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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
I found this story very satisfying. Yes, lots of characters to keep track of, and it takes awhile to absorb how they connect, but I tried to not focus on that and just read each story for itself. I found myself laughing and creeped out and inspired and ready to delete my social media accounts.
Some favorite lines and ideas:
I see now the place I've been yearning for is my own imagination.
This whole experience has helped me finalize my dissertation: authenticity as problematized by digital experience.
Maybe not-writing is what's draining you. Maybe you've severed your energy source.
Finish your book! Here was his father's parting gift: a galaxy of human lives hurtling toward his curiosity.
Knowing everything is too much like knowing nothing; without a story, it's all just information.
Only Gregory Bouton (the breast-feeding kid all grown up)'s machine--this one, fiction--let's us roam with absolute freedom through the human collective.
Some favorite lines and ideas:
I see now the place I've been yearning for is my own imagination.
This whole experience has helped me finalize my dissertation: authenticity as problematized by digital experience.
Maybe not-writing is what's draining you. Maybe you've severed your energy source.
Finish your book! Here was his father's parting gift: a galaxy of human lives hurtling toward his curiosity.
Knowing everything is too much like knowing nothing; without a story, it's all just information.
Only Gregory Bouton (the breast-feeding kid all grown up)'s machine--this one, fiction--let's us roam with absolute freedom through the human collective.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
The book felt very disjointed. I was excited for the story about the tech and how it affects people, life, and hiw we interact. In the end, it feels like the author was trying to put too much in the book and ended up with a series of vignettes that don't ever reach a cresendo.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I love Jennifer Egan. This is a sequel to A Visit From the Goon Squad (wonderful book) though you don't necessarily have to read them in order and you should definitely space them out, so you don't get tired of the vignette style of reading.
Fun and creative and so well written. Recommend.
Fun and creative and so well written. Recommend.
In the near future, we can all externalize our unconsciousness and store it in a cube, retrieving all our memories/life experiences from our brain only to watch them again. Naturally, people decide to turn this into a collective consciousness, allowing anyone to watch, say, hundreds of individual experiences of a concert from 1965. And woven throughout The Candy House is an amazing array of characters who in some way are connected to Bix who figured out this thing that changes the culture quickly, dramatically and forever. This book is a kaleidoscope of people and experiences, families, the music industry, a band everyone knew made famous by a mentally ill ex-military author who's sister's ex was one of the folks who spent his life counteracting the intrusion of the own your unconscious and their family took care of Lulu while her mother was in prison and she somehow is aware she has a famous father but her mother won't tell her who. Lulu's story is my favorite, weaving through the book, pure and yet traumatized, apparently repeatedly but in one part of her life she engages in public service that is captured in my favorite chapters that turned out to be a former New Yorker story -- figures. Meanwhile, Bix got his idea when he read Miranda Kline's book about a Brazilian indigenous people so divorced from the rest of the world that she can study their contained social structure to develop an algorithm and write her book "Patterns of Affinity" that led to the success of all social platforms. And Miranda was once married to Lou, a record producer who had two children with each of his three wives. Don't get me started on Lou's kids or Lou or his wives... I would love to understand, by the way, how Jennifer Egan's brain works because while I find her writing and her story and her characters amazing I can't imagine being a person who could put this book and all its story lines together. It is the journey of The Candy House, strung together with these interconnecting people at various times that makes the book, which is certainly not plot driven or chronological but makes so much sense and gives one far too much to chew on. I think.... I'll read it again.
Yes!! Recommend!! This was a welcome read after a couple of tedious ones. Egan future-casts a world where technology is even further infused in our lives - whether it’s a cube with your entire consciousness loaded on it or a weevil embedded in your body, monitoring your actions. And true to human nature, she illustrates what people will sacrifice for something shiny as well as how factions emerge and dissenters arise. Egan accomplishes this by catching a number of characters at different points in their lives - and masterfully connects them. Each chapter covers a new, interesting character. Pro tip: Take notes on them! It’s tricky to track the characters you’ve been introduced to and fully appreciate the interconnections as you get further into the book.
Thought-provoking. In fact, I was reminded of the first time many, many years ago that I heard about Bill Gates’s home automatically thermo-regulating based on the inhabitant’s personal preferences and thinking how impossible that sounded. How quickly our technology has evolved! And what are the unintended consequences?? That’s the premise of this book.
Inspo: Time: Best Books of 2022 So Far
Thought-provoking. In fact, I was reminded of the first time many, many years ago that I heard about Bill Gates’s home automatically thermo-regulating based on the inhabitant’s personal preferences and thinking how impossible that sounded. How quickly our technology has evolved! And what are the unintended consequences?? That’s the premise of this book.
Inspo: Time: Best Books of 2022 So Far
Brilliant. I was at first frustrated by keeping the multiple characters straight. Then, seeing them all come together was like watching genius in action. Each story and character is so different in tone, most have terrific moment of humor, all are vivid, and I enjoyed this spin out from the Goon Squad world - including the clever speculative elements that Egan is so good at building in.