Dork Whore: My Travels through Asia as a Twenty-Year-Old Pseudo-Virgin by Iris Bahr

From the Publisher

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.

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.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Semi-virginal Israeli army-intelligence vet picks up her backpack and heads east, drawn by the prospect of travel and potential deflowering. The first time Bahr tried to have sex, it was with a Moroccan paratrooper she met while on guard duty at her Israeli army base. Even though he was strangely gorgeous (the other soldiers on base being intelligence types: "very brilliant and very very ugly") and quite into the idea, it was a (partially completed) disaster. So, two years later, 20-year-old Bahr-a transplanted Bronx girl fresh out of the military and years away from TV semi-stardom, on Curb Your Enthusiasm-gets ready for an Asian backpacking jaunt, fully determined to get away from her clingy mom, the military and her virginity. Things start off poorly for the author, whose travel buddy abandons her in Thailand, leaving her to aggressively market herself to other backpacking groups in order to not travel alone. A stint in the jungle with a pair of drugged-up Brits goes poorly (the cute one is more interested in lying to Thai hookers about wanting to marry them to get free sex), while adventures in Vietnam with an overly friendly girl also named Iris go little better. Things reach a nadir when Bahr ends up in the Himalayas flirting simultaneously with a couple of best friends and snapping in jealousy at the other women in their ad-hoc party. Bahr has a flair for the self-deprecating wisecrack, a trick that keeps this quick memoir moving. But often she's so busy indulging in competition with backpacker girls, and ignoring men who are interested in her while chasing after those who aren't, that the actual traveling gets short shrift. If romantic melodrama was all she wanted, she could havestayed in Israel. Intermittently chuckle-worthy tale that never lives up to its once-in-a-lifetime title. Agent: Peter McGuigan/Sanford J. Greenburger Associates

Product Details