Tyler Cipriani reviewed The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
Magical realism meets surveillance capitalism
4 stars
Jennifer Egan’s “The Candy House” straddles the line between magical realism and sci-fi—and I am here for it.
Anthropologist Miranda Kane’s 1995 book, “Patterns of Affinity” lays bare exacting formulas for predicting human behavior. She could never have anticipated Bix Bouton seizing on these ideas to expand his surveillance capitalism juggernaut: “Mandala” (the novel’s answer to Meta/Facebook).
Later, in 2010, while fretting about the future of Mandala, Bouton infiltrates a college discussion group of Kline’s work. There he learns of experiments to externalize people’s memories into machines.
Bix uses the research as the inspiration for “Own Your Unconscious”—a way to relive your past (including everything you’d forgotten).
Later, Mandala introduces “The Collective”—a pool of memories users can tap at the cost of releasing their memories for others. The collective is a database searchable by geolocation and time—enter the date and place and watch events unfold through the eyes of any …
Jennifer Egan’s “The Candy House” straddles the line between magical realism and sci-fi—and I am here for it.
Anthropologist Miranda Kane’s 1995 book, “Patterns of Affinity” lays bare exacting formulas for predicting human behavior. She could never have anticipated Bix Bouton seizing on these ideas to expand his surveillance capitalism juggernaut: “Mandala” (the novel’s answer to Meta/Facebook).
Later, in 2010, while fretting about the future of Mandala, Bouton infiltrates a college discussion group of Kline’s work. There he learns of experiments to externalize people’s memories into machines.
Bix uses the research as the inspiration for “Own Your Unconscious”—a way to relive your past (including everything you’d forgotten).
Later, Mandala introduces “The Collective”—a pool of memories users can tap at the cost of releasing their memories for others. The collective is a database searchable by geolocation and time—enter the date and place and watch events unfold through the eyes of any user who’s uploaded their unconscious to the collective.
The novel is a collection of vignettes—memoirs of people connected to Bounton and Kline.
The world Egan builds is addictive and wonderous, but some stories fall flat. In particular, a second-person spy story that goes on way. too. long.
But the novel still has enough magnetic and beautiful moments to be worth your time.