Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper

by Diablo Cody

Book 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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1592402739
• ISBN13: 9781592402731
• Release Date: December 2006
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 7.9"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

Hipster girl can actually write.

Diablo Cody has received raving reviews from many of my English major geek friends. Despite this I was under the impress this book would be MTV, Pop Culture, and Entertainment tonight induced crap. My impressions could have not been more wrong. Cody has an excellent voice. I could not put this book down. She has her own voice and writes in a style that is well beyond her years. Cody's writing style made me feel for her. Rather than being cool and self serving she is vulnerable, funny and intelligent. I defiantly recommend reading this book.

I loved this book!

This book was so entertaining. I also learned a lot about the "entertainment industry" by reading this book. Diablo really had a way of turning a very depressing situation (in my opinion) into something SO funny. When I first started reading it, I thought "Oh my, she is trying way to hard to be witty." But than, the novel quickly sucked me in and I found myself smiling and lauging at her jagged sharp sense of humor. She did not sugar-coat anything. I absolutely LOVE her blatant honesty. I have gone to a few strip clubs with freinds (I am a female) and I always felt bad for the girls up there. I swear, I could feel their degredation, it was always too much for me. I have never found strip clubs to be titillating and yet I went to them (about 5 times) usually drunk, with friends, possibly hoping to find one that didn't make me feel bad for the girls and make me feel guilty sitting there watching them. I would usually talk all my guy freinds into giving away most of their money to the girls, particulary the one's that were not the "hottest in the club." I always wondered.... "what is it like?" Now I know. Some girls enjoy stripping. It is a choice, I know. For some it is a great way to make money. Men have the opportunity to go into construction or some other job that requires little education (and they can make decent money), but for a woman her choices are extremely limited unless she has an education. Throw children into the equation and stripping is possibly a much better option than making 10 bucks an hour in a demeaning job. Stripping might be demeaning at times, but it seems to pay a hell of a lot more than some really crappy jobs out there! In that sense stripping may be a godsend to many women. I am sure that it has helped many women buy homes and get through college (so they have the opportunity to make money to support their kids without flipping burgers or sucking up to some terrible boss (strip clubs are not the only places with pricks for "managers!"). It, however is not as glamorous as the media has tried to make it. I now have much more respect for strippers now that I know how hard their jobs are. Mentally and physically. Strippers are "little Vikings" (as Juno's stepmom would say). I am so happy that she wrote this honest and funny account of her experiences. Oh.... and "the cum-licker has left the room." ha ha ha ha.... hilarious stuff!

Candid and Somehow Innocent

Let me explain: what do you think when you think of strippers? Drug addicts? Molested as children? Maybe they are working their way through college but... Yeah, me too. While there are all of the above in the book, Diablo herself is none of that. She is a (pretty much) normal, everyday, vanilla kind of girl. She was just curious. That formula in itself is an instant good read. Throw in her off the wall, hilarious wit and attitude and you then have quite possibly the best account of stripperdom EVER. While reading this you will laugh, feel nausous, laugh, suddenly want to become a stripper or a phone sex operator, or (my favorite) those chicks behind the glass who guys jack off to. You will then continue to laugh, realize you could never become a stripper, want to again, laugh some more, then wonder what you want to do more, hug and comfort Diablo or cry with her when she arrives at her enavitable breakdown. The bottom line here folks is that you relate to this girl, and whats more is you genuinely LIKE her! You want her to become a stripper, then you want her to get out of it, you want her to win in whatever she sets her mind to. This book is written so well, put together with an incredible flow that does not dissapoint from start to finish. I find that most memiors have an ending that is quite a let down; they cut you off too soon or they wrap it up so fast in a rush to get their own story over with. This book is nothing like that. In fact, I was enjoying the book so much that I started dreading the ending since I "just knew" that the usual dissapointing ending was going to ruin an otherwise awsome book. Surprise, surprise! 5 star story with a 5 star ending! LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS BOOK AND I RECOMMEND IT TO EVERYONE!!!

Wildy Entertaining!

I absolutely loved Cody's book and it proved to be a quick, funny and delightful read. I gave this one a read while at the beach and quickly realized how hard it would be to put it down and to stop laughing at her astute observations about people, situations and even her own life. As a former stripper, I found her tale to be right on the mark and mirrored a few of the incidents in my own life. If you're looking for a light-hearted glimpse of the stripping world, this is a funny, insightful book to begin that process!

Fantastic - I worked with Cody at one point in her past...

We recognized the photos in the paper and had to read the book. I work at the insurance company in the "suburbs" that is referenced on page 203. The book is fantastic. What a great backstage view into the strip clubs that so many of us have been "forced" into going to with buddies . I recall her being sweet and all of the Indian contractors at our company thought she was hot. If we only knew the truth at that time!! I do not consider myself to be naive or innocent but found many things in this book that I never would have expected. I find myself at work today and wonder "who" the real person is that I have sat next to for 5 years! Buy and read this cleverly written book now!