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These stories include that of Alfred Hollander, a kind of grotesque, adult version of Holden Caulfield, whose loathing of phoniness leads him to take up screaming in public just to see authentic human responses. Within, between and around these two interdependent worlds exist an array of interdependent characters spanning the mid-90s to the 2030s, through whose stories, consciousnesses and verbal interactions, the human network that makes up Jennifer Egan’s novel is built.

Or would you elude? Give over your identity to a sophisticated proxy, get yourself scanned for ‘weevils’ – consciousness monitoring brain implants – and drop off the grid? This, too, is possible, because parallel to the world of Mandala is the world enabled by Mondrian – an underground company run by DND enthusiast Chris Salazar. These are all possibilities in the world of The Candy House, a world fashioned by Bix Bouton, the creator of Mandala, a company that first created social media and then destroyed it by moving towards the ‘authentic’ realm of shared consciousness.

Reviews the candy house