The Candy House: A Novel

As a lover of Jennifer Egan’s other books, I was excited to read The Candy House, and there were characters and plot elements early on that intrigued me. The first character introduced is Bix Bouton, a tech giant who seems to be grappling with the ethics of his own creation, technology called “Own Your Consciousness” that allows you to revisit your own memories and scan those of other people who have used the tech. However, we quickly abandon him and move into the lives of other characters.

Egan’s other work is nonlinear, tangentially connected, and often written in a variety of narrative styles. An earlier book even features a chapter written as a PowerPoint presentation, but those other books have a specific and clear central story. The Candy House seems to be more of an experiment in storytelling, which is interesting, but an entire chapter of email exchanges and one that is essentially (I think) the script of a character in a Dungeons and Dragons game feels so unbelievably disconnected that it’s hard to know what Egan’s point is.

If you’re interested in reading a work of experimental fiction, then this book is for you. If, however, you’d like the books you read to make sense, I’d skip this one.