Candy, a novel, by Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg (Hardcover)

by Terry. Hoffenberg, Mason Southern (Author) "I've read many books," said Professor Mephesto, with an odd finality, wearily flattening his hands on the podium, addressing the seventy-six sophomores who sat in..." (more)
Key Phrases: Uncle Jack, Aunt Livia, Professor Mephesto (more...)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: New York, Putnam; 3rd impression. edition (January 1, 1964)
• ASIN: B000JVALP4
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,194,158 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Candy-a beautiful and thrilling privilege to read, July 29, 2002

By	Daniel J. Hamlow (Narita, Japan) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Candy (Paperback)

This sexually irreverent novel by Terry Southern wouldn't have spawned a 1968 cult movie with Ewa Aulin had it not been for the catalyst that sets things in motion. Candy Christian, a beautiful girl who just happened to be born on Valentine's Day, writes a paper on Contemporary Human Love for her instructor, Professor Mephesto, saying that "to give of oneself--fully--is not merely a duty prescribed by an outmoded superstition, it is a beautiful and thrilling privilege."

And things go really cockeyed from there. A tryst with Manuel, the Mexican gardener, in full application of her paper, leads to the hospitalization of her father, and her voyage into the wide, weird, world. It isn't that she's missing much. Her father's a stodgy conservative businessman, her aunt Livia is a vulgar hussy who uses sexual innuendos as regularly as one blinks. However, her adventures lead her into meeting people who want nothing more than to rip the wrapper off and have a bite of that... candy. Oops! Candy, I mean. Others downright hate her. The poor girl has the best of intentions and doesn't want to rock the boat for the sake of preserving her credo, and hence lets them take advantage of her without knowing that they are.

Written as it was in 1958, I can see how it shocked America and Europe. Dr. Krankeit's assertion that self-gratification is actually healthy is a message to the repressed people of the world: "This mechanism you've contrived to keep your sexual lust a secret from the world, and from you yourself, is causing you more trouble than you realize." It makes sense--keep something bottled or under pressure for too long and KA-BLAM!! Of course, involving another party complicates things, because consent is becomes issue. But is it healthy and okay to look at adult magazines, videos, or computer CD-ROMs? Heck yeah!

Southern's writing is brash, profanely funny, and will cause cause conservatives hairs to stand on end even today, but his choice of words, be they adjectives, nouns, and slang, in describing sexual things is creative to say the least. It's what keeps this book afloat. What also helps Candy is the hapless but lovable title character-face it, there's only one decent character in this book other than her--and I can't help but roll my eyes at her gullibility. But I also feel attached to my heroine too.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Give me your hump!", August 29, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Candy (Paperback)

Southern's tour-de-force follows the innocent, beautiful Candy Christian as she runs sexually afoul of a whole bunch of scheming, horny men. Since she is pure and giving, she wants to please them, but gee whiz! Are they ever strange!

"Candy" was banned in the United States in the Fifties and received its first publication in Paris. Southern and Mason Hoffenburg, an American poet, admitted that they had written the book primarily to make money, since churn-'em-up pornography was what Olympia Press chef Maurice Girodias was paying for. Of course, the book became so much more than a cutesy best-seller: it was the satire of the century, throwing wide-eyed, white-skinned Miss America into a den of the great bugaboos of the time (including a Jewish doctor, a hunchback, and Daddy!). Read it till its thunderous and pulsating conclusion.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Close Encounter with "Candide", June 17, 1999

By	[e-mail] (Middle Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Candy (Paperback)

Having read Candide first, reading Candy was purely accidental, a fluke, or perhaps a dare, but part way into the book I recognized its inspiration, and enjoyed it immensely from then on. It is truly hysterical, as was the original Voltaire. Candy, however, includes snippets of ideas from other Classics: read it for yourself to see if you can guess each chapter's parent story. I have enrolled in a course that requires the reading of Candide - I am recommending Candy to the instructor who has never read it!