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Loading... Candyfreak (edition 2004)by Steve Almond
Work InformationCandyfreak: A Journey through the Chocolate Underbelly of America by Steve Almond
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Steve Almond wrote a great book. It was both personable and crave-inducing. ( ) This book vacillates between the hysterical and the depressing. Most of it's pretty funny -- the author's adventures in eating candy and learning more about how the sugary goodness is made. He visited small regional candy companies, each very different from the last. (My favorite was Sifer Valomilk, just because it sounded adorably anachronistic.) There is some about the history of modern candy and the changes in the markets over the years. But it's also a sad book, because the Big Three companies -- Mars, Nestle, and Hershey -- are killing off small candy businesses, and the owners of the small companies profiled in this book are almost all on the verge of either bankruptcy or sale. Candyfreak is a very moving book, and a quick read, and very worth picking up. Just don't read it when you're hungry... The author's lifelong sweet tooth brings him on a cross-country search for regional, specialty candymakers who are still battling to stay in business against the "Big Three": Mars, Hershey, and Nestlé. As author and journalist Joël Glenn Brenner said, "The big guys gobble up the little guys or drive them out of business" (p. 64-65). The people at the helm of the smaller companies play two roles: "Guardian of the Past" and "Forward-Thinking Business Owner" (170). But Almond himself is mainly concerned with the candy itself: specific textures and flavors and ingredient combinations, special processes and even the fonts on the wrappers. He repeatedly circles back to the link between candy and nostalgia, and sugar as a cure for loneliness. These two storylines may sound depressing, but in fact this is a very entertaining book for those with a sweet tooth! See also: The Candymakers by Wendy Mass (MG fiction), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Roald Dahl (MG fiction), Love Is A Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield (adult memoir). Quotes Most forms of rage, after all, are only sloppy cloaks for grief. (198) no reviews | add a review
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Nonfiction.
Humor (Nonfiction.)
HTML: Perhaps you remember the whipped splendor of the Choco-Lite, or the luscious Caravelle bar, or maybe the sublime and perfectly balanced Hershey's Cookies 'n Mint. The Marathon, an inimitable rope of caramel covered in chocolate. Oompahs. Bit-O-Choc. The Kit Kat Dark. Steve Almond certainly does. In fact, he was so obsessed by the inexplicable disappearance of these barsâ??where'd they go?â??that he embarked on a nationwide journey to uncover the truth about the candy business. There, he found an industry ruled by huge conglomerates, where the little guys, the last remaining link to the glorious boom years of the candy bar in America, struggle to survive. Visiting the candy factories that produce the Twin Bing, the Idaho Spud, the Goo Goo Cluster, the Valomilk, and a dozen other quirky bars, Almond finds that the world of candy is no longer a sweet haven. Today's precious few regional candy makers mount daily battles against corporate greed, paranoia, and that good old American compulsion: crushing the little guy. Part candy porn, part candy polemic, part social history, part confession, Candyfreak explores the role candy plays in our lives as both source of pleasure and escape from pain. By turns ecstatic, comic, and bittersweet, Candyfreak is the story of how Steve Almond grew up on candyâ??and how, for better and worse, candy has grown up, No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)338.476641530973Social sciences Economics Production Secondary industries and services Services and specific products TechnologyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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