A summary of The Candy House is next to impossible. It is a sequel (in a way) to A Visit from the Goon Squad with about fifteen stories-some very interrelated-some not so much. If it has a central character it is Bix Bouton, a brilliant Black man who has invented a cube called know your own conscious. Characters can not only save their own memories with this device, they can also share them with others. Although this makes The Candy House sound like science fiction, that is too easy a description for this multi-faceted book.

If you read A Visit from the Good Squad and enjoyed it, or at least appreciated it, you will want to read The Candy House. Although at times it was difficult to keep all of the characters straight, I found Jennifer Egan’s novel sometimes brilliant and always interesting.