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Decreed by David Letterman (tongue in cheek) on CBS TV’s The Late Show to be the pick of “Dave’s Book Club 2006,” Candy Girl is the story of a young writer who dared to bare it all as a stripper. At the age of twenty-four, Diablo Cody decided there had to be more to life than typing copy at an ad agency. She soon managed to find inspiration from a most unlikely source— amateur night at the seedy Skyway Lounge. While she doesn’t take home the prize that night, Diablo discovers to her surprise the act of stripping is an absolute thrill.
This is Diablo’s captivating fish-out-of-water story of her yearlong walk on the wild side, from quiet gentlemen’s clubs to multilevel sex palaces and glassed-in peep shows. In witty prose she gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at this industry through a writer’s keen eye, chronicling her descent into the skin trade and the effect it had on her self-image and her relationship with her now husband.
NE-MPLS
Posted January 18, 2009
To the ones like "Disturbing"....You thought it would be a funny li'l look into the life of a stripper. A little jaunt? A little foray? Are you kidding?! Do you honestly think being a stripper would be a laugh out loud thrill ride? You were disturbed by the tale? Well golly gee pope on a sammich. Darndest thing. I would imagine that stripping, like many other careers, has its ups and downs, and it's too bad that it provided too much real life and not enough diversion for you. Good lord.
2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.i became interested in this book, first because the writer of the movie Junow wrote this book. second because of the title and third, because of what the book is about. <BR/><BR/>right from the beginning diablo lets you know that this isn't a book that you read dying to know what the end result is. this is a book that you read for the tale, rather then what happens because of the tale. its quite good, provocative in a funny, sexual sense and truthful. the honesty captured within the tale is funny but relatable and diable makes the tale easy to understand once you sense who the narrator is - diablo. her persona and outlook is very effective because she is a different but strong type of woman - determined at any cost to do what she feels uncontrollably drawn too and woman enough to work until she feels she has done her best.<BR/><BR/>the most comical part is her then boyfriends perception of her career choice and the fact that he supports it so willingly, all while joking. he makes a good supporting character and helps put the story in perspective.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted February 27, 2008
The author found herself turning 25 and in need of excitement beyond what her ad agency job could provide. So begins her one year sojourn into the legal sex industry, starting at a strip club. Writing in the vernacular of trade, details the gritty realities of the industry and quickly dispels myths of 'glamour' in the business. She also finds humor in obscure places, like the handwritten sign in a peep show back room, and finds poetry in stickers placed by strippers on their lockers. All the while, she receives emotional support from a sympathetic fiancee whom she later marries. The book is a quick read and interesting in a vouyeristic way, and if you've ever been to a strip club, this book reveals the ruthless hustle going on under the veneer of glamour. Given the author's education, however, I was disappointed that she resorted to stripper's vernacular throughout her work. Her work is neither an overview of the sex industry nor a study on what motivates the owners, workers, and customers in the business. Instead it is a 212 page ramble of how she bounced more or less randomly from one club to another over a year, while also working at a day job. In short, enjoy this book for a quick read on one girl's experience as a stripper, then pass it on.
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.mysticangelrose
Posted May 21, 2010
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Beginning the novel with how she met her later-to-be boyfriend, Jonny, online, Diablo Cody jauntily describes how the love affair brought the world of stripping came to cross her path. When she moved from Chicago to cold-snap Minnesota and settled into a comfortable domestic sphere with her Beach-Boys adoring lover, Cody never imagined she would land a gig in the local, quasi-urban atmosphere - less because of Minnesota's frosty, and hence anti-stripping, weather and more because of her own self-doubts about her ability to rise to the challenge. After a series of hilarious mishaps in her attempts - one of which involved her heel getting stuck on the pole at an Amateur Night - and a continuous feeling that she dislikes her mechanized approaches towards entertaining her customers, Cody decides to switch things up a bit. After club-hopping several times, she settles on a voyeuristic gig at the Sex World (a "twenty-four hour circus-themed porn emporium featuring 'live' nude models," she quotes). Indeed, Cody's exploits in the sex industry become so much more indulgent in the sexually arcane (aka what most of society would deem as sexually perverse), that it would be difficult to continue divulging more information without breaking the review guidelines about no "profanity, obscenities, or vulgarities." Something to keep in mind when you're asking yourself whether or not to hide this book from the children (if you have any).
Diablo Cody's stripping memoir delights the mind with her potpourri of starkly shameless language, strobe-lights imagery, and laidback lingo, not to mention endless and searingly funny pop culture allusions. The trick of the Cody trade is to slather the novel with the lubricant grime and the glittery playsuits, the dirty underwear and the physics-defeating pole-acrobatics, which creates an element of glamour, albeit in a stick, mysterious-substance sort of way. By juxtaposing the - there's no better word for it - gross and the escapist, Cody not only peels away 1) the glamorization of stripping or 2) the stereotypes that characterize stripping as a slovenly job without considering the hardships of the women who take on stripping. The latter, however, becomes a sideline theme, and thus Cody's novel is ultimately bereft of much intellectual sustenance, or at least profound stimulation. The humor, she peppers over her clumsy rise to becoming a bona fide stripper, however, and the originality of description become the crowning glories of the book.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Ok so the irony about my reading this book is that it was suggested to me by a dear friend who is an extremely dignified social doyen. The book reads like a bad history of a free clinic so you can imagine my amusement upon finishing it.
