Did you read with me? Utopia Avenue and The Candy House
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Today I want to report back on the last two books I haven’t had a chance to talk about yet, Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell and The Candy House by Jennifer Egan. You can find my thoughts for each of the other books so far for my Read with Me Project page. And if you want to join me, here are links to places you can find digital and physical books.
May and June ended up featuring two BIG BOOKS for this little reading project, especially considering the fact that I felt like I had to re-read Egan’s first novel, A Visit From the Goon Squad again because The Candy House is essentially a sequel to it, and it’s true, they do fit together as one story—one VERY long story.
They reading wasn’t actually difficult. Both writers use language that flows easily and beautifully. But both books require attention and thought as all good art makes us do—and this is all to say that I didn’t write about them here on the blog on time as I intend each month because I simply didn’t have any more bandwidth.
But now, here I am, ready to say just a little something about each novel—and even better, give you a few goo links to real reviews which fill in the details.
Utopia Avenue
Oh my. This book is such a wonderful treat! I am a big fan of David Mitchell’s work (loved Cloud Atlas, Number Nine Dream and my favorite Black Swan Green). Utopia Avenue does not disappoint. I agree with one reviewer who said that like Black Swan Green, it’s is a coming of age novel, but in this case a coming of age of a band.
Set in 1960s London, we meet four separate and struggling musicians, Dean, Elf, Griff and Jasper, and then the honorable agent-to-be with a keen eye for talent, Levon, who brings them together to form a band called, you guessed it, Utopia Avenue.
This review of Utopia Avenue in The Guardian describes the novel perfectly (so I don’t have to!) Basically, this is a book about love for music, the edges of ambition and also, family. Who is family and who isn’t. Who gets family—and who doesn’t. Most of all, how and who we love. It’s really beautiful.
One of the best elements is the magical era of 1960s rock ‘n roll coming to life. We get to see what England might have been like as the Beatles rose in stardom. As this Goodreads reviewer says:
“…riots in the streets and revolutions in the head; of drugs, thugs, madness, love, sex, death, art; of the families we choose and the ones we don’t; of fame’s Faustian pact and stardom’s wobbly ladder. Can we change the world in turbulent times, or does the world change us?”
We get to “meet” many of the great celebrities of those times, from Keith Moon to David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Janis Joplin and so many more. And we see the whole story through each of the band members’ eyes as the band grows, as they each grow, and as events unfold from England to Italy to San Francisco.
As you can tell, I really liked Utopia Avenue and I’d love to know what you think about it if you’re read it.
The Candy House
Am I crazy to have read both Goon Squad and Candy House together? Well, yes. I’ll be honest. It wasn’t easy. Both books feel like a cacaphony of voices—every chapter features a different character and as the story progresses from chapter to to chapter AND book to book, we see more and more connections between them.
However, the arc of the whole story is far, deep and wide, and I would have missed all the connections that make the books what they are if I hadn’t re-read Goon Squad first. (All I remembered of the book is that I loved it, but there are way too many characters and events to recall twelve years later.)
So in a nutshell, Goon Squad featured , “a zig-zagging multigenerational saga centred on a multiplatinum record producer, Bennie Salazar” in the 70s/80s. Candy House features many of these characters years later (1990s-2030s) as well as their offspring, friends and acquaintances who are again connected in small ways and large. Decades later, however, the threat of rampant capitalism morphs and humans find themselves grappling with the newest technology of the day (invented by one of the characters in Goon Squad) that connects everyone through memory upload to the collective.
That’s all I’m going to say about the dense and ambitious plot. I recommend this review in the New York Times for a much more thorough discussion. But I will say that taken together as one long story, both of Egan’s books explore how people are connected personally and collectively and it’s a wild ride into real issues of our (real) times. The title refers to Hansel and Gretal, of course. And reading these books helps me see with even more clarity that we are all hungry children, hungry for connection (fame, attention, love), all of us vulnerable, all of us tricked and trapped by the allure of all kinds of humans and their creations that aren’t what they appear to be.
In Sum
I really loved (all) of these books and yes, I was tired after I made my through them. It was A LOT of reading, back to back. Both stories were bursting with full casts of characters who move through their lives in rich and diverse settings across sometimes vast swathes of time and space. I don’t mean to say these books are alike—they’re not. But they are similar in that both go far, deep and wide. Well worth each ride. But I might recommend spacing the reading out a bit more.
P.S. You might notice that the title for July, All Adults Here by Emily Straub, is purposely “easier” reading—but also surprisingly meaty. Stay tuned for my thoughts next week. And in the meantime—did you read either of these books? Leave a comment below and tell us what you think.
Thanks!