Book: Candy Freak: A Journey Through the Chocolate
Underbelly of America
Author: Steve Almond
Published: 2004 (Algonquin)
Pages: 261
This has the heft and layout of one of those novelty books
stacked near Barnes and Noble cash registers, but it’s so much more in depth up
front about that author’s obsession with candy.
He tours a lot of the smaller U.S. candy factories, as Mars
and Hershey wouldn’t even pretend that they’d give him inside information, but
he saw a lot of general processes. And got a lot of free samples. These parts
were like watching those videos that the mailman brought on Mr. Rogers, only a
little giddier and editorialized with heavier emphasis on chocolate bars simply
because those are the author’s favorite.
He explores his own obsession, too, which is basically that
his dad expressed fatherly love through candy. Although the author wonders
about the true health of that, he backs off from a path of existentialism that
is starts to lead him down a couple times (“Is this why I can’t keep a real
relationship…? Ooh, a new flavor of Twix.”) Which I appreciated, because I read
the whole thing over the course of a disconcerting Sunday that needed no more
overthinking, especially about relationships.
But one thing I did enjoy was when he talked to fellow
freaks, the ones that had written books and started empires. Although the guy
who had a massive collection spanning decades and a couple hundred thousand
dollars had nothing polysyllabic to say about it. The author kept in all the
journalism awkwardness of trying to get a good answer, which was a funny look
behind his curtain and a sort of terrifying look behind the old man’s because
apparently he did all that for basically no reason. It could’ve been beer cans.
Tasty stuff, so it stays on the shiny new book cart.
No comments:
Post a Comment