Current, by Christina Bieber Lake, April 3, 2023
“By delivering the consummate goods of the novel, The Candy House is an epic slap down of any notion that ChatGPT could write a novel.”
Reviews
Times Live (South Africa), by Sue De Groot
“Jennifer Egan’s new novel skips joyfully back and forth between characters, plots and timelines at a hair-raising pace.” 5 Stars
Pop Matters, with Jesse Kavadlo, 5/23/22
‘The Candy House’ is an EDM concert, a prestige drama, a mind palace – and a warning.”
Locus Magazine, by Ian Mond, 5/29/22
“Hilarious and emotionally fraught…While The Candy House is branded as a novel, it can also be experienced as a short story collection.”
Medium.com by Thomas Jenkins, 6/11/22
“The Candy House weds brilliant narration with beautiful prose”
Vulure by Mallika Rao, 5/19/22
“There are so many moments in The Candy House that live in the realm of air, of grass, of blood.”
Prospect Magazine (UK), by Catherine Taylor, June 2022
“The book pulsates with intense engagement, empathy and humour, as well as a bittersweet nostalgia.”
Review is behind a paywall
Metro (London) by Ben East, 5/16/22
“The Candy House – which can easily be read as a standalone novel – is just as innovative, wise, funny and confounding as its predecessor.”
Review is behind a paywall
The Philadelphia Inquirer, by Patrick Rapa, 3/31/22
“Like a well-curated playlist, The Candy House uses chapter breaks to switch perspectives and tempos without killing the mood, and each sensuous little story feels like a peek through the blinds at people whose larger journeys we can only guess at.”
Review is behind a paywall
The Conversation (Australia), by Anthony Macris, 5/2022
I finished reading The Candy House…excited that I was caught up in some great, exhilarating adventure that is at the very core of what it means to be human.”
The Daily Mail on Sunday (UK), 4/31/22
“Egan is one of the few names that, when linked with the expression ‘novel of ideas’, makes the heart sing rather than sink.”
Review is behind a paywall
The Economist, 5/7/22
“The Candy House is a social novel, a kind of Middlemarch for the 21st century with an aptly whirling form.”
Review is behind a paywall
The Evening Standard (UK), by Sam Parker, 4/19/22
“The Candy House is just as compelling as its predecessor.”
Review is behind a paywall
The Daily Telegraph (UK), by Claire Allfree, 4/16/22
“Jennifer Egan’s new novel is mind-bogglingly clever.”
Review is behind a paywall
The Independent (Ireland), by Anne O’Neill, 4/23/22
“This novel is a triumphant exploration of analogue versus digital, surveillance versus freedom, literature versus technology.”
The Times (UK), by Andrew Billen, 4/16/22
“No one writing now does it more generously than Egan. I hope she wins another Pulitzer.”
Review behind paywall
The New Republic, by Jennifer Wilson, 5/10/22
“As she re-creates the tantalizing disorder of the internet on the page, Egan displays the capaciousness of the novel as a form, making the case for old media in this era of new.”
The Brooklyn Rail, by Tom Deignan, 4/2022
“Egan’s great accomplishment in The Candy House—as in Goon Squad—is her steadfast commitment to flesh and blood characters, who bruise and bleed, even amidst all of the social commentary and satire.”
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, by Olive Fellows, 4/24/22
“Goon Squad redux, but better.”
The Houston Chronicle, by Maggie Galehouse, 3/28/22
“Despite the influx of young characters, The Candy House has an old soul. A parent’s soul.”
CBS Book Report with Ron Charles, 4/17/22
“Jennifer Egan’s The Candy House may be the most anticipated novel of the year.”
New York Times Book Review by James Poniewozik, 4/6/22
“Egan is a one-woman R&D department of language.”
Vox, by Constance Grady, 4/11/22
“With The Candy House, Pulitzer Jennifer Egan makes her case for the novel: The ambitious, kaleidoscopic follow-up to A Visit from the Goon Squad sticks its landing”
Entertainment Weekly, by Leah Greenblatt, 4/6/22
“The Candy House Review: Jennifer Egan returns with a chaotic, wonderful Goon Squad sequel”