Candy Everybody Wants

After reading his memoir, I next read "Candy Everybody Wants," a work of fiction, by Josh Kilmer-Purcell. I enjoyed this book much more than "I Am Not Myself These Days." "Candy" was a delightful, campy summer read that had me laughing out loud at numerous points along the way. The book tells the story of Jayson Blocher, a gay teenager in 1980s Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, who yearns for fame, and his improbable journey to New York and Los Angeles in pursuit of stardom. Kilmer-Purcell is four years older than me, but the 80s pop culture references were amazing. As a frustrated star-in-waiting in Wisconsin, Jayson writes and directs his own soap opera, "Dallasty!" which is a great send-up of the 80s classic nighttime soaps. There were many hilarious moments in the book, everything from Jayson's mother Toni's art projects to her lesbian lover Franck, to his romance with a former child star, to his friendship with Helen Lawson. As someone who read "Valley of the Dolls" with a book club in the late 90s, I loved all of the Helen Lawson references. The moral of the story seems to be akin to "The Mary Tyler Moore Show": that your family can be more than your biological relatives and that even though your family might be crazy, love is all around. Great fun.

9 of 10.