I Love Dick (Semiotext(e) / Native Agents)

The story of the re-emergence of this book is fascinating.First published in the 1990s and consigned to absolute obscurity ever since, it has suddenly turned up on best-seller lists, the author is being interviewed everywhere, it's a phenomenon. This is a story about real people and real relationships from a torrid era when things were still fluid, uncertain, when young women thought they could be filmmakers and writers, when great cities still had zones and places where creative types could live cheaply, when everyone travelled around the world and stayed in each other's apartments in London, Athens, New York, Sydney, wherever ... The author, Chris Kraus, grew up in New Zealand which gives her tale a particular poignancy. You can't help thinking she is a bit of a provincial wanne-be, who links up with a really famous intellectual who actually doesn't do anything himself - he doesn't write, he doesn't paint, but he introduces people to each other and runs an incredibly influential publishing house and an in-group intellectual magazine which everyone in the eighties knew and respected and which is unbelievably still going today. Semiotext(e) was such a key reference in the postmodern Franco-Anglo intellectual scene. Well, anyway, Chris Kraus after failing as a filmmaker (although she kept on trying) hooked up with that same intellectual, Sylvere Lotringer, many years older than her, married him, and then realised she wanted more of a real man and fell in love with Dick, who is a famous English intellectual renowned for key sociological and cultural texts, who is still around today teaching in Southern California, and Chris started sending him hundreds of messages and faxes explaining to him in detail why she loved him so much and made him have a sexual encounter with her - just once, it seems - by simple force of email and strangely enough her husband didn't mind and maybe he wanted to get in on the act himself. He loved Dick too! Wait! Stop! Who are these people? Do they actually exist? Does anyone care today? Well, yes, they do, its twenty or thirty years later and suddenly Chris Kraus's book is republished and so are her earlier books and there you go, she has also authored a biography of Kathy Acker and wow! Kathy Acker, dead at fifty of breast cancer, is now a postergirl for displaced feminist intellectuals and all her books are being republished and really it is all a whirlwind, and then Amazon Prime made a movie about I Love Dick starring Kevin Bacon as Dick and the whole thing really took off.... So, are you still with me? Probably not and I wouldn't blame you. People who want to read clear narratives with plot and character and exciting romances where for instance private investigators turn out to be Meercats will not much like Chris Kraus's books, this or any of them, but if you can stand being on a kind of nostalgic whirlwind back to the glorious 80s and 90s with all the theory and criticisms and self-delusion (which Kraus captures brilliantly, she doesn't spare herself at all) you'll be carried away. And the prose! Such a great change to read this kind of writing, no editor has ever got to it with a set of instructions about sentences or subordinate clauses. Great fun! I read her other books straight away too, I did like Torpor especially which is a kind of prequel and I've just finished the Kathy Acker bio which raises many other issues for another time. Go for it, but read the Look Inside first and if you don't like it, don't bother, but don't make others feel bad about enjoying it. We all deserve our own escapes

OMG, first I'd like to state that I am no literary scholar, I did however take lit and writing classes throughout college, and understand that I missed a multitude of the references. I found this book to be dreadfully tedious. The exact opposite of women's empowerment. Chris behaves like a middle schooler fixated on the quarterback. You want to shout at her, pull her aside, take her out for a few cocktails and tell her to smarten up. I couldn't even finish the book, it was a painful read right up until I gave up (more than halfway through).The title drew me in on Prime and I savored every moment of the series. Hahn's acting is genius, convincing, surprising even as she's always the rom-com supportive actress. I was blown away. It was good to see Griffin Dunne, and Kevin Bacon's portrayal of a detached, elusive and enigmatic Dick is impressive, he nailed the character. Of course, the series and the book are quite different. The book doesn't have the side stories or characters, merely the letters. Well, at least until my giving up point.Save the cash and watch the series. Unless you understand esoteric references as they make their way onto just about every page. Can't wait to see what Catherine Hahn does next (Bad Moms 3? lol)

Originally I bought this book because of the eye-catching cover. And usually this is as far as I get with most books I buy. I skiped the introduction and the epilogue and went straight for the meat. And it was dense!There are many references to other works and art performances and paintings. Chris Krause should be a copywriter because she describes these things in such a way that you may end up ordering some of them (I did)."History as we understand it is really just an avalance of garbage toppling down." Thinking about this line (p.195) is well worth the price for this subversive tale of unrequited love. And Krause's antagonist sums up her overall dilemma: 'The most important entitlement ...remains the right to speak from a position'(p.220).And such lovely subversiveness, non-degreed people are not taken seriously and neither are women. The author fills both of these spaces but overcomes due to her tenacious genius. I loved reading this book and artists as well as literature buffs are bound to love it more! The jury is out on philosophers, they will either love it or hate it. Well done!

Funny, clever, and even poignant sometimes in the review of the bourgeois romance with one's self. Dick is Chris, Chris loves Dick, the pun isn't lost on her and she says it as we think of it. I really like the format of the story as an objective but prying view into her perceptions of herself perceiving her experiences and feelings. Even Sylvere's view is filtered through her eyes in a subtle way. This is what Paul Rome could have written if he'd had a smarter protagonist and less of a self-handicapping author's filter.

The narrator/main female character is not the least bit interesting or sympathetic. I hope the author (whom I think the character is named after) isn't like this in real life. I tried about 20 times to finish this book, but could never get more than a third of the way through. That's how sucky the main character is. Also, the writing itself is pretentious as f*&%.

Higher expectations— thought the book would be more Interesting than the show. Not my experience: Entire book in letter format, written in first person with what for me was excruciatingly dull detail— which, admittedly, may have been the author’s intention. New Yorker reviewer has a totally different opinion. I suggest you read several reviews and consider your own taste before purchase.

Unlike anything else I’ve read, I Love Dick succinctly positions Kraus as both character and author, subject and object, and renders both completely obsolete. So very recommended

I enjoyed reading this (although I probably wouldn't read it again). i think it's such a strange and bizarre concept but for some reason I could totally relate to it. i love the style it's written in, even if the characters came across as quite pretentious at times I really liked them all. i've read a lot of bad reviews about it but i thought it was really original & clever. i'm watching the series on prime which isn't as great - if you're planning on watching i'd read it first. all the concepts included are deeply explored, nothing is skimmed over & everything is well explained. can't think of any faults !

Chris Kraus is my new hero. I was so blown away by I Love Dick that I read all her other stuff straight after, and it's all fantastic. If you are interested in a book with a totally honest, original, arty, droll, contemporary voice, you have to read this. But don't go looking for plot; there is one, but it's of secondary importance. Just amazing.

This is a wonderful book about longing, obsession, marriage and boredom and the often devastating consequences of being alive, generally. Bought it after the brilliant series based on it and I was completely enamoured.

OMG. I have watched a discussion about this book on tv and decided to read it as it sounded great. Absolute rubbish. I actually could not figure out until halfway into the book, which character is which. A very dull read indeed.

Currently halfway through and it feels like nothing has actually happened. A boring and pretentious couple have written a load of tragic, self-indulgent letters to this man they’re obsessed with and then they drove around America for a bit to try and find him (??). That’s it. That’s all that’s really happened. I want to give this book a chance and keep going but it’s proving a struggle...