Candy: Love on Drugs (Which, Really, Probably Isn't Love at All)

Candy: Love on Drugs (Which, Really, Probably Isn't Love at All)

Nicolas Leger

Candy

By Luke Davies

When do readers read romance to not romanticize the main characters’ actions, from late night phone conversations to picnics in Central Park? In the Australian novel Candy by Luke Davies, Dan gets more action with a tourniquet and needle than his significant other, Candy, who spends her time working at a brothel to pay for their shared addiction. There is no specific reason why either of the characters is addicted to heroine; no sob story, no long lost brother, nor a tragic death.

It’s reality, and Dan and Candy are coping the best that they can.

However, this is not a tale for someone who uses reading to cathartically cry. Dan, a poetic narrator, tells it how it is, the good and the bad, but never to seek pity from the readers, and he never pities himself.

Overall, the novel sends an anti-drug message. Candy and Dan are aware of how much better their lives would be without “gear” (Davies 58) to enhance their love. And while Candy stepped into the relationship sober, Dan’s never gone without in her presence. For this reason, it’s not love.

Dan feels bad that Candy has to sleep with other men to make money. He still happily uses heroine. Dan hates feeling sick because of using. He still happily uses heroine. Dan wants a better life with Candy. But, he still happily uses heroine.

While the novel is (thankfully) not necessarily relatable to all readers, or most readers, Candy successfully makes readers feel thankful that they’re not stuck in a cycle similar to Dan and Candy’s, and if they are, desperate to find an exit tunnel. It’s also a little shocking how “thick and fast” (Davies 46) the money comes to Dan and Candy (and how well brothels pay their workers), only for them to blow it all on dope.

Candy presents imperfect, humanistic characters. And while Dan is not completely useless, for he spends “a lot of time scoring and organizing deals, doing all the drug stuff” (Davies 48), the novel is filled with unsuccessful book stealing heists, credit card scams, and attempts at ripping off fellow users. The lack of desirability presents Dan and Candy’s three-dimensionality as characters.

Furthermore, the late Heath Ledger plays Dan in the film adaptation, Candy.

Davies calls Candy a story of “love and addiction” (Davies), but as he highlights throughout the novel, addiction takes top priority over love, including marriage and most heartbreakingly, yet told with a cold heart, childbirth.

Recommended to anyone seeking to try heroine or just the average realist.

Davies, Luke. Candy. New York: Ballantine, 1998. Print.