Rating: WARTY!
This is an extremely short book composed pretty much of a handful of letters written by Candy Darling. It hardly presents her in the best light. There was a foreword, and an introduction, and a "Candy Remembered", and an editor's note before we got to the meat of this one. All the introductory material was very nearly as much as Candy's own words, so naturally I skipped all of that as I usually do. If it ain't good enough to be in chapter one, it ain't worth my time. Anything less is self-serving claptrap all-too-often in books of this nature written by people in whom I have no interest.
So this isn't, contrary to what the title tries to tell you, a memoir in any meaningful sense. It isn't a book written by Candy Darling as such, I'm sorry to report. It's merely a very short series of her letters and what look like quotes from her. It's a complete mess which, along with some interesting observations, includes boring and bitchy whining, recipes for food, as well as make-up and clothing comments, and odd lists of Hollywood actors.
Parts of it are interesting (we do get some perspective on her life and how she felt about it), but most of it is tedious, and highlights Candy Darling, rightly or wrongly, as someone who is superficial and shallow, bitchy and hypocritical, who is obsessed with looks and getting a boyfriend. I think she deserved a better testimonial than this.
Some parts are amusing, such as when she lists the names she's known as in her neighborhood: "Marlene D-Train to Queens, Mamie Van Doorway or Diana Doorways, Tawdry Heartburn, Tana Lerner". One part I loved, being a fan of parody myself, was where Candy re-wrote the words to a song which makes me think of The Platters' Twilight Time, but it isn't that, nor is it Hoagy Carmichael's Star Dust or Frank Sinatra's Stardust. The song seems really familiar, but I can't place it! Candy's version ran like this (I've included only one verse): When the spotlight slowly dims and you’re regretting all your sins when memories that you hold so dear are all that's left of your career, that’s stardusk. Love it!
She's very hypocritical. On the one hand she talks about being real and true and then turns right around and exclaims " I think I see a place where I could use a silicone injection above the upper lip and near the nose". Seriously? In another part, after spending so much time wanting to be a woman, she remarks, "I don't think I want to be a woman anymore, I can't be. I'm too strong" which struck me as really inappropriate.
The "memoir" ends with what looks like a suicide note, but Candy, who was actually born James Lawrence Slattery, died very much as Candy Darling in 1974 at the age of twenty nine, from lymphoma. I can't recommend this unless you're a really addicted fan. You'll get more out of reading the Wikipedia entry for her. She deserved a lot better.
