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The Candy House

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The Candy House

By: Jennifer Egan
Narrated by: Alex Allwine, Chris Henry Coffey, Christian Barillas, Colin Donnell, Dan Bittner, Emily Tremaine, Griffin Newman, Jackie Sanders, Kyle Beltran, Lucy Liu, Michael Boatman, Nicole Lewis, Rebecca Lowman, Tara Lynne Barr, Thomas Sadoski
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About this listen

Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Visit from the Good Squad.

From one of the most dazzling and iconic writers of our time comes an electrifying, deeply moving novel about the quest for authenticity, privacy and meaning in a world where our memories are no longer our own—featuring characters from A Visit from the Goon Squad.

It's 2010. Staggeringly successful and brilliant tech entrepreneur Bix Bouton is desperate for a new idea. He's 40, with four kids, and restless when he stumbles into a conversation with mostly Columbia professors, one of whom is experimenting with downloading or 'externalising' memory. 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 linked narratives, Egan spins out the consequences of Own Your Unconscious through the lives of multiple characters whose paths intersect over several decades. Intellectually dazzling and extraordinarily moving, The Candy House is a bold, brilliant imagining of a world that is moments away. With a focus on social media, gaming and alternate worlds, you can almost experience moving among dimensions in a role-playing game. Egan takes her 'deeply intuitive forays into the darker aspects of our technology-driven, image-saturated culture' (Vogue) to stunning new heights and delivers a fierce and exhilarating testament to the tenacity and transcendence of human longing for real connection, love, family, privacy and redemption.

©2022 Jennifer Egan (P)2022 Hachette Audio UK
Literature & Fiction Technothrillers Thriller Fiction Suspense

Critic Reviews

"Deeply intuitive forays into the darker aspects of our technology-driven, image-saturated culture." (Vogue)

What listeners say about The Candy House

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Fantastic narration of an interesting book

Loved the different actors narrating each of the stories - each fitted the characters perfectly and made for a very engaging listening experience.

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  • Overall
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Goon Squad b-sides…but that’s no bad thing

Egan certainly has her own distinctive voice. I enjoy the creativity she interjects. And how she plays with time. The writing has a quiet confidence, never too showy, etc. I like her light touch approach to sci-fi light where it’s just hanging out in the background enhancing how she portrays the human relationships.

Last year I read ‘The Goon Squad’ as was pretty impressed. The Candy House, while still solid, is a bit more like the B-side version of ‘The ‘Goon Squad’ set in the same universe with may of the characters reappearing (or being referenced) in some fashion. The Candy House offers something for everyone. A compelling bunch of loosely strung together short stories for those dipping their toes into Egan’s world to those who are super committed and invested in charting how all these characters interrelate across generations. As my patience for all this multiverse is waning, I’m probably in the middle… I get how they’re connected but more interested in moments of great writing.

What The Candy House has over the ‘The Goon Squad’ is how Egan delves deeper into adopting various interesting personas and experimenting with authorial voice. There are some stand-out chapter - the high-functioning autistic, the spy from the future, etc. And there are some forgettable ones as well (those email chains back and forth do nothing for me). So it’s a real mix and therefore navigating the muddy waters between interesting and semi-interesting.

Overall, while clever and compelling, I don’t know if I’d be keen on a C-sides (is that a thing?) of ‘The Goon Squad.’ I think it’s time to turn this page and for Egan to do something new!

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trying too hard

characters were difficult to care about.
narration didn't draw me in.
could have used some hard editing.

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