"Dora: A Headcase" is a contemporary coming-of-age story based on Freud's famous case study--retold and revamped through Dora's point of view, with shotgun blasts of dark humor and sexual play. Ida needs a shrink . . . or so her philandering father thinks, and he sends her to a Seattle psychiatrist. Immediately wise to the head games of her new shrink, whom she nicknames Siggy, Ida begins a coming-of-age journey. At the beginning of her therapy, Ida, whose alter ego is Dora, and her small posse of pals engage in "art attacks." Ida's in love with her friend Obsidian, but when she gets close to intimacy, she faints or loses her voice. Ida and her friends hatch a plan to secretly film Siggy and make an experimental art film. But something goes wrong at a crucial moment--at a nearby hospital Ida finds her father suffering a heart attack. While Ida loses her voice, a rough cut of her experimental film has gone viral, and unethical media agents are hunting her down. A chase ensues in which everyone wants what Ida has.
"Dora: A Headcase" is a contemporary coming-of-age story based on Freud's famous case study--retold and revamped through Dora's point of view, with shotgun blasts of dark humor and sexual play. Ida needs a shrink . . . or so her philandering father thinks, and he sends her to a Seattle psychiatrist. Immediately wise to the head games of her new shrink, whom she nicknames Siggy, Ida begins a coming-of-age journey. At the beginning of her therapy, Ida, whose alter ego is Dora, and her small posse of pals engage in "art attacks." Ida's in love with her friend Obsidian, but when she gets close to intimacy, she faints or loses her voice. Ida and her friends hatch a plan to secretly film Siggy and make an experimental art film. But something goes wrong at a crucial moment--at a nearby hospital Ida finds her father suffering a heart attack. While Ida loses her voice, a rough cut of her experimental film has gone viral, and unethical media agents are hunting her down. A chase ensues in which everyone wants what Ida has.
LIDIA YUKNAVITCH IS THE AUTHOR of "The Chronology of Water: A
Memoir" and three works of short fiction: "Her Other Mouths,
Liberty's Excess, " and "Real to Reel, " as well as a book of
literary criticism, "Allegories of Violence."
Her work has appeared in "Ms., The Iowa Review, Exquisite Corpse,
Another Chicago Magazine, Fiction International, Zyzzyva, " and
elsewhere. Her book "Real to Reel" was a finalist for the Oregon
Book Award, and she is the recipient of awards and fellowships from
Poets and Writers and Literary Arts, Inc. Her work appears in the
anthologies "Life As We Show It" (City Lights), "Forms At War"
(FC2), "Wreckage of Reason" (Spuytin Duyvil). Yuknavitch teaches
writing, literature, film, and Women's Studies in Oregon.
Praise for Lidia Yuknavitch's DORA: A HEADCASE:
"Hold a basketball under water, take your hand away, and it'll
surface with the powerhouse force of the suppressed. Welcome to
Lidia Yuknavitch's world. In Dora: A Headcase, Yuknavitch
reimagines the girl, the woman, at the heart of Sigmund Freud's
breakthrough case study and unleashes this character's fury against
a backdrop of hypocritical adulthood. Yuknavitch is talking back to
a hundred years, to the founding of psychoanalysis. I'd like to
think she wrote parts of this novel just for me, but so many
readers will feel that way. Yuknavitch has wrestled with the force
of her own convictions and given a powerful voice to a badass
character born on the literary landscape."
--MONICA DRAKE author of "Clown Girl"
"Dora is too much for Sigmund Freud but she's just right for
us--raunchy, sharp and so funny it hurts."
--KATHERINE DUNN author of "Geek Love"
"In these times there's no reason for a novel to exist unless it's
dangerous, provocative and not like anything that's come before.
Dora: A Headcase is that kind of novel. It's dirty, sexy, rude,
smart, soulful, fresh and risky. Think of your favorite out-there
genius writer; multiply by ten, add a big heart, a poet's ear, and
a bad girl's courage, and you've got Lidia Yuknavitch."
--KAREN KARBO, author of "How Georgia Became O'Keeffe"
""Dora: A Headcase" is first and foremost an irreverent portrait of
a smart seventeen year old trying to survive. It channels Sigmund
Freud and his young patient Dora and is both a hilarious critique
and an oddly touching homage. With an unerring ear and a very keen
eye, Lidia Yuknavitch casts a very special slant of light on our
centuries and our lives. Put simply, the book is needed."
--CAROLE MASO author of "Defiance" and "The Art Lover"
"Snappy and fun. I can pretty much guarantee you haven't met a
character quite l like Ida before."
--BLAKE NELSON author of "Girl" and "Paranoid Park
Praise for DORA: A HEADCASE
Hold a basketball under water, take your hand away, and it'll
surface with the powerhouse force of the suppressed. Welcome to
Lidia Yuknavitch's world. In Dora: A Headcase, Yuknavitch
reimagines the girl, the woman, at the heart of Sigmund Freud's
breakthrough case study and unleashes this character's fury against
a backdrop of hypocritical adulthood. Yuknavitch is talking back to
a hundred years, to the founding of psychoanalysis. I'd like to
think she wrote parts of this novel just for me, but so many
readers will feel that way. Yuknavitch has wrestled with the force
of her own convictions and given a powerful voice to a badass
character born on the literary landscape. MONICA DRAKE author of
Clown Girl
Dora is too much for Sigmund Freud but she's just right for
us--raunchy, sharp and so funny it hurts. KATHERINE DUNN author of
Geek Love
In these times there's no reason for a novel to exist unless it's
dangerous, provocative and not like anything that's come before.
Dora: A Headcase is that kind of novel. It's dirty, sexy, rude,
smart, soulful, fresh and risky. Think of your favorite out-there
genius writer; multiply by ten, add a big heart, a poet's ear, and
a bad girl's courage, and you've got Lidia Yuknavitch. KAREN KARBO,
author of How Georgia Became O'Keeffe
Dora: A Head Case is first and foremost an irreverent portrait of a
smart seventeen year old trying to survive. It channels Sigmund
Freud and his young patient Dora and is both a hilarious critique
and an oddly touching homage. With an unerring ear and a very keen
eye, Lidia Yuknavitch casts a very special slant of light on our
centuries and our lives. Put simply, the book is needed. CAROLE
MASO author of Defiance and The Art Lover
Snappy and fun. I can pretty much guarantee you haven't met a
character quite l like Ida before. BLAKE NELSON author of Girl and
Paranoid Park
In Dora, [Lidia Yuknavitch] takes the most classic model of
Thera-tain
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