This novel is a sequel to Egan's 2010 novel A Visit From the Goon Squad. Like that book, it consists of short, interrelated stories with recurring characters, set at different times. Many of the characters from A Visit from the Goon Squad appear in The Candy House, in addition to some of their children. For the most part, The Candy House takes place at a later time period and some of the stories include science-fiction themes.[1][3][5][6]
Stories
"The Affinity Charm": Bix Bouton, CEO of the social media company Mandala, is longing for a new tech innovation. He overhears that experiments are being done to externalize the memories of animals, which sparks an idea.
"Case Study: No One Got Hurt": Alfred Hollander is obsessed with authenticity. He performs outlandish acts to elicit genuine reactions from strangers, causing strife with his family.
"A Journey: A Stranger Comes to Town": Miles Hollander considers his life to be a failure, and Drew struggles with guilt over Rob's death. Their lives change when they meet.
"Rhyme Scheme": Lincoln works for Mandala as a "counter", someone who analyzes data from users to predict their behavior. He tries to figure out how to get coworker M to fall in love with him.
"The Mystery of Our Mother": Melora Kline recounts the family history of her anthropologist mother and absent father Lou.
"What the Forest Remembers": Charlene Kline uses Mandala to explore the memories of her father Lou on a trip in the 1960s.
"Bright Day": Roxy Kline, a recovering heroin addict, uploads her memories to Mandala and is ready to start a new life.
"'i,' the Protagonist": Chris Salazar works complacently for a company that "algebraizes" stories to basic tropes. On a frustrating trip with a coworker, he finds a new direction in life.
"The Perimeter: After": Molly Cooke, a teenager, experience tensions with her friends when new girl Lulu arrives.
"Lulu the Spy, 2032": Lulu Kisarian works as a spy for the Citizen Agent program. This story was first released in 2012 in serialized tweet format via The New Yorker's Twitter account under the title "Black Box".
"The Perimeter: Before": Hannah, Molly's sister, recounts her mother's feud with their neighbor Jules Jones.
"See Below": A series of intersecting email threads between the large cast of the novel's characters.
"Eureka Gold": Gregory Bouton, Bix's son, mourns his father's death.
"Middle Son (Area of Detail)": As a child, Ames Hollander hits a surprise game-winning home run in a baseball game. The story quickly recounts events of his future, then returns to the triumphant moment of his home run.
Egan has a zonking sense of control; she knows where she's going and the polyphonic effects she wants to achieve, and she achieves them, as if she were writing on a type of MacBook that won't exist for another decade. The Candy House and Goon Squad are touchstone New York City and technology... novels of our time; they'll be printed in one volume someday, I suspect, by the Library of America.[1]
As she did in Goon Squad's PowerPoint chapter, Egan doles out information in small bites that accumulate to demonstrate the novel's time-honored strengths: richly complicated characters and compelling narratives... [and the novel is a] thrilling, endlessly stimulating work that demands to be read and reread.[5]
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