The Candy House

A Novel

De: Jennifer Egan

Narrado por: Michael Boatman, Nicole Lewis, Thomas Sadoski, Colin Donnell, Griffin Newman, Rebecca Lowman, Jackie Sanders, Lucy Liu, Christian Barillas, Tara Lynne Barr, Alex Allwine, Emily Tremaine, Kyle Beltran, Dan Bittner, Chris Henry Coffey

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

ONE of the TOP 10 BOOKS OF THE YEAR by THE NEW YORK TIMES * ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY * SLATE* THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER *

Also named one of the BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR by Vanity Fair, Time, NPR, The Guardian, Oprah Daily, Self, Vogue, The New Yorker, BBC, Vulture, and many more!

OLIVIA WILDE to direct A24's TV adaptation of THE CANDY HOUSE and A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD!

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).

©2022 Jennifer Egan. All rights reserved (P)2022 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

So incredibly good

My favorite book in a long time. Such rich characters and plot. Highly, highly recommend.

A Rollercoaster: Fun but Frightening

“The Candy House”—like Egan’s “A Visit From the Goon Squad” 1) benefits from a physical flip through and 2) benefits from taking the occasional note taking.

While worth the audiobook purchase, it’s still a good idea to leaf through someone’s copy (or perhaps use an e-reader), because chapters Lulu the Spy, 2032 and See Below are visual experiences (one is in column form and the other is an email chain). Remembering one such chapter from “Goon Squad,” (presented as PowerPoint presentation slides) I grabbed a book as well. You’re asked to read them a little differently from how you might usually approach prose. If you only stick with the audiobook, you’ll get the substance, but not the same matter of style.

As with “Goon Squad,” (and in fact also related to “Goon Squad”) many of the characters are related throughout the chapters—even if they appear disparate at the onset. As the book progresses, you’ll start to see some clever looping. There are connections to “Goon Squad,” but as others have noted, this is not quite a sequel; you can read it as a stand alone and not feel as though you’re missing some important backstory.

What makes “The Candy House” a compelling read is that it asks some hard hitting questions about the future of technology, creativity, and privacy. Lots of room for thought provoking discussion. What rankles me is that—and this was a complaint I had for “Goon Squad”—Egan’s stories…it’s not that they go on too long, because I seldom had the feeling, “Is this necessary? Could I skip this?” but that there’s a distinct feeling of being trapped in the psyches of her characters far longer than I’d prefer. Sometimes they’re too sad, or pretentious, or hit too close to home, or their thought patterns are so fundamentally different that there can be some growing pains sitting with them for as long as you’re expected to.

The cast was excellent (and there were many, so even if you do encounter a reader whose voice you don’t enjoy, give it time).

All in all, a great read, but be sure to be informed before (or after) you enter—otherwise Egan’s work can be something more challenging for your avid novel reader who enters this book with expectations of Egan’s work trafficking in the generally accepted rules of a novel.

Even better than Goon Squad

If you like A Visit From The Goon Squad then you’re going to love this! Even more compelling and full of characters you’d always wished you knew more about

honestly loved it

the stories are woven together wonderfully and each perspective has such it's own personality. great writing and great performance!

Good writing, hard to follow.

I didn’t enjoy this book but I finished it for my book club. Just not my preferred style of story. I appreciate the quality of writing but this stream of conciseness/memories thing is not my jam. Proud I finished it though. Performance was very good by the narrators.

Riveting

You need to remember a lot of names to appreciate this one. Love the idea that we can only ever get glimpses of someone else’s life.

Expansive, engrossing, engagingly entertaining.

The Candy House as much more than a sweet literary confection. The 'science fiction' seems close to a reality we are living through.
The characters are well written, the intersections of lives and plot will snare you.
A great rollicking roller coaster of a novel and a wonderful audiobook experience.

Has Potential To Be Better

I've never read a book with this concept before. I was looking for a new book to read and saw that this was a popular one from last year so I decided to read it.
It was very difficult to understand what was going on in the beginning, but then I realized they're a bunch of small stories that refer back to or connect to characters in previous stories. The years would change up too btw.

Anyways, it was difficult to remember which character was which on account of there being at least 50 of them.

Something I did not like was, some of the stories ended without a conclusion! Like what was in the suitcase?!? Did they ever come back for it? But a lot of the stories got more interesting after the first 3rd of the book.

I think this book would have been easier to understand if you read along as you listened. Because the cast was great and that was also a new concept, but with the book you can page back to re-read characters if need be.

Spectacular must- read

This book merits the Nee York Times having called it the book of the year. It’s a brilliant imaginative exploration of where we may go as humans with technology and relationships. Where will social media and invention lead us? It’s also laugh out loud funny in many places. I loved every minute.

4.09 Stars

The sequel to A Visit From the Goon Squad is fairly entertaining, though not as good as the first novel. It had a lot of potential. There's a futuristic and/or sci-fi element to the novel, though the concepts are somewhat vague and never fully explained. It loses some momentum towards the end. Still, pretty good.

Overall rating: 4.09 stars