‘Dear Dickhead’ by Virginie Despentes (2022) – 292 pages       Translated from the French by Frank Wynne

As I was looking for more fiction translated by Frank Wynne, I came across ‘Dear Dickhead’. Since one of the things I like about Frank Wynne is that he seems to pick books to translate that are off the well-beaten path of modern fiction, I decided to read ‘Dear Dickhead’. This could be interesting.

This novel is written as a modern email exchange between Oscar and Rebecca. Rebecca occasionally starts her email to him with ‘Dear Dickhead’ and it is not always used affectionately.

“Tell your sister I googled her name but couldn’t find anything. I’m guessing she’s married and she’s changed her name. Give her my love. As for you drop dead.”

Oscar is a writer who got singled out for #MeToo accusations by Zoe, a woman they both know.

“I am the focus of hatred for half the population of the country.”

Occasionally in the novel we also get an email from Zoe.

When Oscar commiserates with Rebecca about his problems, she is not always sympathetic.

“You’ve had a string of scandals – take me, for example, now I don’t really care, but how many times have you humiliated me in public, talking about my amazing tits? That kind of thing doesn’t cut it anymore.”

However Rebecca does offer some helpful advice to Oscar.

“The correlation between men’s alcohol consumption and their being assholes is underestimated.”

Oscar laments how things have changed.

“We assumed that women were happy. I grew up in a world where it seemed that turning a guy on was the best thing that could happen to a woman.”

Oscar expresses his problem with the dating world.

“Long story short, the women I find attractive are the ones who don’t want anything to do with me.”

Women do come up for criticism too. After his sister Corinne tells Oscar that she dates girls, he says:

“I know what girls are like. They’re ruthless when it comes to losers. And back then being a lesbian was worse than being a loser – lesbians had no right to exist. In the cage fight of traditional femininity, she couldn’t even get her gloves on.”

Rebecca’s verdict:

“Obviously you don’t fall in love with someone just because they’re a particular gender. You fall in love, period.”

That verdict may be a little too far out for me.

Besides the discussion of the male/female predicament, large parts of ‘Dear Dickhead’ are about drug use and quitting drugs and Narcotics Anonymous. Having little use for drugs (except alcohol) myself, I was less interested in the parts of the novel relating to their experiences with cocaine, crack, heroin, etc.

While ‘Dear Dickhead’ was discussing the modern sex situation it seemed quite interesting and insightful.

Grade:    B