Atomic candy: A novel

by Phyllis Burke

Funny and sage, Atomic Candy is a frontal assault on the cultural icons of the last half of the 20th century. It is, in the author's own phrase, a new kind of comic novel, wearing spiked heels and draped in the American flag".

Genres: Fiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[Becca · Rating 1 out of 5]

I finished it because it was relatively short but I kept wondering on nearly ever page “why the hell am I still reading this” and/or “would this be better if I were high or drunk?”. Ah well, you win some and you lose some.
The one positive of the book: the Woolworth’s ladies. They seemed fun.

[Jazzy Lemon · Rating 2 out of 5]

A novel set in the Atomic age, that period between the late 50s and early 70s, rife with cultural references and icons.

In the late 50s, Marilyn, daughter of Bostonian congressional candidate Joe and his JFK obsessed wife Kate, was christened out of her father's obsession with Marilyn Monroe. From Sputnik and bomb shelters to the unrest of the 60s and the moon landing, we follow this family and a host of real and imagined characters on a wild ride through the atomic age.

Rated 4 instead of 5 stars because of errors, such as Marilyn combing her Barbie doll's hair in 1957? No, sorry. Barbie wasn't even invented until 1959 and then was considered a toy for fashion-loving teens and not little girls.

But, hello! I liked this book very much.

[Liedzeit Liedzeit · Rating 1 out of 5]

A girl is christened Marilyn because her father liked MM. And eventually little girl meets the lady with the help of Ella Fitzgerald. Why was I reading this? 3/10

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one of the weirdest books I've read in awhile and I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. The novel starts in 1952, when an ambitious politician's daughter named Kate Albion goes into sudden labor, spurred on by the anger of a speech by her arch-enemy, Richard Nixon. Her flaky husband Joe Albion, who Kate is pushing into the political career she wishes she could have, is having a religious experience upon meeting Marilyn Monroe, falling head over heels for her. Their baby, named Marilyn by the moonstruck Joe, enters a strange world at a strange time, full of countercultures, space adventures, handsome presidents, and Tupperware parties. This book is about a girl lost in the sixties, between a father obsessed with a vision of tragic beauty and a mother in love with a president whose death she would hear announced at Woolworth's. Marilyn Albion never had a chance.

This book was interesting because it seemed to be written at a time when the sixties wasn't yet cemented as an important decade in pop culture and political history. Less than twenty years after the events happened, this book seemed to hold a nostalgia that is still rising up on us today. A lot of important stuff was touched on, like Marilyn's activism in feminism and sexual awakening, and the people of the time were portrayed as god-like visions.

"Atomic Candy" is very surreal. I didn't really know what was true and what was not by the time the last fifty pages came around, but the imagery was engaging and the characters were all strange enough to keep me reading. There were a lot of little things that were never really explained, which bothered me (like the fact that every secondary character's last name is Finney). I don't think I'd read it again but it was entertaining enough.

[Mel Weepers · Rating 5 out of 5]

this has been one of my favourites for a long time.. i love the post-modern feel of it.. it's sensual and rich, with a dash of tragedy..