Candyfreak

A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America

By: Steve Almond

Narrated by: Oliver Wyman

Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

Steve Almond doesn't just love candy, he unabashedly worships every aspect of confectionary culture, from the creation of an exceptional malt ball through the tragic demise of a badly conceived candy bar, from the emotion-laden memories stirred by a bite of chocolate to his near-drooling anticipation of spotting a new package on the candy shelves.

Almond, who claims to have between three and seven pounds of candy in his house at all times, set out to uncover the inexplicable disappearance of the Bit-O-Choc, the Caravelle bar, and other delights. As he documents his visits to candy factories across America, he reveals the true nature of the industry, with hilarious asides examining the role candy plays in our lives, and often confessing his own near-obsessive cravings. Almond's wry writing style is undeniably addictive and impossible to put down until every last bit has been devoured; listeners should be warned to keep a ready supply of sweets on hand.

Hear Steve Almond on the May 28, 2004, edition of Splendid Table, the weekly radio show that explores food, cooking, culture, and more.

©2004 Steve Almond (P)2004 Highbridge Company

Critic reviews

• Alex Award Winner, 2005

"Strangely endearing." (Publishers Weekly)
"I devoured Candyfreak. Steve Almond writes about chocolate with the passion of a man in love and the wonder of a wide-eyed kid in a candy store." (Tom Perotta, author of Election)
"An entertaining book full of repeatable tidbits about the candy industry." (The New York Times Book Review)
"Wry, self-deprecating, and darkly funny." (The Village Voice)

Keep it about Candy

Not politics. I don’t want to hear about his political leanings. Loved narration but hated book

Candy is great but Candyfreak is too over the top

I was so looking forward to this book because I love chocolate and chocolate bars. I almost never voluntarily stop eating them. I only stop because I believe it would be unhealthy to continue. The book does a good job of describing candy and the general candy commercial landscape in the United States and how it got to be this way. And for that I liked the book. The writing was good but therein lies the problem. I found that the story and the content was simply playing second fiddle to the real motivation for the book: creative writing. I felt as if the author so loved writing, and descriptive writing in particular, that he wrote a book. Describe a candy all you want but I rather eat one than read a page about it, especially one that I have never had and may never get to. Good writing serves causes and passions and stories well but I felt as if candy and the author's love of it and his life was merely a handmaiden to the author's real passion - writing. The reader revelled in the writing and I felt that I was witnessing a thespian creative love affair between the writer and the reader. Reading as if one is telling a story is more real than histrionic flamboyant overacting. I would have preferred the reader to tone it down a bit.

Unimpressed...

This might have been a three-star book, but only a two-star audio book. The auspiciously named Almond writes of his own consuming obsession with candy and the candy industry aiming for a David Sedaris-type admirable neurotic selfishness and wry humor, but missing the target for several reasons. The audio itself is partly to blame. The author, attempting to read his own material with--what? passion? interest?--speaks in overly excited tones that eventually become tiring for the ear. Despite that flaw, the first half, mainly the childhood recollections and pychological speculations of the author, comes closest to the correct tone, elicting laughter or longing at its best moments, such as the hilarious chapter on the worst candies, Mistakes Were Made, or the genuinely mournful elegy for the discontinued Caravel. Unfortunately, the book is more informational than the publisher bills it, and the second half of the book is made up mainly of essays on individual small manufacturers. The author struggles to paint indivudual portraits of people in fairly similar circumstances, namely trying to survive with a vanishing market for their nostalgia and regional items. While I was initially intrigued by the inside accounts and brief history of the American candy industry, audio essays must be written to give very distinctive images and feelings to the listener in order to stay distinct. As Almond tours factory after factory meeting plucky underdog after plucky underdog, the characters and atmosphere begin to melt together like so much warm marshmallow. I suspect it would work better in print, but in audio it becomes too easy to tune out yet another description of chocolate-enrobed nuts and salt-of-the-earth CEOs. Truly unbearable, however, are the author's occasional maudlin attempts to tie the deficiencies of his childhood and adult life to his obsession with the ultimate comfort food, which he employs in a particularly criminal manner to wrap up the book.