Dora: A Headcase: A Novel

Taking Sigmund Freud’s patient Ida Breur aka “Dora” into the twenty-first century, she is given a modern twist as being a defiant seventeen year old who adopts the name ‘Dora’ because of the Dora the Explorer purse she always keeps her Zoom H4n in to record the world around her putting her own twist on things. Between Dora and her three comrades, Little Teena, Ave Maria, and Obsidian, they perform ‘art attacks’ to stir up the mundane of everyday life, live in the glory and pain of adolescence and in doing so, form a family that goes beyond blood. Lidia Yuknavitch’s story she gives Dora to tell is unlike anything I have ever read, mostly because this is not your typical coming-of-age story. Even if you are not, or were not, a teenager plunging into anarchy against your parents and the entire world, everything Dora says and describes makes sense. The bold and blunt context Dora uses to tell her story is fierce but with a passion to show the world that being a teenager is not ‘a phase’ that will go away with time and Yuknavitch, like Palahniuk, is not afraid to yell at society through their characters and tell everyone how everything really is. Part satire of psychology and all the fast-paced adventure of finding yourself you can handle, the only small issue with this novel is the pace. Yuknavitch moves very quickly and sometimes you may have to catch your breath and re-read some parts to keep up, but if you are quick on your feet and can keep going without hesitation, you are in for a wild ride. There are not enough words to describe how extraordinary and important this book is in today’s world, but author Vanessa Vesselka has made an interesting observation that shows how important Dora: A Headcase is. She says, “In twenty years, I hope to wake up in a world where Dora: A Headcase has replaced Catcher in the Rye on high school reading lists for the alienated.” Believe me, I hope I wake up to this world one day as well, because this novel could serve to be one of the most important pieces of literature anyone will ever read, especially teenagers. Some teachers may think that this book is advocating teenage rebellion (which it is not), but the significance is there. Through Dora: A Headcase, Yuknavitch brilliantly shows how love goes beyond words, self-expression goes beyond art, and if the world is not ready for you, tell them to make room because you’re coming anyway.

But, like in a good way. This book is Freud's case study of Dora, from Dora's point of view... if Dora were sixteen and living in modern Seattle. It's funny and weird, and has an interesting voice that might turn some people off, but I thought it was a fun little read.

I was bowled over by Yuknavitch's memoir. Laughed, gasped, cried. Dora is again an entirely "other" book, and I think I am not rating it as highly as her first because at some point it felt too angry, and at 72 Though I remember my adolescent years and my default setting -- suicide -- the emotional recall is not so clear any longer. Perhaps, I am simply too old to respond to the fury of of Dora. At any rate, her human, if very dark, is very -- painfully -- funny. She is a remarkable young woman and a helluva writer.. And if you missed her memoir, your missing out on a brilliant ride.

The way I had this book recommended to me was by saying that it is written an author who feels like the female version of Chuck Palahniuk. That is a great compliment on the surface, but it really sells Lidia Yuknavitch short. This story is more than something that would fit under the umbrella of Palahniuk's transgressive novel. It is sweet, yet brutal, and always treats the reader like a confidant rather than a puppet. You are witnessing the self destructive language of youth in peril, and as the story unwinds you empathize. No matter your age, nor gender, you quickly become to love all of the characters for being flawed, and for living in a world where it is difficult to explain your being there, to find happiness, and to move beyond our worst experiences and fears. This is a book that you will pick up again and again for the simple nostalgia of watching your friends make it out of the fire.

After being recommended the book by an emerging adult, I find myself ambivalent. For a teen-fiction piece, it does do the trick. I can imagine being much younger and reveling in Dora & Company's righteous indignation, but I find myself confused at the outpouring of praise for this work. Maybe because I'm a clinical psychologist. Yet if in fact the author was so stricken by the case study of Dora, an incomplete analysis Freud himself deemed a failure, it is disappointing that there isn't much more done with the original story than could be easily found in Wikipedia. I'm not quite sure she succeeded in "turning the case on its head, either", since it ends similarly to the actual event, and it doesn't escape notice that she lifted elements from her memoir and transposed them onto Dora's case. Given her personal relationship to this case, I would have hoped that she would deepen that connection to merit referencing it so heavily. As a mental health practitioner, it is true that we can be quick to pathologize both women and adolescents. While some will chafe under a diagnosis, others are pleased to learn there is a name for their cluster of symptoms. It is also true that children are often sent to therapists because their parents are funneling their dysfunction into them. But there are a lot of intelligent and fierce women in the field challenging long-held assumptions and working hard for their patients. A number of us would not call a drunk teenager, altered by a panoply of prescription medications, stripping naked in a public place art.

You never really know what to expect when a book received a lot of praise and you're about to read it. Is it good promotion? I read Dora: a headcase and I would definitely recommend it for its unique style. Dora is what could be nicknamed a "troubled teenager". She's rebellious and a spirit of its own kind. And yet, this is not a depressive story about the impossibility to manage her. On the contrary it's a story about how she sees the world and it's quite funny.

Hilariously funny at times. Lovingly intimate connecting relationships sensitively scribed. Adolescent rebellious independence at its best narrated with a climax that I can only describe as beautiful

Another grest release from Lidia. It was even better than anticipated. Definitely one of My favourite writers. I highly recommend her 2011 release The chronology of water one my all time favourites. I you like Lidias previous works then I recommend this one as her usual quirks are here. Cannot wait for her next release!

Sex, drugs, rock n' roll, money, talent, parental figures, safety nets, phones, and love (is all you need, it seems) I am quite a fan of the case history of Freud himself (a dedicated researcher on coca before 'the talking cure') and by extension, what volumes were given away about how he was with his patients, his family members, and those detractors he was either jealous of, or smugly amused by. A more contemporary look at women who, through very patriarchal eyes and ears, he would have considered as 'failures of psychoanalysis', was a very tempting prospect. But among some sensitivity, good questions about the ownership and angles of a story, and a seesaw of pathos and hostility, there were some strange banana skins within this one. If the character who saves a 16 year old girl from a detention centre, to sweep her off to live in the wilds with her had been male and not female, would this have been just as fine as a romantic happy-ever-after? If one character's sublimation of a very traumatised part of their life as a boy was drawing them on to a full gender reassignment, how is it that it's from their medicine collection that viagra is obtained? And desiring to live outside of the bridle and bit of money and transactions to soothe the howling of a pained soul seems to be fine if it can work through (damaged) family and a large, rather detached, inheritance. These were blind spots that could be intended to work on further levels, but didn't do that in a supple way, for me.

Amazing!