The Candy House

In The Candy House, Egan explores the power of memory to help build individual and communal identity. Memories are tricky; they can be repressed, hyperbolic, or long-lasting. Memories are especially important to the characters of this novel as they get older and try to understand how their lives became what they are.

Bix Bouton’s development of Own Your Subconscious is inspired by his wrestling match with memory. Although already a successful tech icon, Bix feels that something is missing in his life. He yearns for the past, when he was younger and not successful and when everything was in front of him. The ambition and drive to create and discover make Bix return to his past, but his past is fraught with unreliable memories. He can’t quite remember the details of the day his friend, Rob, drowned in the East River. To trigger memories that might serve his present reality, Bix walks along his old New York City haunts. He visits the park by the apartment he once shared with his now-wife, the location where he first met Rob. But the park has been transformed by time and development, and the