THE CANDY HOUSE by Jennifer Egan

Once again Jennifer Egan takes us on a wild ride through the lives of multiple connected characters.  We start with Bix, the head of a facebook-like company that takes sharing memories to a whole new level.  In this futuristic take on social media, people can upload their consciousness from their brains to the internet.  Like the candy house in Hansel and Gretel, this technology is not as tasty as it appears to be.  Another company allows users, known as eluders, to transfer their online identity to a proxy.  This cyber stuff is really secondary, though, to the lives of the characters, intertwined with family, friendships, and work relationships.  This novel consists of separate narratives that resemble short stories, similar to the format of Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge and Olive, Again.  The downside to this approach is that there is no cohesive plot that I could identify, and some narratives seem unfinished.  For instance, in one chapter, Chris Salazar finds himself stuck with a stranger’s suitcase, but unless I missed something, we never find out if the suitcase is reclaimed or what is in the suitcase.  One whole chapter consists entirely of pieces of correspondence (emails, tweets?), some of which are hilarious.  Another chapter contains a lengthy and, at times, snooze-worthy, list of behavioral rules for spies and at the same time recounts the experiences of a “citizen agent.”  I don’t remember A Visit From the Good Squad at all, but many of the characters from that book reappear here with different stories to tell.  Authenticity seems to be a primary theme, and one character screams periodically in public just to elicit an authentic reaction, which is rarely positive.  All in all, this novel is quite clever and creative but not exactly riveting.  Thank you to Book Club Favorites at Simon & Schuster for the free copy for review.