Jennifer Egan

This was an astonishing book. Every single chapter from a different character's POV. Chapters written in 1st person, in 2nd person, in 3rd person. Jumping around in time, in place, in tone. Every chapter could stand alone, but they did mesh together, sometimes directly, sometimes tangentially. And despite all this high-degree-of-difficulty stuff, the writing was just FANTASTIC. Most Pulitzer Prize-winning books are big and important and boring, but this one was fun and engaging. Highly, show more highly recommended. show less

I struggled a little to get into this book, but once I did I was wholly immersed. It's fascinating to see that Egan is already, in the 1990's, thinking about the themes that will make Goon Squad and Candy House so compelling. Look At Me makes me appreciate Egan's brilliance even more; she essentially anticipates so many elements of our modern culture, the fascinations and the traumas. I found the epigraph especially illuminating, and kept the idea that whoever we are looking at, we always show more see ourselves in mind as I was reading. It added a meditative layer to my reading, a purpose that I relished. That layer, on top of the compelling stories and mysteries of Egan's characters, made this a deeply satisfying and somewhat unsettling read. show less

Four and a half stars.

Jennifer Egan's novel starts out in fairly typical New York City Novel fashion, which had me a little bit worried at first -- Oh my god, is this going to be yet another novel about sad New York City souls who pass in the night looking for that elusive meaningful connection? groan -- but Egan soon quells any fears that this is the 744th iteration of Slaves of New York or, even worse, Sex and the City.

Goon Squad is quasi-novel, quasi-short stories, going back and forth show more in time from the late 70s to a near and dystopian future. The characters recur, shown at different points in their lives, sometimes before they're even born. The backdrop to this narrative is music -- how it accompanies our lives, informs our lives, and brings back sharp, sometimes painful memories.

The novel will probably not be much beloved by readers to want to "care about the characters." Egan's characters are flawed, often selfish, and often do reprehensible things. (It is set in New York, after all.) Nonetheless, Egan's greatest accomplishment in this book is how thoroughly and richly she portrays each character, even the relatively minor ones. And despite the book's diffuse structure, Egan manages to keep the narrative strong and clear.

People have complained that the book is gimmicky, not only because of its unusual form, but because there's a chapter done entirely in PowerPoint. Yes, that's also potentially groan-worthy, but the PowerPoint chapter actually works, probably because of Egan's brilliance at getting the reader into her characters' heads. show less

The Candy House by Jennifer Egan is a very highly recommended imaginative novel of our world, but different. The story is told through an interlocking narrative structure by multiple and inter-generational characters. This novel is brilliant!

Remember: Nothing is free! Only children expect otherwise, even as myths and fairy tales warn us: Rumpelstiltskin, King Midas, Hansel and Gretel. Never trust a candy house! It was only a matter of time before someone made them pay for what they thought show more they were getting for free.

Bix Bouton is a wildly successful tech giant of Mandala. What he is searching for now is eluding him; he is seeking a new idea or advancement. When he encounters a conversation group meeting after a talk at Columbia, he joins while disguised and finds the direction his next advancement will take. "Own Your Unconscious" allows people to download their memories giving them access to every memory they have ever had. They are stored in a Mandala Cube. This evolves into the ability to upload your memories to "the Collective Consciousness" which then gives you access to the thoughts and memories of everyone in the world who has also shared with the collective.

Millions are seduced, but not everyone. There is a problem that emerges about what to do with so much information. Additionally, not everything or every story needs to be told. There is a counter group of "eluders" who understand the temptation of the candy house and resist it while "counters" are those who track and exploit the measurable tendencies of people.

This is an ingenious, brilliantly written novel, technically accomplished and stylistically masterful. The three parts of the novel are titled: Build, Break, Drop. The chapters are all like interconnected short stories that build the narrative and plot through the voices of a variety of characters and narrative styles. Chapters range from omniscient to first person plural to a duet of voices, an epistolary chapter, an exchange of emails and a chapter of tweets. Characters from A Visit From the Goon Squad (2010) reappear here, but The Candy House is a stand-alone novel.

The characters and their children are all developed as complex individuals as the novel covers a large span of time. The voices and points-of-view of the characters are all unique. The advancement of the plot is told through the voices of all these characters in the unique chapters. It is impressive how the narrative threads in each chapter begin to coalesce to create a complex plot and compelling accomplished novel. I am in awe. One of the best books of the year!

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Simon & Schuster via NetGalley.
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