"Colin Greenland - Candy Comes Back" - читать интересную книгу автора (Greenland Colin)

Candy Comes Back
Colin Greenland

Dr Colin Greenland (тАШour resident cyberpixieтАЩ, The Face) is running
out of shelfspace for awards following the success of Take Back Plenty, a
rumbustious regearing of space opera tropes that won both the Arthur C.
Clarke and British Science Fiction Association awards for best SF novel
of the year. On тАШCandy Comes BackтАЩ he offers the following: тАШReading
Charlotte GreigтАЩs Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?, you are struck by
how precarious everything was, working for a girlgroup in the тАШ50s and
early тАШ60s. Songs like тАЬSweet TalkinтАЩ GuyтАЭ and тАЬThen He Kissed MeтАЭ may
have given voice to the aspirations of a generation of American women,
but they didnтАЩt do much for the women who sang them. It was production
line pop, performed by sweatshop quartets. If you didnтАЩt like your
high-heeled shoes, there was always someone ready to step into them.
A popular entertainer in Britain in the тАШ90s canтАЩt help snaring a little of
that insecurity.тАЩ

Shoop shoop shoop, ba-ding-a-dang-ding, shang-a-lang,
shimmy-shimmy-ko-ko-bop . . .

****



S
ammy is a salesman. He has a wife he doesnтАЩt see for weeks on end, which
worries him sometimes but doesnтАЩt stop him fooling around a little. He
doesnтАЩt worry much that he almost never sees his daughter; he has long
ceased to understand her. When anything does worry him, he has another
drink. Tonight Sammy is drinking with a guy from Seattle who supplies trade
fairs for the garment industry. тАШI can take as many as they got to get rid of,тАЩ
he keeps saying. тАШCome on, Sammy, how many they got to get rid of? You
can trust me, Sammy.тАЩ The guy from Seattle paws SammyтАЩs arm in
alcoholic fraternal bonhomie. Sammy thinks he is a pain in the butt. Guy
should know he canтАЩt commit to anything before heтАЩs talked to the boss.

In any case, just now Sammy wants to pay some attention to his other
companion, who is forty-five if sheтАЩs a day but is stacked. She is a bottle
blonde in a purple sheath dress so tight Sammy wonders if it came out of a
bottle too. She has a smokerтАЩs cough, a laugh like a crow, and legs that
could stop traffic. Right now she has a sour expression on her face. She
wants the guy from Seattle to shut the fuck up, and so does Sammy. When
the broad goes to the John, Sammy says, тАШI hate to cut and run,тАЩ and takes
out his billfold to settle up. In his billfold he sees the picture of his daughter,
who is sixteen and cares more about Candy and the Bon-Bons than about
him or her mother. Any boy who wants to feel his daughterтАЩs tits only has to
buy her a Candy and the Bon-Bons record. Candy and the Bon-Bons have
made four records already, and SammyтАЩs daughter has them all.