Thursday, March 17, 2022

2022 book 50

 Jennifer Egan's The Candy House

So this is being billed as a "sister novel" to Goon Squad, even though it has a lot of the same characters (and the new characters were all MENTIONED in Goon Squad, since most of them are the kids of all those main characters). The central throughline here is one of Sasha's college friends (the black guy who hid from his white girlfriend's parents) becoming a social media mogul, and inventing a way to upload and share your actual memories--and search other people's. But the heart of this is still the way people love their lives and the connections they have to one another. Parts of this made me cackle (the email chapter especially) and parts made me cry (for a variety of reasons) and I loved all of it. (I’ll note that one chapter is from the POV of an autistic person, and I have no idea how accurate or well-done it was.) Anyway, if you liked its predecessor, this one is a winner for sure. A.


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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on April 5th.

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