“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.”
“Jennifer Egan’s new novel skips joyfully back and forth between characters, plots and timelines at a hair-raising pace.” 5 Stars
‘The Candy House’ is an EDM concert, a prestige drama, a mind palace – and a warning.”
“Hilarious and emotionally fraught…While The Candy House is branded as a novel, it can also be experienced as a short story collection.”
“The Candy House weds brilliant narration with beautiful prose”
“There are so many moments in The Candy House that live in the realm of air, of grass, of blood.”
“The book pulsates with intense engagement, empathy and humour, as well as a bittersweet nostalgia.”
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“The Candy House – which can easily be read as a standalone novel – is just as innovative, wise, funny and confounding as its predecessor.”
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“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.”
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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.”
“Egan is one of the few names that, when linked with the expression ‘novel of ideas’, makes the heart sing rather than sink.”
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“The Candy House is a social novel, a kind of Middlemarch for the 21st century with an aptly whirling form.”
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“The Candy House is just as compelling as its predecessor.”
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“Jennifer Egan’s new novel is mind-bogglingly clever.”
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“This novel is a triumphant exploration of analogue versus digital, surveillance versus freedom, literature versus technology.”
“No one writing now does it more generously than Egan. I hope she wins another Pulitzer.”
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“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.”
“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.”
“Goon Squad redux, but better.”
“Despite the influx of young characters, The Candy House has an old soul. A parent’s soul.”
“Jennifer Egan’s The Candy House may be the most anticipated novel of the year.”
“Egan is a one-woman R&D department of language.”
“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”
“The Candy House Review: Jennifer Egan returns with a chaotic, wonderful Goon Squad sequel”