Jennifer Egan revives her panoply of characters from her Pulitzer Prize winning novel A VIST FROM the GOON SQUAD and creates another seminal work. Having read both and finding both clever social satires, I admit I was hopelessly lost mired in convoluted and interwoven storylines. Still, I was thoroughly absorbed in my sojourn. Egan's earlier novel introduced a fresh format to storytelling reflective of new means for communicating via computers and email. CANDY HOUSE is even more resourceful and inventive having introduced a futuristic method for recalling memories and culling personal data. A Pandora box of perplexities this technology poses are unleashed. A roadmap of characters may be warranted but not crucial. One reads Egan's novels for its odyssey and all its surprising sidebars and mysteries. I compare Egan's characterizations to Jonathan Franzen's. Both authors construct vivid characters with dark, underlying flaws, grotesque traits and cringeworthy behaviors. Mindy Klein is back as Miranda having divorced her record mogul husband with whom she shares two daughters. Miranda is a highly respected anthropologist. She's developed algorithms that are utilized by media tech genius, Bix Boulton, a minor character in Goon Squad now at the apex of CANDY HOUSE. The beguiling gifts the conglomeration of a collective conscious that reveals people's memories poses a tempting, Faustian bargain. Hence a "Candy House" analogy to Hansel and Gretel. Should one partake of the goodies, what are the hidden perilous pratfalls? "Huge eruptions to the music industry due to advancing technology stir the plot auguring a perpetual imperative to adapt in a constantly evolving world. The CANDY HOUSE is both haunting in its moral conundrums and delightful in its gentler depictions of many of its characters. A young girl navigating popularity and a young boy at bat with bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th are jarringly real and relatable. The novel gets interjected with a seemingly inexplicable espionage escapade that renders into a hilarious email chainmail devising deals satirizing the film industry and its narcissistic individuals. CANDY HOUSE breaks any and all house rules for storytelling and in doing so, takes home the jackpot. I urge you to partake of this bewitching novel with its many treats. "Knowing everything is too much like knowing nothing; without a story, it's all just information."
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