if the difference in appeal between reading pornography and reading erotica is in the artistry of the language and the sophistication & depth of the emotions conveyed, then perhaps the difference between reading erotica and reading the erotic literary novel is in the richness of its thematic elements. right? Candy's depiction of a very horny 50s america is also a depiction of the various obsessions and bugaboos of that time period, and in that way it is somewhat interesting. thematically. so [...]

Few are the books which deliver on all possible levels and to all possible audiences, and Candy reigns supreme as their undisputed queen. There are those who might disagree with me, but there are also folk that don't believe dinosaurs existed since they aren't mentioned in the Bible. So don't be a hater; get up off your Candy(less)-ass, drum up a plan to finagle a copy of this book, and jump on the bandwagon of the winning team. I have absolutely no doubts that my persuasive intro convinced you [...]

I read this book a few times the summer between the 6th and 7th grades.Candy taught me to refer to grown-up lady-parts as honey pots and spice boxes.I wish I had known at the time that this was supposed to be satire.

One of my all-time favorite films is Barbarella, and that's where I first encountered Terry Southern's name, as one of its screenwriters. Now, while I was reading Candy I couldn't help but notice remarkable similarities: Candy Christian behaves more like a battery-operated talking fuckdoll than a human being, just like Barbarella. Candy is comprised of a series of disconnected events (calling it a "plot" is something I have a lot of reservations about.) just like Barbarella however Candy is no J [...]

Acquired via interlibrary loan. Salacious comical odyssey of a young girl's carnal initiation. Written in 1958. This will be my entre into the world of Terry Southern (apart from films). If it's really good, I'll tackle "The Magic Christian" or "Blue Movie" next.UPDATE:Blazed through the first 73 pages on the bus and would have continued if not for pending family business. I actually laughed aloud on the bus when I came to this, spouted by the lascivious Aunt Liv: "I'm in the mood for cock and p [...]

This was awful. Justful. I would like to say it reminded me a bit of S. by John Updike, but that resemblance is backward. Anyone who has read S. will know what I mean.I'm glad I knew, going in, that this was a satirical novel because if I thought it was serious I would not have been able to finish. Is it erotica? I guess, but the way in which Candy is painted as a such an innocent slut (talk about an oxymoron!) is offensive. 2/14 - I've been reading other reviews and feel I should add a note. An [...]

Candy was way ahead of its time. Total litporn (which is the vogue these days). A two-hour read at most with some laughs ("Derek" the hunchback) and some shocks (the Buddha's nose). Typical early-1960s era Olympia Press traveler-wank trash. And if the youtube trailer is anything to go by, the movie is not faithful to the book - going for a Laugh-In vibe, an aren't-we-naughty-wink-wink all-star cast (Richard Burton?! Marlon Brando?! JOHN ASTIN?!!? RINGO STARR?!?), rather than, well, the surreal m [...]

I would never have thought that I will be able to find erotic pastish that awesome as in works of Marquis de Sade! And "Candy" is just like that - as if Sade and Voltaire had written it together just for fun. Over the top, somewhere between philosophical tale and satire of the one, with freudian twist at the end.

I read this based on a comment of Jack Newfield's (I think) – mid-60s maybe – that the young people weren't reading Camus and C. Wright Mills anymore. They were reading putatively less worthy stuff like Jeremy Larner's Drive, He Said and Thomas Pynchon's V and Candy by Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg. This seems in many ways like an artifact of its time. It's couched as a satire, although the subject of the satire if a bit hard to parse. Candy, the main character, is a somewhat vacant yo [...]

Candy by "Maxwell Canton" (a psuedonym for Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg) is a 1958 novel that is apparently fondly remembered by lots of its fans for its breathless descriptions of an excessively naive, manipulable and attractive young lady as she careens through one bizarre encounter after another while a rolling cast of late-50s stereotypical characters attempts to seduce her: her teacher Professor Mephesto, her Uncle Jack and his wife Livia (who apparently also swings wildly between co [...]

Published in 1958, Candy is dirty enough that even now many readers will snort “Filth!” and throw it in a trashcan. Written by Terry Southern (1924–1995) and Mason Hoffenberg (1922–1986), it is not, if the entry is accurate, a satire based on Voltair’s Candide. (That’s fine with me as I haven’t read that.) It was first published under a pseudonym and widely banned in its day, though it eventually became a best seller. You still wouldn’t give it to a 14-year-old, even though by t [...]

WTF? Seriously, WTF? What is this supposed to be? Satirical? Scandalous? Titillating? I'll tell you what it is - one big W.T.F. It's one wtf scene after another about Candy Christian (a walking/talking blonde moment who has Britney Spears' habit of somehow losing her underwear) and all the men who are trying to get into her "honeypot," her "jelly box," her "snapping turtle," her "fur pie," her "spice box," her "thermal pudding," her "lamb-pit" - yes, lamb pit. Because her "precious little honey- [...]

Eh. I was really intrigued by this book, but it got old quickly, to the tune of rinse, wring, repeat. Read a chapter or two and you have the general idea. Ever. So. Shocking. Maybe it would help if I'd read Candide, which this purportedly satirizes. I'm just sorry that I didn't read it in a public place, what with the lurid cover posing the question: is it a YA book? Is it porn? Is it--YA porn?!? Wasted opportunity.

