The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Egan’s novels are always thought-provoking and really well-written. This was no exception. I read A Visit from the Goon Squad a really long time ago so any character connections between the two books was lost on me but if you’ve read it more recently, it’s a lovely connection between the two. This book start with a story where the tech millionaire Bix Bouton is in a rut and trying to think about what his next big innovation could be when he decides to attend a get together at Columbia.
All the stories after take place in a world where Bix has invented a machine that can extract your memories and put them in a computer where you can access them whenever you want and have a perfect memory of each of them. The stories are interconnected predictable and unpredictable ways.
One of the features of this new technology is the option to upload your memories to a collective in exchange for being able to access other people’s memories. So when you’re searching for your long-lost friend Jenny, you can upload all your memories and then get to see other people’s memories of Jenny throughout the years. Seeing what happens to her through the eyes of others.
These interconnected stories have a similar feel as you find out what happens to some of the characters inside other stories through the “eyes” of the new storyteller. The stories are very different from each other and so are the characters. Some are funny. One is mostly emails back and forth. Even though I lost interest in parts, I loved seeing how the book came together and I loved the ideas presented in these stories. Egan always makes me think.
with gratitude to edelweiss and Simon & Schuster for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
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