Atomic Candy

I read this novel back in highschool. It was a delightful find amongst the various Dungeons and Dragons books and encyclopedias. The story telling style is unique. Burke's wordplay continues to amuse me, lyrical and somewhat similar to that of a beatnik poet. The characters are lively, and the plot so familiar and touching but at the same time saddening and eerily disconcerting. In the beginning it seems to be a story about a girl struggling to find herself in an era of pop star deaths, feminist movements, and political scandels. Burke weaves the herion into each of the time period's monstrous events, as she marches in protests, watches Marilyn Monroe sing to President JFK and has her little talk with Nixon. But as the story unfolds it reveals itself to be about more than the herion, but about a family altogether, each cultural event a metaphor about her life and really life in general. It's about her parents relationship, her relationship with her parents, and the death of the american dream. When I finished this book, I was gripped with a stirring of passionate emotions and to this day am still spinning from the impression it made upon me. I will praise this book until the day I die, and gladly proclaim it one of my favorites. If you have a love of a good story that is out of the ordinary, I highly urge you to pick up this book and indulge.