Pagrindinė knygos veikėja Kendi čia yra parodoma kaip visiškai gyvenime nesigaudantis žmogus, nesuprantantis, kad juo yra naudojamasi. Ji tiki bet kokiais paistalais, yra įsitikinusi, kad jos visiems sutiktiems vyrams labai reikia, tik jie to dar nesupranta. Vyrai čia parodomi labai šlykštūs, norintys tiesiog pasinaudoti kvailele. Williamas Styronas sakė, kad ši knyga "kelianti nesuvaldomą juoką". Deja, visiškai nejuokinga.

Krótka, acz intensywna opowieść o Candy – młodziutkiej studentce, która wkracza w świat erotyki. Dziewczyna jest przekonana o tym, że dopuszczając mężczyzn do siebie, pomaga im ulżyć w cierpieniu. Może to jej łatwowierność, a może siła autosugestii i wspomniana wcześniej wymówka sprawiają, że hm… powiedzmy, że coraz mniej cierpiących przebywa w jej otoczeniu. ;)Książka jest oparta na „momentach”. Niektóre mniej, niektóre bardziej działają na wyobraźnię. Wi [...]

This book gives one a quite sober look at the sexual mores of our times, and at the same time is a ridiculous romp of sexual improbability throughout the towns of Racine, Wisconsin, New York City, a mining town in Minnesota, somewhere in India, and Llasa, Tibet. This book is the rawest experience with sexual explicitness, I believe, one could possibly read. If one would guess which book of all books might have been banned, one would guess this one (and of course it was).Yet the implausible scene [...]

I didn't find the novel as hilarious as I thought it would be. What I like of it is the notion of a girl well cultivated in literature and art cinema although really dumb in everything else. It is common to find such girls in college. What I found funny though was the lingo of aunt Livia, interesting the musing of the kike doctor while facing racial slurs by Dr. Dunlap and his castrating mother that no wonder prompted him to write a book about jerking off. In the same vein is the one of the hunc [...]

Candy is incredibly funny :-) Hilariously so even, at times. I'm aware it's almost 60 years ago since the book was first published, and people might not have read it then the same way I did now, but nowadays it's really just a (very) good laugh. The scene at the hospital is hilarious, and also the episodes with the Mexican gardener and Grindle are very funny. Not to mention the end ;-)At the back of my edition, a number of quotes are given, one of them (by Herbert Gold) saying "Good grief, it's [...]

I read this alongside Candide, hoping to illuminate both stories, having understood that Candy was a commentary on Candide. I very much enjoyed Candide. Not so much this book. Apart from pins stuck in butts, I find no parallel.What's most disappointing is how boring the book is. My sixth graders write better than this, and I would venture that would include the sex scenes too. These guys seem to understand the mechanics of sex kind of like an 11 year old might.

This book can't hold a candle to Terry Southern's demented, roll-on-the-floor-hilarious "The Magic Christian", though I did laugh out loud, for the wrong reasons, at least once. Candy is an idiot, and an ultimately annoying, mundane character. The once-scandalous situations are simply corny, if not ludicrous.

Goofy wack-off material posing as "satire". Southern wrote Dr. Strangelove, which I've always thought was overrated as well. This material is very dated, and if there's a point behind all this incest and mind-buggery, i don't know what it is. I'll toss it a couple of stars for including hunchback sex, though.

Breezy, episodic, comedic smut. Follow the adventures of Candy Christian's sweet honeypot from Racine to Lhasa, from avuncular pseudo-incest to real incest while being sodomized by the nose of Buddha. Everyone wants Candy!

one of the banned books- a great movie made in the 60's with a star-studded cast. it's a great experience to watch richard burton and james coburn in their element

F'n great, see the film!

Pretty funny and crazy but not exactly literature. "Good grief, it's Daddy!" Date read is a guess.

oh, cara e dolce candy: tutti le vogliono così bene da volerle saltare addosso alla prima occasione utile.e con tutti si intende un vasto campionario dell'america fine anni '60: professori anticonformisti, borghesi dalla bottiglia facile, psicanalisti da psicanalizzare, bizzarri newyorkesi, leader di improbabili sette religiose e così via. e lei -così ingenua e dolce- è sempre quasi pronta a concedersi ma qualche imprevisto riesce sempre a rovinar tutto. da morir dal ridere, eh? infatti ne t [...]

Ciekawie się czyta (pod warunkiem, że komuś nie przeszkadzają przekleństwa i molestowanie seksualne mózgu). Ryje banię. Podobno napisana tylko dla pieniędzy - tak twierdzili autorzy. Krytycy twierdzą, że to parodia Kandyda. Sama nie wiem. To po prostu dość dziwna książka.

Read back in the 70s

Really dunno whether I should be impressed (after all it's a book of 1958) or shocked by the absurd :)) Nevertheless, I suppose I would recommend to read it and have an opinion of your own :)

I'm giving it a 5 based on my remembrances of reading this back in my college years. A rollicking bawdy, satirical novel, very funny I thought back in the day.