Whistle Stopper - Candy Everybody Wants (P.S.)

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Manufacturer: Harper Perennial

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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780061336966
ISBN: 0061336963
Label: Harper Perennial
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 288
Publication Date: 2008-05-01
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Release Date: 2008-05-13
Studio: Harper Perennial

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Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating:

Summary: Fasten your seat belt, and put phasers on STUN-ning!
Comment: Reading kind of like a VH1-style "I Love the 80's" special on steroids, "Candy Everyone Wants" is a madcap, extremely "over-the-top" story of a rather eventful year in the life of Jayson Blocher, a joyously flamboyantly gay boy from a small town in Wisconsin. A series of events lead to his leaving home to go to Manhattan and live with his estranged father, who runs an escort agency for men who want to spend time with Broadway chorus boys. Jason meets Devlin, a slightly older boy who starred in a popular sitcom and whom Jason had a longtime crush on, and he gets to sample a bit of fame by appearing in a popular series of television commercials. Subsequent events have both Jayson and Devlin on the lam and living on the streets of Chelsea, while his family and friends make an unexpected visit and Jayson waits to hear if he will be co-starring in a sitcom of its own. Throw in a few homophobic bible-thumpers, a kidnapping, a betrayal from someone whom he thought was a friend, and a realization that the life of an actor is not always a bed of roses, and you have a rollicking good time of a novel, written in a fast-paced, very witty manner that can cause a bit of "whiplash" whenever you try to put the book down for a while. So don't put it down ... it's a fun, light read. Five stars out of five.

Customer Rating:

Summary: If you loved the memoir, you won't like the novel
Comment: I adored I Am Not Myself These Days. It's like a different writer created this dreadful "novel." To me, it was quite sophomoric and not even remotely witty. Silly, perhaps, without a shred of charm to it. JK-P should have kept this hidden in his sock drawer.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Another Great Book
Comment:
Josh Kilmer-Purcell has done it again. Hysterical tail of a creative kid trying to follow his dream while growing up with a variety of dysfunctional characters around him. Hard to put down, wish there was more!

Customer Rating:

Summary: Josh is by far one of the most interesting writers of all time.
Comment: Please make sure you have plenty of time when you begin a book like this...as you will be glued to it from that point on! Enjoy.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Delicious Candy
Comment: Kilmer-Purcell, Josh. "Candy Everybody Wants", Harper Perennial, 2008.

Delicious Candy

Amos Lassen

"Candy Everybody Wants" is a very funny book. Kilmer-Purcell looks back at the 1980's and the pop culture of the period and shows how the culture we have today is the result of what we had then. Our main character is Jason Blocher has been in awe of 80's culture and decides that his turn has come to be a part of it. He is from Wisconsin and after tiring of rural living heads for the big city, New York where he lands a job as an escort and then eventually finds himself in Los Angeles on the set of a Hollywood sitcom. Jason is a composite character of a gay and totally absurd child star and every character in the book is an exaggeration. Yet all the craziness comes together to give us a read that will keep you laughing.
The book takes place in SoHo and we get to learn about this part of Manhattan in a way that no one has ever tried to give us before. Jayson's celebrity status causes him to be surrounded with a cast of characters who make dysfunction an activity we would all like to take part of.
Some of the things we read about include disability and prostitution, scandals and crime, and pregnancy and drugs. And this is just part of the whole that is perhaps one of the gayest books I have ever read.
You will not forget the characters of this novel and Jayson's quest for fame takes him into some wild experiences. If I had to choose one word to describe "Candy Everybody Wants", it would have to be flamboyant with a capital "F". It just makes for a great summer read that will keep you laughing for a very long time.

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Editorial Reviews:

From the critically acclaimed author of I Am Not Myself These Days comes the very odd adventures of a starry-eyed young man from the Midwest seeking fame and fortune in the flamboyant surreality of New York, Los Angeles . . . and everywhere in between.

Jayson Blocher is tired of worshiping pop culture; he wants to be part of it. So he's off, accompanied by an ever-changing cast of quirky extended family members, on an extremely bumpy journey from rural Wisconsin to a New York escort agency for Broadway chorus boys, to a Hollywood sitcom set. Somewhere out there his destiny awaits—along with the discovery of first love, some unusual coincidences, a kidnapping mystery . . . and the sobering truth that being America's sweetheart can leave a very sour aftertaste.