The Candy House

A Novel

By: Jennifer Egan

Narrated by: 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.

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

Sweeping, engrossing, perfection

I’ll be thinking about and revisiting this multi layered book for a long time to come.

Not an enjoyable read

Too many characters with no real ending. I pushed myself through this one and regret it.

Realistic near future story about patriotism, family and unpredictable results of individual decisions

The story uses different media to illustrate characters and circumstances. For example, email back and forth between characters as well as typical narratives. At some points, I lost track of the various characters relationships as they intersected at different times, eras, places. The eerie aspect of memory recordings and brain implants don’t seem far fetched these days. A very interesting book!

Wonderful writing

So many characters and jumps through time makes the audiobook a little hard to follow at times, but nothing a quick relisten here and there won’t solve. Great ensemble group of actors/readers.

A wandering story

This book felt like it lacked a central plot line - at least one that I could identify. It was more a series of character vignettes that sort of tied together in very minor ways, but I never really felt like I knew where the book was taking me. And still feel that way at the end… a bit lost and a bit disappointed. The author otherwise has a nice writing style, so it’s too bad I couldn’t connect with it.

Good book

Not my favorite but I liked the writing and complex concepts. It was hard to follow and connect to all the characters

Maybe a better read than a listen

I fumbled through Goon Squad but thought I'd give this one a shot as so many seem to love the author's work.

As an audio book, it is just too disorganized to follow. I have a disability that limits my reading to audio books. Without a visual aid, this story just doesn't come together. perhaps a hard copy would provide a vastly different experience.

Cool idea, just not the ideal platform for delivery

Performances were the best part of the book.

So, maybe I’m just not an artistic intellectual, but this book was just average for me. There are too many characters that I did not develop a bond with any of them because the moment you start delving into their psyche, you jump to the next or back and forth between people and time. Some chapters were pure winners with interesting stories, most of them I found my brain glossing over.

I couldn’t finish the book. I tried.

Uniquely great

Interesting characters, humor and very thought provoking ideas about the future of technology. I am amazed at the authors imagination and ability to weave together the stories of so many characters. The last chapter is especially wonderful.