The Candy House, Jennifer Egan
The Candy House, Jennifer Egan
18 Rating(s)
List: $26.99 | Sale: $18.89
Club: $13.49

Synopsis

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).

About Jennifer Egan

Jennifer Egan is the author of six previous books of fiction: Manhattan Beach, winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction; A Visit from the Goon Squad, which won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; The Keep; the story collection Emerald CityLook at Me, a National Book Award Finalist; and The Invisible Circus. Her work has appeared in The New YorkerHarper’s MagazineGrantaMcSweeney’s, and The New York Times Magazine. Her website is JenniferEgan.com.

About Michael Boatman

Michael Boatman spends his days and nights pretending to be other people. For a living. He’s acted in television shows such as The Good WifeChina BeachSpin CityARLI$$Anger ManagementInstant Mom; films such as Hamburger HillThe Glass ShieldBad Parents; and Broadway plays. MichaelBoatman.us, Twitter.com/MichaelBoatman


Reviews

Goodreads review by Emily May on September 25, 2022

This book reminds me of that early Black Mirror episode "The Entire History of You". The premise is an extension of that concept-- being able to access all of your memories, externalize them, and share those memories with others. In this case, however, we see people also uploading them to share onli......more

Goodreads review by Lisa of Troy on February 08, 2024

The Candy House is very hard to describe. Every chapter is written in a completely different style with a different character and in a different time period. It feels as though a different person authored each chapter. However, each of the chapters were very interesting. At first, there didn’t even s......more

Goodreads review by Thomas on May 19, 2022

Yeah I did not enjoy reading this book. I found the characters too difficult to keep track of and the writing over-intellectualized instead of emotionally resonant. While I think the theme of technology and how it influences our lives is interesting, I felt disconnected from these characters given t......more

Goodreads review by Meredith (Trying to catch up!) on March 22, 2022

Mind-Bending "Never trust a candy house!" What happens when you no longer own your thoughts and memories? Do you really want to know what someone was thinking during your most coveted memories? These questions are explored in The Candy House, a multi-layered, multi-modal, and complex novel about a......more

Goodreads review by Nilufer on April 12, 2023

After “a visit to Goon Squad” burned my entire grey cells, I was hesitated to start this book. But the idea about externalizing and downloading memory experience felt like a quick de javu reminded me of my favorite Black Mirror episode ( season 1: episode 3: “Entire History of You: it’s about specia......more


Quotes

"The ensemble performance of this novel is exceptional. Michael Boatman narrates the opening chapter at the right pace with the right intonation. He captures the interior life of the enigmatic Bix Boughton, a social media genius who invents the world-altering technology “Own Your Unconscious,” which is crucial to the plot. Alex Allwine delivers a haunting automaton-like second-person narration of the chapter titled “Lulu the Spy, 2032,” Tyra Lynne Barr emulates the chirpy sound of 13-year-old Molly in “The Perimeter After-Molly,” and Dan Bittner supplies sharply insightful tone as Ames, whose life story ends this imaginative tour de force. The time-traveling chapters reprise some of the characters from Egan’s award-winning VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD, but this novel has a wider timeframe, a greater trajectory, and a more complex plot."