Candy and Me: A Girl's Tale of Life, Love, and Sugar [Paperback]

Hilary Liftin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 25, 2004

As a seven-year-old child, Hilary Liftin poured herself a glass (or two) of powdered sugar. Those forbidden cups soon escalated to pound bags of candy corn and multiple packets of dry cocoa mix, launching the epic love affair between Hilary and all things sweet. In Candy and Me: A Love Story, Liftin chronicles her life through candy memories and milestones. As a high school student, Hilary used candy to get through track meets, bad hair days, after-school jobs, and her first not-so-great love. Her sweet tooth followed her to college, where she tried to suppress the crackle of Smarties wrappers in morning classes. Through life's highs and lows, her devotion has never crashed -- candy has been a constant companion and a refuge that sustained her.

As Liftin recounts her record-setting candy consumption, loves and friendships unfold in a funny and heartbreaking series of bittersweet revelations and restorative meditations. Hilary survives a profound obsession with jelly beans and a camp counselor, a forgettable fling with Skittles at a dot-com, and a messy breakup healed by a friendship forged over Circus Peanuts. Through thick and thin, sweet and sour, Hilary confronts the challenges of conversation hearts and the vagaries of boyfriends, searching for that perfect balance of love and sugar.

Written with a fresh dry humor that will immediately absorb you into Liftin's sweet obsessions and remind you of your own, Candy and Me unwraps the meaning found in the universal desire for connection and confection. Treat yourself to Candy and Me -- being bad never read so good.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Hilary Liftin is the coauthor of Dear Exile. She grew up in Washington, D.C., and graduated from Yale University in 1991. She lives with her husband, Chris Harris, in Los Angeles and/or Brooklyn.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From: Part One

Sweet Tooth

Sugar

Before there was candy, there was sugar. My brother and I started staying without a babysitter when I was seven and he was eight. We had a barter/bribe relationship: for every serving of sugar I ate, Eric could stay up an extra hour. We pledged not to tell on each other to our parents.

As soon as they walked out the door, I would pour several tablespoons of confectioner's powdered sugar into a Dixie cup. I eventually figured out that if I ran a few drops of water or milk into the cup and mixed it up, semi-soft pellets formed. The texture of these pellets was dreamy. Sometimes I would add a drop of vanilla extract and a bit of butter. Then, in front of the (also forbidden) TV, I would dip a spoon into the sugar and feed myself.

Our suburban Maryland family room had a pale brick fireplace, wall-to-wall shag carpeting, and psychedelic pillows. Eric reclined on the couch and I sat on the velour lounge chair. We watched the Osmonds, Rhoda, The Wonderful World of Disney. On any night that I started eating sugar, which was every night my parents didn't hire a babysitter, I would have refill after refill. I ate it furtively, afraid that my parents would walk in unexpectedly. I loved the way the sugar became sweeter just before it dissolved on my tongue. Watching illicit TV while eating sugar became a habit. The combined relaxation, indulgence, and jolt of forbidden sweetness that I found in my candy-leisure moments were forever established as sensations to pursue. If Charles Schulz had created a comic-strip version of me at seven, I would have been surrounded by a cloud, but unlike Pigpen's dirty cumulus, my cloud would have been a pure, refined puff of powdered sugar.

At some point Eric stopped calculating the late night hours he was accumulating and threw up his hands.

"I can't believe you're eating all that sugar," he said. "You'll be sick." But I didn't feel sick. Rather, I was astounded that Eric had no apparent interest in the bounty I had discovered. I don't remember ever getting caught or in trouble, although I know my mother must have had some idea that this was going on. I also never wondered why there was always powdered sugar in the house -- even though my mother never baked. It was only later that I discovered that she herself had a secret habit. But eventually she decided not to stock sugar in the pantry anymore, and I had to move on.

Copyright © 2003 by Hilary Liftin

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (May 25, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743254414
• ISBN-13: 978-0743254410
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,181,039 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Makes you feel less alone, May 1, 2006

By 

K. Storrer "willing to read anything" (Marina, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Candy and Me: A Girl's Tale of Life, Love, and Sugar (Paperback)

I feel so much better after having read this book. I am not alone in my obsession over candy. It's not often that a book makes me laugh out loud and call my friend to read her what I'm reading. If you end up liking this book, Candyfreak is a must read. Same story, but his obsession is for chocolate. Anybody who loves candy in an obsessive way will love and enjoy these books.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Truth Never Tasted So Sweet, July 11, 2004

By 

"rhaffar" (Wolf Point, Montana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Candy and Me: A Girl's Tale of Life, Love, and Sugar (Paperback)

Funny, sometimes wistful, and surprisingly thought-provoking. For Hilary and me it's candy; for others it's various substances that fortify and amuse. This well-written self-examination packs a much bigger message than you might expect.

I enjoyed reading it while killing a couple of half-pound bars of Cadbury Milk Chocolate.

5.0 out of 5 stars The book made me hungry.., August 9, 2009

By 

Barb F. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Candy and Me: A Girl's Tale of Life, Love, and Sugar (Paperback)

I purchased this book quite a while ago, and just recently sat down to read it. It is quite entertaining, and moving. I thought the author, Hilary, did a very good job writing about her obsession with candy. She wrote about the 'role' that various candy products played in her life. It brought back how candy played 'roles' in my own life. I could relate to her throughout the book. I am going to look up her website now.