It is also, though it wears the fine cloth of idealism, big business. Tech may not be the new rock ’n’ roll, but it serves an analogous function in “The Candy House.” It’s the world-shifting phenomenon that defines an era and connects strangers. It is a spectacular palace built out of rabbit holes. But given its subject matter, it might be better to describe it as a social network, the literary version of the collaborative novel written by your friends and friends of friends on Facebook or Instagram, each link opening on a new protagonist. “The Candy House,” which passes the microphone to a number of peripheral “Goon Squad” characters, is similar in its anti-chronological structure and chameleonic virtuosity. Following a tangle of characters in and adjacent to the music business across decades, it switched voices and techniques in a kaleidoscopic extended-family portrait. But you could also call it a concept album. Jennifer Egan’s 2010 “ A Visit From the Goon Squad” was, depending whom you asked, a novel, or a collection, or a story cycle.
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