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Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America [Audio Cassette]

Steve Almond (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)

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Kindle Edition CDN $11.62   -- --
Hardcover CDN $15.72   -- --
Paperback CDN $12.23   -- --
Audio, CD, Audiobook --   -- --
Audio, Cassette, May 4 2004 --   -- --

Book Description

Publication Date: May 4 2004
A self-professed candyfreak, Steve Almond set out in search of a much-loved candy from his childhood and found himself on a tour of the small candy companies that are persevering in a marketplace where big corporations dominate. From the Twin Bing to the Idaho Spud, the Valomilk to the Abba-Zaba, and discontinued bars such as the Caravelle, Marathon, and Choco-Lite, Almond uncovers a trove of singular candy bars made by unsung heroes working in old-fashioned factories to produce something they love. And in true candyfreak fashion, Almond lusciously describes the rich tastes that he has loved since childhood and continues to crave today. Steve Almond has written a comic but ultimately bittersweet story of how he grew up on candy-and how, for better and worse, the candy industry has grown up, too. Candyfreak is the delicious story of one man's lifelong obsession with candy and his quest to discover its origins in America.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

The appropriately named Almond goes beyond candy obsession to enter the realm of "freakdom." Right up front, he divulges that he has eaten a piece of candy "every single day of his entire life," "thinks about candy at least once an hour" and "has between three and seven pounds of candy in his house at all times." Indeed, Almond's fascination is no mere hobby—it's taken over his life. And what's a Boston College creative writing teacher to do when he can't get M&Ms, Clark Bars and Bottle Caps off his mind? Write a book on candy, of course. Almond's tribute falls somewhere between Hilary Liftin's decidedly personal Candy and Me and Tim Richardson's almost scholarly Sweets: A History of Candy. There are enough anecdotes from Almond's lifelong fixation that readers will feel as if they know him (about halfway through the book, when Almond is visiting a factory and a marketing director offers him a taste of a coconut treat, readers will know why he tells her, "I'm really kind of full"—he hates coconut). But there are also enough facts to draw readers' attention away from the unnaturally fanatical Almond and onto the subject at hand. Almond isn't interested in "The Big Three" (Nestle, Hershey's and Mars). Instead, he checks out "the little guys," visiting the roasters at Goldenberg's Peanut Chews headquarters and hanging out with a "chocolate engineer" at a gourmet chocolate lab in Vermont. Almond's awareness of how strange he is—the man actually buys "seconds" of certain candies and refers to the popular chocolate mint parfait as "the Andes oeuvre"—is strangely endearing.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Anyone who has ever really savored a piece of candy and appreciates more than its mere sweetness will sympathize with Almond's obsession. Much of the source of this addiction appears to stem from his psychiatrist father, who had a similar fixation. Then, of course, there is that surname, which his Polish immigrant grandfather took mostly as a way to ensure that he'd sort alphabetically to the top. Whatever its origins, Almond's passion for candy, chocolate or otherwise, leads him to inventory the various sweetmeats he has encountered throughout his life. He attempts to visit candy factories to back up his appetite with fact, but he discovers how very secretive candy manufacturers can be. He does achieve a tour of Pittsburgh's Clark bar factory, and there Almond finds out just how far the freshly made product surpasses the candy bar that has been sitting on a grocer's shelf. The decidedly regional nature of American candy production takes Almond to all sorts of destinations where he encounters those tastefully inventive minds who satisfy the country's sweet tooth. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Better than a Kit Kat Jun 29 2004
By Englishboy
Format:Hardcover
This is, simply, a passionate, freewheeling, often hilarious account of the candy industry. But the reason to read this book--and yes, you should--is Almond's voice. I'm sure this pun is getting old. But the voice is thicker than caremel: it quickly draws you into the world of Almond's obsessions. And that's where the fun is, the dark confectionary obsessions spiraling in his sentences. You should read this book to lose yourself in that funhouse of thought. I could easily compare this to many other books, but the one that first comes to mind is Nick Hornby's Feverpitch, a fabulous memoir about Hornby's fascination with English football (in Yank-speak, soccer). Before reading Hornby's Feverpitch, I had no real interest in soccer, but while reading it, piggybacking on his prose through Brit football clubs, I definitely cared. And Almond's book does the same for candy. It makes you care about candy; moreover, it makes you care about the stories that pull this book together. I've been suckered into the whole Atkins routine, but man, after reading Candyfreak, I've certainly been eying those four-packs of Reeces Peanut Butter Cups every time I hit up the movie concessions stand for another diet Coke.
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1.0 out of 5 stars Not at all what I expected Jun 14 2004
By "wcd2003"
Format:Hardcover
I thought this would be a lighthearted look at the candy industry and to some extent that's what I got. There are some interesting tidbits about the candy industry and the people associated with it, but the overall tone of of the book is kind of dark and mean-spirited. Then as others have observed there are the countless references to the author's personal likes and dislikes. Yes, it is indeed a semi-autobiographical book for adults with four-letter words and drug use which is fine if that's what you're interested in. That's just not what I expected when I bought it. If you can relate to Almond's negative worldview and his extreme left politics then you might enjoy this book, but otherwise you'd be well advised to avoid it.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Take A Bite! Jun 12 2005
By Cassandra Velez
Format:Paperback
The first part of Candyfreak is a sort of confectionary manifesto, a summing-up of the author's deep-seated beliefs about candy, and the role of candy in his admittedly complex psyche. We're given a fast-paced tour through Almond's childhood candy memories and his current sugar-consuming patterns, although the narrative is often derailed by tangential, funny rants about unsatisfactory candies ("Boston Baked Beans: If you are an actual peanut, why are you not covered in chocolate? Why are you covered, instead, in some kind of burnt-tasting brick red shell? Is the idea that you resemble a baked bean supposed to make you more alluring?") and glowing reminisces about candy bars that no longer exist. Almond is unjustifiably fond of the word "freak," which in his usage means "obsession" or "addiction," and which he uses to cloying excess throughout the first half of the book. (Annoyingly, he also verbs the noun, saying, for example, "We may not understand why we freak on a particular food".)

