The Candy House is so much fun! It comes alive in dozens of entwined stories, performed by an incredible cast of narrators. I didn’t have to go through this preparation-both novels stand on their own-but it was a very satisfying experiment. I downloaded and listened and realized, wow-I missed a lot the first time around, or maybe it’s me that’s changed over the past 10-plus years? And then it was time to take in When I heard that 2022 would be the year Jennifer Egan was coming out with a companion to her mind-expanding, Pulitzer Prize-winningĪ Visit from the Goon Squad, I felt an immediate need to revisit this book I first read way back in 2010. It’s as if Egan compressed a big 19th-century novel onto a flash drive” ( The New York Times). “A beautiful exploration of loss, memory, and history” ( San Francisco Chronicle), “this is minimalist maximalism. Intellectually dazzling, The Candy House is also a moving testament to the tenacity and transcendence of human longing for connection, family, privacy, and love. 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. 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.

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

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

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