Lincoln’s commitment to quantification is turned upside down when his boss O’Brien is fired for sabotaging the company. He is in love with his colleague, M, and he deduces that she’ll marry her boyfriend, Marc. Lincoln quantifies everything and is surprised to discover that human behavior is not quantifiable. In Chapter 4, Drew’s son Lincoln has a hyper-analytical mathematical mind and struggles to find connection. Miles turns his life around he passes the bar exam and becomes a politician. Drew saves his life, and he and Miles develop an unlikely but meaningful friendship. Miles later attempts suicide by jumping out of a hot-air balloon he shares with Drew. He visits Drew to find out how he could be so happy. Miles recently lost his carefully curated image to his addiction and an affair. Drew is a doctor who serves struggling patients, and his wife is a sculptor. In Chapter 3, Miles Hollander and his cousin’s husband, Drew, undergo an incredible experience. At first, Alfred rejects her requests to use his documentary in her research, but after visiting a man he once idolized, Alfred starts to think that maybe his documentary is interesting after all. Alfred made a documentary on geese migration that interests a PhD candidate in sociology named Rebecca. He undertakes social experiments to make people around him feel uncomfortable. In Chapter 2, Alfred Hollander sees people as manifestations of their insecurities and inauthenticity. Desperate to find a new project, he disguises himself as a graduate student to join a small group of academics who discusses life’s big questions. Bix is unfulfilled, though, and craves intellectual and existential stimulation. In Chapter 1, readers are introduced to Bix Bouton, a tech genius who developed online software that gathers and shares human memories, creating a collective consciousness. Part 1 of the novel begins with a host of characters who struggle with questions of authenticity, dream-making, and life-building.

This guide refers to the 2022 Kindle eBook edition. The book explores themes of technological advancement, abuse of social media, existential crisis, and human identity. The Candy House is a novel in which seemingly disparate stories connect characters and themes.

The Candy House by Jennifer Egan