Jennifer Egan

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The Candy House

In some regards, this novel is version two of A Visit From the Goon Squad (see below). The books are similarly structured and feature repeat characters. However, Egan uses her prior formulation to explore a new theme: the quantification and digitization of human experience. The “counters” are proponents of downloading human memory and making it public, while the “eluders” eschew digitization, advocating for “real” experience. The novel critiques the digital packaging of reality and condemns the overreach of tech moguls, arriving at a gorgeous conclusion.

 

Manhattan Beach

With a totally different style and subject matter than many of Egan’s other novels (two of them are listed above), this novel tells the story of Anna, whose father works for 1930s New York City gangster, Dexter Styles. Overwhelmed by his circumstances, her father disappears, and years later, Anna has her own complicated encounter with Styles. In spite of the difficulties of being a single woman in the 1940s, Anna, through her grit and ingenuity, takes control of her own destiny.

 

A Visit From the Goon Squad

This novel is constructed of loosely related vignettes, in which characters reappear in new contexts. Many of the characters are dysfunctional—even depraved. The brilliance of this novel is that the reader is keenly aware of insecurities and shortcomings that the characters are not conscious of. But unconscious issues invariably bubble up, and the characters face the “goon squad,” emblematic of repressed insecurities, fears, and traumas coming back to haunt them.