My only issues with Candy Girl are Cody's obsessive need to rip on Minneapolis and its locals (I'm from here and, no, my skin does not look like silken tofu nor do I have an insatiable appetite for Manwich), and her tendency to write as though this book was intended to be read by an angry emo at a poetry slam (it has a choppy rhythm and she's constantly speaking in metaphor).
Aside from that, Candy Girl is wickedly delicious! Readers beware; it is EXTREMELY raunchy!! I love anything to do with train wreck pornography and even I was squirming at certain points. All in all, I loved it and I certainly have a whole new respect for my "lily white" friend!
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Suggested With: A dirty mind
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted August 31, 2009
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Her and I actually worked together doing peep shows. Not in the same booth, but in the area that the perverts would select us from behind the glass. I was so young and immature at the time, and she - was so cool to me. I did wonder sometimes why she worked there. I actually saw her a few times, walking up the block to work, and she did not look the type whatsoever. It was such an amazing transformation while she was at work. Either way, she was beautiful. And working with her, was always fun.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted January 17, 2008
Candy Girl is a well-written, rolicking ride through Cody's year of (mis)adventures in the world of stripping, peep-show, and phone-sex girl. Her writing elicits a chuckle along with every subtle triggering of the gag reflex. She provides a look at the good times and the psyche of the practice of being a stripper.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted April 4, 2006
This is one of the most well-written works of new fiction I've read in a while - very witty and 100% irreverant. The main character and her story are so compelling that I couldn't put it down! While not for the faint of heart, this book will challenge your current perspective of the sex industry, without trying to persuade you to support it.
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted January 5, 2006
This book is really mind blowing, among the best I have read in quite a while. Diablo totally puts it all out there, and can have you cringing and laughing simultaneously. Thank you to the author for sharing her unique experiences in such an entertaining and eye opening way. Trust me, you will read this one cover to cover in one sitting, and wish there was a 2nd installment! Bravo for Candy Girl!!!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted May 26, 2012
Her story about being a stripper is interesting. There were some parts that I thought were a little too detailed. Not sure I would really recommend unless you are interested in hearing about the stripper life in Minnesota.
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Posted March 21, 2012
A good look at the real life and thought process of a stripper. A fun book, but a little raunchy in spots
Anonymous
Posted March 3, 2012
Finally an open and honest look at the real life and thoughts of a stripper. Especially juicy if you live in or know the Twin Cities!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.9397207
Posted August 1, 2011
Enjoyed it from start to finish. Diablo is open, honest and witty. Tough to put down.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I found this book fascinating, well written, captivating and providing a deep insight into this world. I am from the Minneapolis area and around the time the author was working the two main strip clubs in the city, me and my coworkers were frequent guests at these establishments. Going to the club was almost an addiction and only ended when I left the company for another job. While reading the perception I found was of the author struggling with her own addiction - at least when she first began to dance - to the clubs. I you find yourself often visiting these clubs or have friends that are dancers such as I did then this is a must read.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.As soon as I heard about Diablo Cody, I wanted to read her work. I am so glad i did! Being from Minnesota, i loved this story. It's all about a woman who get's sucked into the porn and stripping business. Yet, its more then that. It's a whole story on her stripping 'obsession' and the people she meets there. My personal favorite was in the peep show windows, i love the people she talked about and the experiences. Now, i wouldn't recommend this to my mom, grandma, or even my nieces, but its a great story to share with a friend who has the same ideas as you. I suggest a read to everyone, its definately a book you cannot put down!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Futa_librarian
Posted April 15, 2010
I kept thinking this book reminded me of a blog. It turns out it was, though it doesn't say this anyewhere in the book. Interesting story but it is missing essential peices about her life that I would have enjoyed. It was nice being from MN and recognizing places...
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Lilli_O_Jansen
Posted April 9, 2010
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An entertaining memoir about Cody's progressively experimental foray into sex-based professions. The writing is clever and frequently hilarious, as one would expect from the screenwriter of "Juno." If you have the stomach for the graphic (so, so graphic) descriptions, this is a fun way to indulge your curiosity about just what goes on behind those darkened "Gentleman's Club" windows--or if you've peeked behind the windows, what goes on backstage. I found the lack of a moral agenda refreshing. For this author, stripping was just a way to make money and a way to inject some excitement into an otherwise mundane life. And later, a way to sell a lot of books. Good deal.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.This is my favorite book ever! Diablo Cody is a genius! She gives outsiders a look into the dark, yet fascinating world that she once worked in. She is a genius! This was a truly fascinating read! I recommend to everyone!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted September 26, 2009
I enjoyed reading this book as it gave a look inside the world of strip clubs, etc. I like to read about other people's lives and the paths they take. Diablo Cody is very likeable and I am happy for the success she has achieved.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted September 17, 2009
A co-worker gave me this book and it was awful. I guess I have a hard-time really understanding Why someone would choose to be a stripper on a whim walking home from work one day, kind of unrealistic to me I guess. The author refers to herself numerous times as "nerdy", "dorky", and "normal", yet she chooses to take her clothes off for strangers in addition to other various acts performed on complete strangers and has supportive boyfriend throughout! Any girl with nipple rings and a college education and a day job who strips just for something to do, not really all that normal.
0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Overview
Decreed by David Letterman (tongue in cheek) on CBS TV’s The Late Show to be the pick of “Dave’s Book Club 2006,” Candy Girl is the story of a young writer who dared to bare it all as a stripper. At the age of twenty-four, Diablo Cody decided there had to be more to life than typing copy at an ad agency. She soon managed to find inspiration from a most unlikely source— amateur night at the seedy Skyway Lounge. While she doesn’t take home the prize that night, Diablo discovers to...