Angry Candy

Angry Candy, Harlan Ellison, Mariner Books, 1998

This is a group of stories that are a combination of science fiction, fantasy and horror, loosely clustered around the theme of death.

A man finds that his aunt, supposedly dead for the last 40 years, is still alive inside a TV laugh track. After going to a Euthanasia Center to end his life, a person has his soul put into many different alien beings. A woman traveling on a bus has a private battle with a telepathic stalker. A man goes to an illegal memory removal place to have the memory of his wife's death removed from his head; later, the memory is put into someone else's head. At a hot dog vendor who reads Dostoevsky, a total stranger tells the story of having many girlfriends, all of whom die nasty or painful deaths.

Perhaps the best story of the book is "Paladin of the Lost Hour." Visiting the grave of his late wife, an old man named Gaspar is attacked by a couple of teen thugs, who almost steal his expensive pocket watch. They are chased off with the help of Billy Kinetta, who was visiting another grave nearby. The two become friends. One day Gaspar asks Billy to accompany him to the cemetery and tells him a story. Over 400 years ago, Pope Gregory XIII changed the world from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. All at once, eleven days vanished. Somehow, one hour was missed, and has been floating in limbo ever since. If that hour is ever used, it would mean the end of all life, everywhere. The hour is contained in the pocket watch that Gaspar gives to Billy. One minute is used for Billy to achieve some closure for a very painful Vietnam experience, just before Gaspar dies.

Ellison is one of my all-time favorite writers, so I can't claim to be totally impartial. I really enjoyed these stories. They are thought-provoking, well-done, and they put the reader right in the middle of the story. If I could, I would give this book three thumbs up.