Dear Dickhead by Virginie Despentes
French author Virginie Despentes' latest book draws on an online relationship to look at the ways narratives around the self are constructed
Dear Dickhead unfolds as an email exchange between two unlikely adversaries, quickly deepening into companionship that becomes a lifeline through addiction, recovery and isolation. Taking place entirely within the online space, Rebecca – a famous actress whose age has removed her from the spotlight of leading roles – and Oscar – an author whose bestselling career is threatened by a MeToo-style online cancellation – share their conflicting memories of working-class upbringing on the same estate. A vulnerability emerges, perhaps at times hyperbolic, in line with its neurotic characters; each, through the other, in dialogue with themselves as they challenge themselves to re-examine the narratives they have constructed.
The mode of address, at times affected, becomes a shaping thing: introspective and sincere, everything is flattened to the depth of first person observation. It slips into musings on what hurts us, and what makes us who we are, reflecting on how we make sense of it and what those stories we tell ourselves do to us. Dear Dickhead appraises the widely accepted beliefs of what feminism, class or wealth are, digging into the certain types of feminism that prevail and how they can’t all be gathered under the same roof. It looks at the ways people don’t agree and how much nuance is missed in the cacophony of the online space.