Dork Whore: My Travels Through Asia as a Twenty-Year-Old Pseudo-Virgin [Paperback]

Iris Bahr (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 6, 2007

Fresh out of the Israeli Army, twenty-year-old Iris Bahr decides to follow the footsteps of many before her and backpack through Asia. Only unlike the average traveler, she has more in mind than just seeing the sights: she is on a desperate mission to lose her virginity.
 
Dork Whore is a fresh and funny memoir about a young woman whose quirky personality and embarrassing neuroses always seem to get in the way of her getting what she wants. As Iris lands in hotel rooms in Bangkok, rides scooters out of opium-fogged compounds hidden in the jungle, and antagonizes an impromptu tour group in Vietnam, she begins to realize that the greatest obstacle she'll have to overcome isn't losing her virginity, but coming to terms with the reasons for her need to be accepted. Poignant, hilarious, and always original, Dork Whore is a remarkable mix of bawdy humor and heartbreaking moments, witty intelligence and touching personal discoveries. Iris Bahr has given us an unforgettable coming-of-age tale about how a young woman finally learns how to trust others--and her own judgment.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Newly discharged from Israeli military duty and in search of "emotio-physical release after three years of puke-green uniforms," 20-year-old Bahr backpacked from Bangkok to Saigon to Delhi in order to experience life as well as (less successfully) find a proper lover. "My poonani has become my own personal Gaza Strip," she notes in this witty though uneven memoir, "unable to get past the partial penetration stage." However, when Bahr sets out with a fellow Israeli named Boaz, whom she met in a Tel-Aviv Backpacker Store, she's already been deflowered indifferently by a Moroccan paratrooper. In Bangkok, Boaz deserts her, and Bahr befriends another Israeli from her flight, Yoni, who is intent on visiting a brothel, where the narrator is hit by a banana catapulted from the dancer's vagina. Bowel problems plague our narrator, from Bangkok to Delhi, and from time to time she does let slip a few touching details of her life, such as the breakup of her parents' marriage and her brother's retardation. Bahr (an actress who has appeared in Curb Your Enthusiasm and Cable Guy) tries to ingratiate herself with the reader with her sarcastic digs at herself and others, but she offers little by way of description or history about the places she's actually visiting. (Mar.)
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Review

Praise for Dork Whore:

 

"Girl meets boy, girl meets another boy, and girl meets another boy…my kind of book! Dork Whore is hilarious. It's like listening to a drunk friend tell you all the embarrassing stuff she'll regret the next day."--Chelsea Handler, author of My Horizontal Life

 

"Much about Ms. Bahr can be learned in her gracefully titled memoir, Dork Whore: My Travels Through Asia as a Twenty-Year-Old Pseudo-Virgin (Bloomsbury). The subtitle cannot be fully explained here, nor can her unpleasant experience in the audience at a Bangkok sex show, nor her exquisitely detailed gastrointestinal troubles, nor her repeated attempts to bring to an end her pseudo-virginal status."--New York Times
 
"Bahr has a flair for the self-deprecating wisecrack, a trick that keeps this quick memoir moving."--Kirkus Review
 
"Witty…touching details."--Publishers Weekly
 
"Like Bruch Chatwin with a vagina, Paul Theroux with a sense of humor, Iris Bahr takes an external and internal journey that is exotic, unique, singular, personal, intimate, honest, exciting, wildly funny, smart, and strangely arousing"--Larry Charles, director of Borat and producer of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA (March 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596912340
• ISBN-13: 978-1596912342
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #331,766 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very clever. Very fun. Very real., March 14, 2007

By 

Elizabeth Emerson (Santa Barbara, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dork Whore: My Travels Through Asia as a Twenty-Year-Old Pseudo-Virgin (Paperback)

When this book arrived, I opened it to the first page to just get a taste of the writing. I truly did not put it down until more than 80 pages later. The story is very engaging and fun. I couldn't help but think I'd love to travel with Iris -- even if I would have to fight her off for men. Ms. Bahr is so honest that you almost feel guilty reading such intimate thoughts. The writing is very smart, but entirely accessible. She's a self-aware narrator, but not in an annoying let-me-hit-you-over-the-head-with-my-self-discovery way.
It was the most enjoyment I've had between two covers in awhile. ;)
I hope she writes another book soon.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read her works, but just don't travel or go to a Thai bar with her, April 8, 2007

By 

Larry Mark "editor of MyJewishBooks.com" (NYC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dork Whore: My Travels Through Asia as a Twenty-Year-Old Pseudo-Virgin (Paperback)

Take David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell and David Rackoff, stuff them together in a pita, give them divorced parents, an American and Israeli childhood, send them to the Israeli Army, and then ship them off to Asia with a journal. Now you almost have Iris Bahr. Iris (pronounced Eeeee-ris) was fresh out of the Israeli Army, age 21, and off to Asia like many other Israeli 20-somethings to trek and backpack. The stories that ensue are funny, slightly insightful, totally soul-baring, and sort of like "travels through Asia in a bad and horny mood."

There are many who say that men think with their crotch more than with their brain. Iris is the same. She is desperate to officially lose her virginity, and because Iris' crotch is in control, and because she is chock full of Jewish and other neuroses, she is not the most pleasant travel companion. But what is bad news for her fellow trekkers becomes hilarious stories for her readers. The chapters are very short, which is perfect for subway reading, and every so often she sprinkles in a scene from her childhood, which help to give a foundation for her recurring funny issues with abandonment and love, but overall, who really cares. What is most important are her hilarious episodes across Asia as she deals with prostitutes, men who love prostitutes, men who would break lifelong friendships with best friends for the chance for pleasure or prostitutes, intestinal worms, having the cool backpack, and finding the right balance between individual and group activities

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars painfully funny, March 27, 2007

By 

Geoffrey M. Kirk (seattle wa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dork Whore: My Travels Through Asia as a Twenty-Year-Old Pseudo-Virgin (Paperback)

If you enjoy the type of humor found in something like Extras, where you want to turn away from the painful embarassment and yet you can't all the while you're in stitches, then you'll like this book. Bahr can turn a phrase also, and some of the text is almost poetic in the way of a tale told out loud or a good stand-up routine.