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Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Since Trainspotting, heroin chic has certainly put down literary roots?sometimes it seems that you can't be a hip writer unless you know your way around a needle. Perhaps none has chronicled the mechanics of addiction in such mind-numbing detail as Australian poet Davies (Absolute Event Horizon) does in this strong if unimaginative first novel: Davies concentrates as much on preferred syringes as on the adventure of getting the smack, which makes the novel seem, sometimes, like Consumer Reports for junkies. The Candy of the title is both the woman that the narrator falls in love with and, of course, the stuff that he takes. Candy's degradation, from beautiful actress to call girl to streetwalker to madwoman, mirrors the narrator's own passage from a sort of smart-aleck cuteness to the monster whose main concern is finding a viable vein to prick. Starting out in Sydney, the couple moves to Melbourne to go straight but, of course, relapse. They engage in a tedious round of finding money and finding smack, in which all other attachments become peripheral. The narrator's habit of viewing these events from a distance strikes the right chord, but it's a monotone, insights notwithstanding: "Veins are a kind of map, and maps are the best way to chart the way things change. What I am really charting here is a kind of decay." The result is a more harrowing than the usual return to a familiar landscape of admonishment and self-negation.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Like Trainspotting, Candy depicts heroin addicts in a British subculture, but it is set in Australia, not Scotland. "Candy" is the slang name of the unnamed narrator's two great loves: his girlfriend and heroin. He introduces her to the drug, and they descend from being high on life, love, and drugs, to being shamed through prostitution, crime, addiction, and recovery. With no character background, the book reads as a string of scams to score money and heroin: some hilarious, some desperate, and some both at once. One scam starts when they answer a ringing public phone that the caller mistakenly believes is a suicide prevention line. Candy and the narrator are ruthless but human; their likableness and the immediacy of their dramas make them sympathetic even when pathetic. The writing is lean and strong but offers no resolution. Although that reflects junkies' reality, sometimes the pacing is jarring as the characters take action long after the audience is ready. Still, the good writing, realistic portrayal, and affable characters plunge readers into the junkies' world, safely returning them with veins intact. Kevin Grandfield
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
ABSOLUTELY AMAZING,
By A Customer
This review is from: Candy: A Novel of Love and Addiction (Paperback)
Reader Beware....As a former heroin addict, now in recovery, I could feel my pulse quicken and my breathing become shallow as I read Luke Davies true tale of heroin addiction. This is not for the average reader. The detailed description of withdrawl, the home detox, could only be described with such vivid detail by someone who has been there. The characters are so real, you forget you are reading a book. Maybe just reliving the past of your own life once again, but in the words of Mr. Davies. I couldn't put candy down and it will definately go on my 10 best list.
5.0 out of 5 stars
BEAUTIFUL, HOPELESS AND AMAZING,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Candy: A Novel of Love and Addiction (Paperback)
Wow this was fantastic, in a watching a beautiful car crash sort of way. Following the day to day struggles, triumphs and ultimate decay of a heroin addict and his girlfriend. It was almost impossible to look away and put this book down even though it's graphic, horrible, depressing and often pointless. Told in the first person with vivid, poetic and just plain amazing writing there's a surprisingly innocent love story told here as well and I found myself really moved by their story. Pulling for our couple and hoping that they could just get clean long enough to come out on the other side of addiction with some kind of future together.CANDY is a love story, a horror story, and an adventure. It's darkly humorous and sadly moving. Filled with graphic descriptions of heroin use, vein hunting, needles, sickness, numbness, the endless cycle of finding your next fix, the selling of ones soul and the constant pain. I was exhausted just reading about the kind of stamina it takes to become a full blown junkie. The scheming and scoring and stealing, the planning and begging and the sickness when you've either exhausted all options or you're trying yet again to get clean (or maybe just not use quite so much) I could feel their pain and hopelessness in particular the mind numbing details as they lock themselves in their rundown apartment and attempt to kick on their own, this is what happens to you physically when you try to come off of a serious heroin addiction and it was tough to witness. We follow our couple over a ten year period starting in Sydney during their heady early days of first love. Its summer and the world is beautiful and new. Candy, a gorgeous aspiring actress wants to learn everything about her new love, including what its like to use heroin and despite an almost immediate overdose the wheels are set in motion, she wants more. Through our narrators eyes we watch Candy go from aspiring actress to high paid escort to street hooker. It's an easy natural progression that somehow seems to make sense for both of them. He remains a con, a thief and a dealer. They often talk of getting clean, having a baby. They move to Melbourne to start again, they relapse; they get married and are the coolest couple in McDonalds dressed in their wedding attire, wasted after using their wedding money to score. There are serious highs and desperate lows. From high-end apartments to slums, hepatitis and crabs, bad scams, arrests and the loss of their baby. Throughout it all they remain in desperate love with each other and heroin. This did not end at all like I was expecting and was in fact sadder then I had thought possible. It's haunting when everything turns blue and all that's left is methadone, madness, loneliness, a job washing dishes and playing Frisbee in the sun.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Breath takingly amazing.......,
By A Customer
This review is from: Candy: A Novel of Love and Addiction (Paperback)
Reading this book, at times i would actually have to slow down my reading, the story was so good I never wanted it to end, yet i felt at my thumbs the pages were thinning. I've read this 3 x now, each at different times in my life which of course lets you see different parts of the whole story. This is an amazing love story, and an eye opening look into the dark incredible world of heroin addiction. It's sad, depressing, exciting, sexual, erotic, dangerous... it's beautiful.
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