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k_aro's review
challenging
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
While I don't think I Love Dick is exactly revolutionary fiction in what it's ruminating on (Lonely girl phenomenology, akin to Fleabag or the Mitski/Lana del Rey complex of music), it's also a really fascinating take on it. For one, it takes parasocial fiction and makes it uncomfortably familiar, and more than that takes seriously the position of the parasocial object responding to the person in the unrequited relationship. Dick doesn't even really have to be present for Chris to feel like he's there.
Spin it with continental/post-continental theory that honestly makes me both feel smart for recognizing and being able to name check but also legitimately engaging with it makes for a fascinating read. Some aspects make me grimace a little, but it's also a book about being in love with your husband's coworker, so naturally I don't think it ought to shy away from the way things feel in order to be presented. The way that levels of reality are played with (as noted in the afterword)—the displacement of language onto Dick, the un/reality of how Dick behaves, makes for a very good read.
I will say, slow to get going, but once over the hump of Chris having sex with Dick, the book really starts its theoretical roll.
Spin it with continental/post-continental theory that honestly makes me both feel smart for recognizing and being able to name check but also legitimately engaging with it makes for a fascinating read. Some aspects make me grimace a little, but it's also a book about being in love with your husband's coworker, so naturally I don't think it ought to shy away from the way things feel in order to be presented. The way that levels of reality are played with (as noted in the afterword)—the displacement of language onto Dick, the un/reality of how Dick behaves, makes for a very good read.
I will say, slow to get going, but once over the hump of Chris having sex with Dick, the book really starts its theoretical roll.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Racial slurs, Sexism, and Antisemitism
Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis and Alcohol
Minor: Death and Drug use
While I would not characterize the "real" situation of the book as psychotic/schizophrenic in nature, Kraus does reflect on schizophrenia as a thought pattern for a good portion of one of the chapters.