Title: Candy Freak
Author: Steve Almond
Date: 2004
Publisher: Algonquin (hardcover), Harcourt (paperback)
ISBN: 0-15-603293-7
Length: 251 pages
Quote: “The author has eaten a piece of candy every single day of his entire life.”
According to Entertainment Weekly, Almond is the real legal name of the self-proclaimed Candy Freak who takes us on a mostly funny 250-page tour of the commercially marketed but under-advertised candies of America. On the way he stirs up memories of Pop Rocks and Bubble Yums, explains what happened to the Caravelle bar, reveals the heroic history of Necco Wafers, provides even more reasons to hate Nestlé, considers the Vegetable Sandwich chocolate bar (actually made with dried vegetables) and other doomed confections with names like Fat Emma and Cold Turkey, identifies the Three Musketeers, and provides some hope for Northerners and expatriate Southerners looking for Goo Goo Clusters.
Obviously this book is not for those carbohydrate addicts addressed by yesterday's book. If you are, however, a healthy person who can read about candy without salivating, with only a casual “thanks for warning me off this grotesque glop” now and then, then Candy Freak is the book for you; you may even chortle enough to exercise your diaphragm muscle, which is good for the heart.
And if you enjoy looking at thin young men, you’ll want to admire the small picture of Steve Almond on the back cover. It’s neither fair nor decent that he ever looked like this, but you have to appreciate the irony of this picture being printed next to the quote about his dietary habits. Exercise is the key.
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