to every memory you've ever had, and to share your memories in exchange for access to the memories of others-has seduced multitudes.
In the world of Egan's spectacular imagination, there are "counters" who track and exploit desires and there are "eluders," those who understand the price of taking a bite of the Candy House. Egan introduces these characters in an astonishing array of narrative styles-from omniscient to first person plural to a duet of voices, an epistolary chapter, and a chapter of tweets. Intellectually dazzling, The Candy House is also a moving testament to the tenacity and transcendence of human longing for connection, family, privacy, and love.
"A beautiful exploration of loss, memory, and history" (San Francisco Chronicle), "this is minimalist maximalism. It's as if Egan compressed a big 19th-century novel onto a flash drive" (The New York Times).
Editorial Reviews
Praise for The Candy House
"The novel - with its prismatic plotting and ever-shifting chorus of seekers, kooks, and visionaries - feels less like a house than a honeycomb full of fantastical rooms, each one alive and thrumming with bright, weird humanity." -Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly
"The Candy House is really an incredible feat... astonishing, even a little bewildering! Jenny is shockingly underrated. She should have the kind of fawning sycophants that dudes like Franzen and Denis Johnson do. Let the cult begin herewith!"
-James Hannaham, New York Times Book Review
"This is minimalist maximalism. It's as if Egan compressed a big 19th-century triple-decker novel onto a flash drive… Egan goes all in on the power of storytelling and of fiction."
-Dwight Garner, The New York Times
"A brilliant demonstration of the unquantifiable pleasures of great fiction."
-Ron Charles, The Washington Post
"Radiant… an exhilarating delight…Egan opens windows on entrancing new worlds, in which what happened depends on who's telling the story."
-Laura Miller, Slate
"You don't have to read A Visit From the Goon Squad to love this sibling novel to Egan's stellar hit… complex and intimate."
-Good Housekeeping
"May be the smartest novel you read all year… Fiction at its best... gets at our secret selves in ways the internet can't… Egan's audacity is welcome."
-Mark Athitakis, USA Today
"This is a beautiful exploration of loss, memory and history, a not too subtle critique of what is lost when we live our lives online."
-Allison Arieff, The San Francisco Chronicle
"A fast-paced polyvoiced romp thru America in the grip of a sinister tech that allows others into your m...
"The novel - with its prismatic plotting and ever-shifting chorus of seekers, kooks, and visionaries - feels less like a house than a honeycomb full of fantastical rooms, each one alive and thrumming with bright, weird humanity." -Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly
"The Candy House is really an incredible feat... astonishing, even a little bewildering! Jenny is shockingly underrated. She should have the kind of fawning sycophants that dudes like Franzen and Denis Johnson do. Let the cult begin herewith!"
-James Hannaham, New York Times Book Review
"This is minimalist maximalism. It's as if Egan compressed a big 19th-century triple-decker novel onto a flash drive… Egan goes all in on the power of storytelling and of fiction."
-Dwight Garner, The New York Times
"A brilliant demonstration of the unquantifiable pleasures of great fiction."
-Ron Charles, The Washington Post
"Radiant… an exhilarating delight…Egan opens windows on entrancing new worlds, in which what happened depends on who's telling the story."
-Laura Miller, Slate
"You don't have to read A Visit From the Goon Squad to love this sibling novel to Egan's stellar hit… complex and intimate."
-Good Housekeeping
"May be the smartest novel you read all year… Fiction at its best... gets at our secret selves in ways the internet can't… Egan's audacity is welcome."
-Mark Athitakis, USA Today
"This is a beautiful exploration of loss, memory and history, a not too subtle critique of what is lost when we live our lives online."
-Allison Arieff, The San Francisco Chronicle
"A fast-paced polyvoiced romp thru America in the grip of a sinister tech that allows others into your m...
Readers Top Reviews
LindaLAnn S. Epst
With so many people recording their thoughts and actions on social media, Jennifer Egan takes it to the next step and creates a novel where people can save their memories. It is called a Mandala Cube, and the concept is “own your unconscious.” For example, one can keep unconscious thoughts and memories for use after a traumatic brain injury or restore losses due to Alzheimer's or other diseases. But, as with most inventions, there are unintended consequences. The collective unconscious, Jenifer Egan says, is akin to invasive omniscience. Each chapter is a standalone episode told in a different voice. It is almost impossible to keep track of all of the characters that play a role in this cautionary tale. However, the relationships among many of the characters become apparent as the novel progresses. There are eluders in opposition to those who support the widespread sharing of memories in a searchable, Facebook-like fashion. Then there is the Mondrian, a network of role-playing proxies at odds with Mandala cube. And, as expected, there is government use of the new technologies and lots of luring of strangers and temptations to enter the metaphoric Candy House of the title. Authenticity is a prominent theme, with some characters claiming to behave in ways that scream authenticity. Yet the different points of view continually remind us of the biases in determining the differences between fact and fiction, especially in the world of social media. Included in many episodes of this story is the role-playing game of Dungeons and Dragons, where characters are rated. The seriousness of role-playing games, especially in drug recovery centers, is strangely analogous to the quantifying that Social Media moguls conduct when assessing people’s online posts—counters, in Egan’s world, rate people’s memories. The scenarios in the book should serve as a warning for what can happen with the continued sharing of EVERYTHING on social media. Some questions to consider while reading include: What is reality? Whose reality constitutes a fact? When is it a good idea to share your consciousness? Are we comfortable being assessed as people the way Dungeons and Dragons characters are rated? Is it satisfactory to be a real person in a fake world? Who or what is your actual identity? How much of it should you feel comfortable sharing? How much fear is healthy or acceptable? Have modern communication forms via technology led to losing the art of conversation?
sharon f. leffLin
In a time when manufactured “reality” has become norm, a time in which no one seems present or in the moment without a phone, where memories are based on false images, this book unfolds with a future of the products of this time, these societies, and the cautionary story showcases an undesirable future.
Cazsharon f. leff
But hard to keep track of who is who and how they connect which m,Ade the reading a little stressful
Cazsharon f. l
Not beyond the realm of possibilities. Difficult to hold the lines from one character to the next. Definitely enjoyable, a must read.
Niko Gjikuria C
A must read after goon squad to keep up with the characters and their development, it’s a great sequel but can also be read alone. If read after goon squad, Egan does a great job of developing the characters that we were briefly introduced, and seeing their arcs and their development. The theme of a struggle of technology and when it becomes too invasive and moves away from its intended purposes is woven in beautiful characters storylines, as well as showing us briefly who they were in younger and who they are now. I’m giving 4/5 because at times the book was a bit dull, and the character introduction became to much but it was beautifully wrapped up in the end.
