The Candy House

Kept coming up in “New Books thread!” The kind of lists that’s breathless and perhaps, use too much punctuation.

Variations on a theme, Olga Dies Dreaming. With a sideways link to authenticity, see gaping void.

Into the science fiction novel, though? After all, that’s what it is, with a way to manage memories like simple digital storage?

“Since then, I’ve subjected my impulses to leave for work to a three-step protocol: 1) Is it necessary that I go at this moment? 2) Is there something at home that I want to avoid? 3) Will I be letting anyone down by leaving right now?” Page 57.

There are those simple truths.

Not unlike certain social media giants, and the demi-god Google, what if actual brain thoughts could be uploaded, maybe with an anonymous search feature?

Towards the end, but before I finished it, when queried about what I was reading at the moment, I launched into a sideways exploration of some “relevant material,” and John Dos Passos, as the author’s name. I couldn’t place the connection, and just looking at the wiki didn’t help.

But there is a connection, I’m sure.

I admire the diversions, the science fiction approach, ideas discussed, and themes supposedly launched. I liked the book, but the stylized story-telling was — it was a successful experiment. Books that stay, rest someplace in the soul, resonate with an idea, a description, a feeling?