Dear Dickhead
A Novel
by Virginie Despentes
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Pub Date Sep 10 2024 | Archive Date Oct 10 2024
Description
A New Yorker best book of 2024 so far | A Financial Times Best Translated Book of 2024
Library Science September book club pick | A Vulture most anticipated book of the fall
One of The New York Times' 24 works of fiction to read this fall | A Guardian best translated fiction pick | A Town & Country must-read fall book
"It’s a thrill to hear the characters develop on the page . . . One of the better portrayals of addiction I’ve encountered in literature, up there with books by Jean Rhys and Leslie Jamison." ―Joumana Khatib, The New York Times Book Review
"Engrossing . . . Full of emotional suspense." ―Pamela Druckerman, Financial Times
The French novel taking the world by storm: an ultracontemporary Dangerous Liaisons about sex, feminism, and addiction.
Dear Dickhead,
I read your post on Insta. You’re like a pigeon shitting on my shoulder as you flap past. It’s shitty and unpleasant. Waah, waah, waah, I’m a pissy little pantywaist, no one loves me so I whimper like a Chihuahua in the hope someone will notice me. Congratulations: you’ve got your fifteen minutes of fame! You want proof? I’m writing to you.
Oscar is a B-list novelist in his forties. He used to be an alcoholic and a cokehead, but now he keeps himself busy by ranting on social media. When Rebecca, an actress whose looks he insulted, sends him an angry email, they strike up a combative correspondence—at the very moment that Oscar is accused of sexual harassment by his former publicist. What ensues is a no-holds-barred conversation about life under the patriarchy, and above all about addiction—to drugs, to alcohol, to the internet, to rage.
Virginie Despentes, the celebrated author of King Kong Theory, has written her breakthrough book: a Dangerous Liaisons for our time. We follow Rebecca and Oscar as they develop an unlikely friendship and argue over questions of right and wrong in a city—Paris—where pleasure, excess, and freedom rule the day, or used to. Dear Dickhead is a guns-blazing novel about a culture that makes men and women sick, and about how the search for feeling leaves us addicted to what makes us feel. The result is a provocative and unmissable book from the author hailed by The Guardian as France’s “rock and roll Zola.”
A Note From the Publisher
Advance Praise
Praise for the Vernon Subutex trilogy:
"The zeitgeistiest thing I ever read . . . I tore through these books the minute they were published . . . These novels with their depth and detail kick TV's sorry ass." ―Nell Zink, Bustle
"[Despentes] has produced a bona fide magnum opus . . . doing for Paris what Joyce did for Dublin." ―Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal
"[Despentes] writes wickedly about people watching their privilege evaporate in real time and reacting with the full range of human ugliness . . . What fun." ―Molly Young, Vulture
"[The] prose is so powerful, and so perfect, that we forget we’re even reading. Opening up [Vernon Subutex] is more like stepping inside a thrilling, pulsing party and getting instantly mesmerized by the whirling couple at the center of the crowd." ―Jennifer Croft, Los Angeles Review of Books
"Masterly . . . [Despentes] resembles, by turns, William Gibson, George Eliot and Michel Houellebecq." ―Chris Kraus, The Times Literary Supplement
"[An] extraordinary act of creation and destruction, a realistic Paris evoked, transformed, and torn apart." ―Nadja Spiegelman, The New York Review of Books
"Virginie Despentes is a true original, a punk-rock George Eliot with a keen taste for the pitiable innards of her characters: no one else has her slyly penetrating eye, her spiky sense of humor, her razor wit that cuts like wire through the accumulated crud of our age's default thought patterns . . . A droll, hilarious, insightful record of our unfortunate times." ―Alexandra Kleeman, author of Something New Under the Sun
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780374611613 |
| PRICE | $28.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 304 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Librarian 940930
Virginie Despentes has one of the freshest, funniest, sharpest voices in literature, and Frank Wynne does a remarkable job of bringing that indelible voice to English-language readers. I found this to be an unexpectedly touching, sweet read, avoiding the hectoring tone novelists sometimes take when they feel like "speaking to the present moment."
J. K, Reviewer
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an eARC of “Dear Dickhead” by Virginie Despentes
🔥🔍 In the seething underbelly of Paris, where pleasure and excess collide, “Dear Dickhead” unfolds—a scorching contemporary tale of sex, feminism, and addiction. Virginie Despentes, the rock-and-roll Zola of our time, delivers a literary punch that leaves her readers breathless.
🔥 In this story, Oscar, a B-list novelist, finds himself embroiled in a social media storm after insulting actress Rebecca. Their fiery exchange sparks an unlikely friendship, even as Oscar faces sexual harassment allegations. As they dissect life under the patriarchy, addiction—whether to substances or rage—takes center stage.
🔥Despentes wields her pen like a switchblade as she exposes a culture which poisons both men and women.
The dialogue crackles, and Paris becomes a character itself—a city teetering on the edge of hedonism and decay. “Dear Dickhead” is unapologetically raw, a mirror reflecting our collective obsessions and vulnerabilities.
Wow, this was like being a fly on the wall, snooping into someone's personal correspondence. I haven't had so much fun since listening in on conversations on the telephone "party line" at my Grandma's in the old days.. A devilishly clever, whip smart book I greatly enjoyed.
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