The second part of the book is where the action, such as it is, gets going. Almond embarks on a whirlwind interstate tour of a handful of struggling independent confectioners. His primary goal is to gobble free samples, but he is also out to discover what keeps the little guys going in a market dominated by giant conglomerates like Hershey's and Mars. Traveling to the factories where lesser-known treats like Peanut Chews, Valomilk, and Five Star bars are made, Almond sketches brief portraits of the men and women holding the fort (often, they are the fourth or fifth generation of a family business). It turns out, not too surprisingly, that the motivation is a mix of sugary nostalgia and entrepreneurial pluck. But there's a palpable, fatalistic resignation underlying the candymakers' determined cheer: one of the owners admits that he's been discussing the sale of the business, and another sells out to a conglomerate a few months after Almond's visit. The days of handmade candy bars lovingly turned out by small, family-owned businesses are, sadly, over.

Almond wanders off into a tangle of digressions, ranging from his hypochrondriacal self-diagnosis of testicular cancer to a post-9/11 musing on the failures of democracy. The book's cover features a quote comparing Steve Almond to Dave Eggers, which is eerily apt: both Eggers and Almond are thirty-something slackers with food names, who blame their problems as adults on insufficient adoration in childhood.

In the end, this book is a bit like a mismatched jumble of things that are good separately. Almond clearly has passion for his subject, and he's often funny, but his manic, elaborately ironic self-deprecation has the distinctly desperate whiff of someone who's trying too hard. Candyfreak is a pleasure to bite into - maybe not perfect, but I enjoyed it. But try it for yourself. Pick up a copy! Another book I need to recommend -- very much on my mind since I purchased a copy off Amazon is "The Losers' Club: Complete Restored Edition," a funny, highly entertaining little novel I can't stop thinking about.

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Most recent customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars how sweet it was!
How can you not like a guy who admits he has to have a piece of candy every day, keeps several pounds of the sugary stuff in his house at all times, and thinks about a sweet every... Read more
Published on July 10 2004 by Gail Cooke
4.0 out of 5 stars HOW SWEET IT WAS!
How can you not like a guy who admits he has to have a piece of candy every day, keeps several pounds of the sugary stuff in his house at all times, and thinks about a sweet every... Read more
Published on July 10 2004 by Gail Cooke
5.0 out of 5 stars A new look
I ate a lot of candy as a kid and kind of grew out of it. But I purchased Steve Almonds book just on word of mouth. I've never wanted candy more in my life! Read more
Published on July 8 2004 by "amberdeeva2"
4.0 out of 5 stars Sometimes you like this book, sometimes you don't
I laughed, I drooled, I ran to the pantry for a Reese's Peanut Butter Minature, I thought about Mallo Cups for the first time in ages, I remembered the Halloweens of the '70s, I... Read more
Published on July 2 2004 by R. Banfield
5.0 out of 5 stars Yum!
I bought this book after hearing Steve Almond read at a local bookstore earlier this month, and have already read it twice. Read more
Published on Jun 23 2004
1.0 out of 5 stars Worst book ever written
Bad writing, boring stories, and not enough information on candy makes this book a poor choice for most people. Read more
Published on Jun 19 2004
5.0 out of 5 stars It's not supposed to be a textbook on candy.
Those one-star reviewers put off by Almond's personal asides and political views clearly didn't read the editorial reviews or the jacket flap copy before buying: "Part candy... Read more
Published on Jun 17 2004 by Jane Roper
4.0 out of 5 stars Loved it!
I loved this book! I was a candy freak as a child and it brought memories flooding back. It was informative, hilarious, well-written, honest and entertaining. Read more
Published on Jun 16 2004
4.0 out of 5 stars A sugar high!
Like other retail foods such as soda pop and salty snacks, the candy business has undergone profound corporate consolidation in the past 50-100 years, with the hundreds of regional... Read more
Published on Jun 14 2004 by Mr. Chips
1.0 out of 5 stars Bitter aftertaste
Like overly bitter chocolate, this book tempts you with a delicious idea but leaves you ultimately unsatisfied. Read more
Published on Jun 12 2004
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