Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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

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.

Wow. I rather differ from the praises.

Dork Whore is an engaging enough book making you wonder what would happen to this poor woman next, where had her self esteem gone and when was some discrimination going to kick in?

The book chronicles Iris Bahr's back-packing trip through Asia, but is not so much about the countries themselves, as Iris's interaction with them and the other people she meets trekking the area and her quest to get laid.
The book has a repetitive format. Iris joins group with hot guy. They see sights. She attempts sex. Iris exits the group due to parting ways or a falling out.

I find it amusing that Iris wants to go have sex in the most squalid, unclean areas of the world. I can't help but cringe during a number of the scenarios, especially since descriptions of sight and smell are very effective and vivid. Iris herself rides on distasteful, being snide, whiny, sulky, passive aggressive and slutty, but also sarcastically minded, self conscious, enduring and plucky. You alternate between wanting to slap her and feeling a sisterhood. However, the jerk from one to the other is so rapid you get tired of trying to decide if you like her or not, especially with the sad stories from her childhood which seem more like justification for some sort of stupid behavior than a real expression of a complex person.

The book is raunchy and graphic, and is worth a gasp, squeal or cringe, but I never found it funny, certainly not laugh-out-loud hilarious. There is no wit to the writing, and even the moments that should be funny are either tarnished by a veneer of gross or Iris herself ruins the comedic moment with an ill placed comment. Rather, this is the literary version of the gross-out "comedies' littering our screen, which find humor the progressively nastier punishment of the characters. Witness Iris's frequent humiliation in the hands of men, her scorn of all other female characters and repeated references and descriptions of her bowel movements.

All this in a book about a woman who wants to get laid. It's not sexy or titillating, it's trashy and oh so desperate. Perhaps that's the point, but it was a 216 page trek that made me feel as if I should get tested for a venereal disease and shower.

I read and enjoyed "Machu My Picchu: Searching for Sex, Sanity, and a Soul Mate in South America" so I wanted to find out what else this author had to offer. The thing about "Machu My Picchu" was I loved it for its humor AND her college adventures with guys she wanted to be with intimately (that's not how she would put it, but Amazon would reject my review if I said it how she does). The guys she was interested in were as funny as she was and doing very odd things to get/keep her attention. In this book though, all of these guys could've been one guy. They were all attractive but dull, turning her down for some inexplicable reason no reader ever got to the bottom of. I went from thinking she was kinda easy for pursuing this many guys for sex to wondering, "What is WRONG with this lady for so many guys to want to take it slow or get an attitude and never want to have sex with her because she turned them down once?" The comedic guy who told her she was attractive and sexy and funny made me think, "Okay, once again, why is everybody turning her down?" It got to the point of looking desperate--playing games with friends, tricking people into getting into her bed (or theirs) and abandoning people just for any amount of male attention. After awhile, I just wanted to hear about her trip and not about the guys she obsessed over.

You couldn't pay me to go to any of the places she traveled to, but I loved reading her interpretations of them. (The boy with no arms was a kinda sad part that temporarily took the book on a dramatic note when it was consistently comedy before that.) She was rather catty to Iris (pronounced eye-ris), which seemed a little odd since she kept calling other women out for being catty to her.

There were moments that cracked me up. I love Iris Bahr's sense of humor, but the problem is that I didn't like her in this book. It's difficult to enjoy someone and want to laugh at all her jokes when you think she's kind of a jerk. "Machu My Picchu" was less combative, and thank goodness she didn't obsess about her butt in "Machu" the way she did in this book. In "Machu," some guys liked it, they mentioned it and moved on. In this book, there's a guy who calls her by [insert curse word for "butt"] and she seems to think it's cute. When she wasn't being catty to other women, insecure to the point you wanted to muff her or crying over some guy, she was letting people disrespect her. Bleh. The humor saved me from giving up on reading it, but I was getting close.

Soooooo gooooood! And so much better than Eat, Pray, Love.

I wouldn't necessarily do a side by side comparison of the two, but they are of the same genre and they are both about a woman traveling to multiple countries in Asia to find themselves (and in Bahr's case, to find an orgasm as well).

However, Bahr does a much better job than Gilbert at verbalizing women's neuroses. I mean, I have had EVERY THOUGHT that Bahr describes. And if a girl who spent her adolescence in Israel has the same thoughts and feelings as a Catholic girl from the Midwest, then every woman must have felt this way at some point in their lives. So, this book is reaffirming for women, as well as an entertaining read. Also, if any man asks why us women are so complex, difficult, hard to understan, etc., then give them this book. This explains everything that is going through our heads.

Furthermore, this book is hilarious!!! A very entertaining read. And it is not because of the sexual nature of this book either. Bahr is a true comedian.

I didn't know what to expect from this book having just seen this woman's brilliant solo show Off Broadway about a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv but I was not disappointed, Dork Whore is extremely funny and well written, her dry wit and neurotic insights made reading it a quick and hilarious experience, i highly recommend it, for anyone who likes to laugh this is the book for you

Dork Whore is an 3ffin' hilarious read as a 20 year old Israeli girl traipses across Asia hoping to get some lovin', all the while questioning nearly every move and non-move she makes (or should have made or wishes was made upon her). The book pulses forward (throbs?) as potential mates pop up along the trails... I actually found myself rooting for some guys while hoping others would flunk the author's comically shifting 'standards'. Make no mistake, this book is funny...Bahr has fantastic timing, effortlessly patters with prose and has a knack for scat...but the most unique quality of DW is the honesty and generosity of Bahr as a story teller. She opens up her head, heart, and family past with uncommon candor and lets us see all things big and small that make trying to get some human connection (and a little action) in this world so difficult. And worthy.

Oh, and her lubricious descriptions of Thai brothels will send anyone to 0rbitz...

and I'm sure every guy can find someone they are akin to as well.

I found this book to be almost impossible to put down and read it in two evenings (it's a great quick read.)

Iris Bahr tells her memoir in the most humorous way possible. Granted, she is a comedian so her wit is not surprising, but the STORIES are just amazing.

I would and will recommend this book to all of my friends.

Great book- great first novel. Entertaining, smart and very funny. 2 thumbs up.