The Candy House by Jennifer Egan review

Jennifer Egan’s new novel is a “sibling novel”. A visit from the Goon Squad, her 2010 bestseller about rock music, “Gen X nostalgia” and the “digitalization of everything,” Dwight Garner said in The New York Times.

Consisting of connected short stories that zigzag through time, it is similar in structure to its predecessor – and features many of the same characters. But at the center is a new character: the “Mark Zuckerberg-esque” Bix Bouton, whose company Mandala has developed an “implausible” device called Own Your Unconscious that allows users to upload their own and other people’s memories and “see them.” you all like movies”.

The sci-fi aspects of the book are neither new nor “particularly fully realized,” said Andrew Billen in The times: Storage uploads have been better addressed elsewhere. But this is essentially a book of short stories, and most of them are excellent and ‘brain-racking’. What is “truly amazing is the visual brilliance of Egan’s writing across these diverse stories.” She won a Pulitzer for A visit from the Goon Squad; I hope this book “wins another”.

Corsaid 352 pages £20; The Bookstore of the Week £15.99

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