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 40, with four kids, restless, 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. It’s 2010. Within a decade, Bix’s new technology, “Own Your Unconscious”—that allows you access to every memory you’ve ever had, and to share every memory in exchange for access to the memories of others—has seduced multitudes. But not everyone.
In spellbinding interlocking narratives, Egan spins out the consequences of Own Your Unconscious through the lives of multiple characters whose paths intersect over several decades. Intellectually dazzling, The Candy House is also extraordinarily moving, a testament to the tenacity and transcendence of human longing for real …
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 40, with four kids, restless, 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. It’s 2010. Within a decade, Bix’s new technology, “Own Your Unconscious”—that allows you access to every memory you’ve ever had, and to share every memory in exchange for access to the memories of others—has seduced multitudes. But not everyone.
In spellbinding interlocking narratives, Egan spins out the consequences of Own Your Unconscious through the lives of multiple characters whose paths intersect over several decades. Intellectually dazzling, The Candy House is also extraordinarily moving, a testament to the tenacity and transcendence of human longing for real connection, love, family, privacy and redemption. 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.
4.5 stars (read in 2023). I thought this was great - and better than A Visit From the Goon Squad. One thing that soured it for me a little toward the end was the time spent in "See Below" revisiting "The General," which was one of my least favorite parts of Goon Squad. But that's a pretty minor complaint considering how much I enjoyed the novel overall. Fascinating ideas and characters, and lots of moving/memorable chapters ("Bright Day" is a standout). Also, having just returned from a trip to NYC, I appreciated the setting a lot.
Readable but diffuse, less than the sum of its parts?
3 stars
Remembered enjoying A Visit from the Goon Squad when it first came out, and always keen to get my hands on 'literary' treatments of technology and/or the future, but while the self-contained chapters, here, often worked well (as short stories?), the impact of the novel as a whole was limp and flat, muted by a lack of focus. Effectively-written characters and detailing, but ultimately just a heap of narrative (however engaging), with little light and shade, and a scattershot focus.
I took in the audiobook version of the first book set in this fictional universe, [b:A Visit from the Goon Squad|7331435|A Visit from the Goon Squad|Jennifer Egan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1356844046l/7331435.SX50.jpg|8975330], but this one for me was a hardback instead. The viewpoint characters are mostly identifiable as minor players in the other story though it was hard work recalling the intricate web of relationships even though I finished that book only two months ago. There is a futuristic consciousness-uploading technology that pervades the story, even though it jumps back and forth through time before it was invented and after it became ubiquitous. It is like the Metaverse but with a scary neurological implant component as a possibility too where people can experience events uploaded by or streamed by others by entering their memories. People find it pleasant, like eating a fairy-tale candy house, but can also be dangerous.
I didn't have rapport …
I took in the audiobook version of the first book set in this fictional universe, [b:A Visit from the Goon Squad|7331435|A Visit from the Goon Squad|Jennifer Egan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1356844046l/7331435.SX50.jpg|8975330], but this one for me was a hardback instead. The viewpoint characters are mostly identifiable as minor players in the other story though it was hard work recalling the intricate web of relationships even though I finished that book only two months ago. There is a futuristic consciousness-uploading technology that pervades the story, even though it jumps back and forth through time before it was invented and after it became ubiquitous. It is like the Metaverse but with a scary neurological implant component as a possibility too where people can experience events uploaded by or streamed by others by entering their memories. People find it pleasant, like eating a fairy-tale candy house, but can also be dangerous.
I didn't have rapport with every single one of the viewpoint characters in either book but the ones that succeed are done very well indeed with conflicting agendas and lies all out on display. There is a big ensemble scene in the last quarter of this book told through email threads that reminded me of the climactic concert scene closing out the first book that I sort of knew was going to portray a crazy event succeeding despite long odds, which I thought was fun.
The effort involved in keeping the cast straight is one of the main things I think people will find hard to accept. In the end this near future vision of what our world might have turned into isn't a utopia or a dystopia, one that is still peopled with characters who still feel happiness and sadness, triumph and loss, whether they embrace the technology or oppose it. I feel as though this is an important lesson when it comes to any disruptive technology.
I liked the concept of uploading your memories to the internet, and having corporate incentives to share them. . However, this entire book felt like an introduction. New characters and new events, often in different time periods every chapter. They did become somewhat intertwined, but not in a way where I felt it all came together. At the end I didn't feel like I had any real sense of any of the characters or why they did the things they did. I also didn't find that it really stimulated my thinking at all about what a world where many uploaded their memories to the internet for all to see would be like. It was all just too disconnected.
I have not read the first book, A Visit from the Goon Squad, where many of these characters were first introduced. Perhaps that would have helped, but I wouldn't recommend it as …
I liked the concept of uploading your memories to the internet, and having corporate incentives to share them. . However, this entire book felt like an introduction. New characters and new events, often in different time periods every chapter. They did become somewhat intertwined, but not in a way where I felt it all came together. At the end I didn't feel like I had any real sense of any of the characters or why they did the things they did. I also didn't find that it really stimulated my thinking at all about what a world where many uploaded their memories to the internet for all to see would be like. It was all just too disconnected.
I have not read the first book, A Visit from the Goon Squad, where many of these characters were first introduced. Perhaps that would have helped, but I wouldn't recommend it as a stand alone.
