In 1992 Bix had a ‘‘Vision’’ that led him to establish Mandala, a social media platform with the global reach and ubiquity of Facebook. The opening chapter, however, involves Bix Bouton, a nicer equivalent of Mark Zuckerberg, who appears briefly in A Visit from the Goon Squad. With The Candy House, the focus shifts to those individuals who played a peripheral role in A Visit from the Goon Squad, namely the families of Ted Hollander (Sasha’s Uncle) and Lou Kline (Bennie’s mentor).

In the case of A Visit from the Goon Squad, the narrative revolved around Bennie Salazar, a record company executive, his kleptomaniac assistant Sasha, and the various family members, friends and enemies in their orbit. And finally, just like Sea of Tranquility, which is the closest Mandel has come to writing ‘‘core’’ science fiction, The Candy House is Egan at her most speculative.Īs with its predecessor, The Candy House is split into 13 chapters, each told from a different character’s perspective. It also happens that both The Candy House and Sea of Tranquility are in conversation with those earlier works, with The Candy House a direct sequel to A Visit from the Goon Squad. Moreso than Margaret Atwood, I consider Mandel and Egan to be the mainstream authors who have done the most to blur the artificial lines between literary and speculative fiction, as evidenced by the popularity and prizes lavished from both sides of the divide on A Visit from the Goon Squad (Egan) and Station Eleven (Mandel). John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility is published in the same month as Jennifer Egan’s The Candy House. The Candy House, Jennifer Egan ( Scribner 978-1-47671-676-3, $28.00, 352pp, hc) April 2022.Īs the publishing Gods would have it, Emily St.

The candy house reviews