Candy Darling

October 1, 2023

A Warhol superstar who appeared at the renowned nightclub Max's Kansas City, inspired songs by Lou Reed and the Rolling Stones, posed for Richard Avedon, and performed in a Tennessee Williams play with the playwright himself, transgender icon Candy Darling blazed forth just as discussions about gender were emerging and died at age 29 without seeing her full impact. Following Carr's Lambda-winning Fire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz, also a finalist for the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize; with a 50,000-copy first printing. Prepub Alert.

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Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 29, 2024
Journalist Carr (Fire in the Belly) provides a vivid biography of trans actor, model, and Warhol “superstar” Candy Darling. Born in 1944, Darling was raised as a boy in suburban Massapequa Park, Long Island, where she was the target of an abusive father and school bullies. She started identifying as female in her late teens and, during frequent trips to Manhattan, became involved in Greenwich Village’s queer and bohemian circles, through which she met other trans artists and landed in the orbit of Andy Warhol. Capturing the contrast between the glamorous and hardscrabble aspects of her subject’s life, Carr notes that even as Darling acted in the Warhol-produced films Flesh and Women in Revolt, modeled for fashion photographer Richard Avedon, and starred in avant-garde theater productions, she was almost always without reliable income or steady housing, “doing sex work when necessary and occasionally sleeping on floors in the worst hotels.” In 1974, Darling died of stomach cancer. Carr provides an evocative look inside the Greenwich Village scene in its 1960s heyday (“The ‘counterculture’ had begun to percolate in the Village’s shabby venues—where artists were showing things no one was supposed to see, saying things no one was supposed to hear”), and the extensive research draws on Darling’s personal papers and interviews with her friends. It’s an unparalleled close-up of a pop culture icon. Agent: Joy Harris, Joy Harris Literary.

Starred review from January 1, 2024
The biography of a transgender performer whose brief life illuminated 1960s and '70s New York. "She began life as a tortured effeminate boy because she wasn't really a boy," writes Carr, author of Fire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz. Candy Darling's 1950s Long Island childhood was miserable, with a mother who was ashamed of her and a volatile father who drank to excess; at school, she was bullied. "Nobody gets who I am," she told a classmate. Her escapes were TV, movie magazines, and, eventually, cosmetology school. New York City beckoned, with its gay scene--but also its 19th-century laws that still criminalized cross-dressing. Candy developed an image as a glamorous fantasy woman inspired by Hollywood starlets like Lana Turner and Kim Novak; friends recall her as a "natural star" emanating an "ethereal light." Candy was taken up by Andy Warhol, photographed by Richard Avedon and Peter Hujar, and cast in off-off Broadway shows and underground films such as Flesh. Yet wider success eluded her, as Hollywood wanted nothing to do with a trans actor (the casting of Raquel Welch in Myra Breckinridge was a particular blow). She rarely had a stable address, often slipping back to her mother's suburban house under cover of darkness. She was plagued by bad teeth, longed for love yet shied away from intimacy, and died of cancer at the age of 29. Carr devotedly pieces together this incandescent portrait from irregular diary entries, hilariously unreliable narrators, and taped interviews conducted by Candy's friend Jeremiah Newton after her death. "You must always be yourself no matter what the price," Candy once wrote. "It is the highest form of morality....Don't dare destroy your passion for the sake of others." Carr resurrects a trans icon whose life, artistry, and struggle speak directly to our moment.

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February 1, 2024

Thorough research underscores Carr's (Fire in the Belly) compelling biography of trans actress Candy Darling (1944-74). Assigned male at birth, Darling grew up in a dysfunctional family during an era when queer people were shunned, and she found solace and inspiration studying glamorous classic Hollywood film stars on television. As an adult, she led a nomadic life (crashing on friends' couches and in motels) while publicly playing the glamorous icon in Andy Warhol's circle of superstars and appearing in his films Flesh and Women in Revolt. A talented actress, she also performed onstage at clubs and off-Broadway venues alongside, including in Tennessee Williams's original Small Craft Warnings alongside the playwright himself. She met with much rejection, however, when she tried out for larger, mainstream productions. Carr smoothly interconnects background material, anecdotal stories, and interviews that illuminate Darling's complicated journey while pursuing fame, love, and, especially, acceptance of her true self. VERDICT A richly detailed and thoughtful portrait of Candy Darling, an innovator during an era that, although on the cusp of change, had not yet evolved far enough beyond the limited boundaries of conformity.--Carol J. Binkowski

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February 15, 2024
As a transgender person in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Candy Darling was ahead of her time. The word transgender was not in public use, and homosexuality was illegal. By 1972, she was one of Andy Warhol's superstars. The sage of underground New York, Lou Reed, sang about her in "Candy Says" and mentioned her again in "Walk on the Wild Side." From an early age, Candy Darling was in a state of constant reinvention. Born in Queens and raised on Long Island, she began her life as "a tortured effeminate boy because she wasn't really a boy. She was always she," writes Carr. Darling emulated such classic Hollywood stars as Kim Novak, Lana Turner, and Joan Bennett. In this sensitive and complex story, Carr follows her tumultuous journey through the slowly evolving construction of her Candy persona and her success to her death at 29 of lymphoma in 1974. Carr reveals how much more there is to Darling's life than her fleeting moments in New York's demimonde. A fascinating portrait of a trendsetter.

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