#RivetingReviews: Paul Burke reviews DEAR DICKHEAD by Virginie Despentes

I am wary of epistolary novels based around social-media interactions, as in my view their form makes momentum and character depth hard to realise. Despentes, however, proves it can be done, and also shows that among the unpleasant stuff we see online can be nuanced arguments that illuminate social problems rather than adding to them, and that avoid mudslinging and the general hatred, emboldened by anonymity, that is a phenomenon of our increasingly polarised age.

Oscar Jayack, a midlist author, attacks Rebecca Latté’s image in an Instagram post. He finds the actress, now in her fifties, slovenly – almost repulsive. For him she is no longer the goddess of the silver screen Oscar fell for, the epitome of feminine seductiveness. Oscar, who would do better to keep his head down, then goes on to find himself in a new duel when he is accused of sexual assault by his former assistant, now a feminist blogger, Zoé Katana.

So it begins: Rebecca reads Oscar’s attack and reacts with sarcastic anger. Caught out, he makes a non-apology, attempting to justify himself. The two begin trading insults, and rage soon takes over – death by a thousand cutting words. They are two antagonists in the #MeToo debate, their vitriol peppered with Despentes’ rapier wit, which elevates the argument above a merely abusive exchange.

While Oscar is the dickhead of the title, Rebecca is flawed too. Their debate ranges from popular culture to feminism, from gender to privilege, and from ageing to rape and consent. Both characters spring surprises as their exchange becomes more intimate as the Covid lockdown hits Paris. Gradually their vulnerabilities are exposed, and we learn that they share a fundamental experience: they are both survivors of addiction, something that becomes as much a theme of the novel as the #MeToo movement.

This exploration of misogyny is intelligent, earthy, nuanced and loaded with experience, and the edgy cut-and-thrust of the characters’ exchanges picks up on the deeper traumas that divide society. Anyone who has read Despentes’ magnum opus, the black comedy Vernon Subutex, will know she is a thoughtful writer, a punk feminist, who juggles anger and humour expertly, making her points with both irreverence and compassion. The author who burst onto the French literary scene with Baise-Moi has, in this novel, apparently tempered her anger. Her essay ‘King Kong Theory’, which talks about her experience of gang rape aged seventeen, is a feminist manifesto. This novel is a reflection on that polemic, but Despentes doesn’t take easy shots. She doesn’t call Oscar a monster, but instead points out his error, his misogyny, getting him to see the error of his ways.

For all the seriousness of the novel I have rarely laughed at a book as much as this. Despentes makes her points all the more searing for recognising the absurdity of life. That the humour is so well realised is a testament to translator Frank Wynne’s brilliance in rendering one of the most shocking, thrilling and powerful voices in fiction and nonfiction.

Reviewed by Paul Burke

DEAR DICKHEAD

Written by Virginie Despentes

Translated by Frank Wynne

Published by MacLehose Press (2024)

September 2024 #RivetingReviews titles are available to buy from bookshop.org.

Paul Burke writes reviews, interviews, articles and features for crimefictionlover.com and crimetime.co.uk. He is editor and presenter of the Crime Time FM podcast and is a judge for the CWA Historical Dagger. Paul is a book collector, lover of literature in translation and a crime fiction aficionado. His first book An Encyclopedia of Spy Fiction will be published in late 2025.

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