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Dirty Weekend: A Gripping Crime Fiction Novel Kindle Edition

by Helen Zahavi (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 185 ratings
See all formats and editions
REVIEWS
A literary turning point - Naomi Wolf
Every woman who has ever had a fantasy about taking revenge on a man can identify with its heroine - Louise Doughty, Wall Street Journal
Spare and stylish - Literary Review
Stylized thuggery . . . the effect is stunning - Marie Claire
Zahavi upset a lot of people when this book was published. Not surprisingly, really. You can't break taboos and expect people to like you for it . . . Her story is one of sexual violence, perversion and murder, but it is also terribly funny, with some marvellous dialogue - The Sunday Times
A brave, brilliant and beautiful book - Julie Burchill
Don't come looking for Jane Austen, but if you can stand the ride you may enjoy Zahavi's free-skating wit on very thin ice - Nick Marston, GQ
Deadpan in style, shocking in content. Every moral and emotional preconception is subjected to a literary assault and battery. The polished rhythms and frightening finesse of the prose leave you stunned - The Daily Telegraph

'This is the story of Bella, who woke up one morning and realized she'd had enough . . .'
Dark, violent and brutally funny, Dirty Weekend was hugely controversial when first published in 1991. It went on to become an international bestseller, was translated into thirteen languages and was made into a feature film by Michael Winner.
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  1. Print length
    205 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    November 28, 2013
  5. File size
    1621 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

A literary turning point - Naomi Wolf, New Statesman

Every woman who has ever had a fantasy about taking revenge on a man can identify with its heroine - Wall Street Journal

Spare and stylish - Literary Review

Stylised thuggery. The effect is stunning - Marie Claire

Zahavi upset a lot of people when this book was published. Not surprisingly, really. You can't break taboos and expect people to like you for it. Her story is one of sexual violence, perversion and murder, but it is also terribly funny, with some marvellous dialogue - The Sunday Times

A brave, brilliant and beautiful book - Julie Burchill

Don't come looking for Jane Austen, but if you can stand the ride you may enjoy Zahavi's free-skating wit on very thin ice - Nick Marston, GQ

Deadpan in style, shocking in content. Every moral and emotional preconception is subjected to a literary assault and battery. The polished rhythms and frightening finesse of the prose leave you stunned - The Daily Telegraph

From the Publisher

'A brave, brilliant and beautiful book' - Julie Burchill

'As a literary turning-point, Dirty Weekend is significant; as a black comedy of very bad manners, it is sidesplitting; as a mimetic description of the revenge fantasies that women who have been sexually assaulted really do, if they are mentally healthy, experience, it is informative. But it would be a cop-out to explain this book as a refreshing metaphor for anything at all. It is, above all, an act; a warning.' - Naomi Wolf, New Statesman & Society

'If this book is given the serious feminist consideration which it deserves, it will cause uproar among us. Such uproar, division, grief and falling-out that one would prefer it had been released for, private reading only, among women only, and highly feminised women at that, before making it available to the general public. This book is that shocking... In the character of Bella, the humiliation and anger of Everywoman has been condensed, compressed and let explode against the oppressive weight of Everyman ... Helen Zahavi has a fatally attractive way with murderous words.' - Sunday Tribune

'Zahavi stares reality in the face and tells the truth. The message she brings is unpleasant and discomfiting, but it cannot be ignored. In the best books about murder we learn something valuable about the darkness within the human condition and maybe we catch a glimpse of ourselves. These books are all too rare. Dirty Weekend is one such book. Zahavi should stick around and scare some more bleak truth into the lies of men.' - Blitz

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0056VAS14
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pulp Fiction - Literary Crime Thillers (November 28, 2013)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 28, 2013
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1621 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 205 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 185 ratings

About the authors

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  1. Jean Esch

    Jean Esch

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  2. Helen Zahavi

    Helen Zahavi

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Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
3.9 out of 5
185 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Leapin' Literary Lurkers
5.0 out of 5 stars "You begin to feed an appetite you didn't know you had."
Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2013
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This book definitely is not for everyone, but I found it a brilliant portrayal of the thread of dark humanity.

The author's sublime method of hard-driving expression is written with an amazingly sensual cadence---the effective, modified repetition becomes almost a drumbeat.

We envision Bella as a fragile worm turning---in this case into a vigilante against men's abuse of powerless women.

Describing a philosophy of unpleasant sex, the book is best avoided by the prudish.

Admittedly there were several portrayals of brutality that turned my stomach, but I always rooted for Bella to triumph. The reader experiences an emotional roller coaster that exposes fear and horror.

The introduction of the Persian philosopher Nimrod was an inspired excursion into wisecracking, crackling repartee as he gives Bella "the key."

Ms. Zahavi presents a fascinating analysis of damaged goods as she transforms Bella into an empowered soul. Our victim-cum-heroine strikes back as she encompasses the seduction of violence and gains a "[n]ew perspective on her own life."

Take a walk on the (very) wild side...Bella...you GO girl!
2 people found this helpful
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Elaine H Rosenthal
4.0 out of 5 stars A hoot!
Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2013
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Descriptions that made me laugh out loud several times. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone but it engaged some of my fantasies.
2 people found this helpful
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KillahDoll
3.0 out of 5 stars The Highway(wo)man
Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2012
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Bela is a woman who is a self-admitted helpless victim of the male victimizers of the world, misogynistic men who hurt women physically and mentally, and she's had enough. The intention is for Bela to get revenge and she goes at it fighting fire with fire. Her inner dialogue is interesting enough. It seems properly confused, helpless, making efforts in an honest way to pull together her revenge act. I had a problem with the language in the narrative itself, which seemed to be reminiscent of single women I'd met in London, UK while I lived there whose mother tongue was other than English. Fair enough, it added to the 'helplessness' factor for me. Zahavi used a technique of having Bela repeat certain observations during her inner narrative which became annoying. The repetitive technique reminded me of a poetry style and it seemed she was trying to tie the whole piece together in a repetitive, rhythmic way, which for the most part worked, but I felt it could have been trimmed a bit. The repetition got to me after a while and I started skimming.

I could describe it as a cross between a Clint Eastwood movie and: The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes - see: [...] - the poem has an example of that rhythmic repetition.

[spoiler alert] [spoiler alert]

I really finished the book to find out the end, which I'd already guessed as soon as she said she threw the gun away in the alley while killing off those nasty (Clockwork Orange-ish kids). Even though I sensed she'd kill the last one with her knife (which was conveniently muted), right up to the last pages, I was wondering if Zahavi was going to let her be killed and end with a tragedy. I'd say that without a doubt, the tragic ending would have been a superior story, but then everyone would disagree I'm sure, so I won't say that. Still a very good book, and a big touche for the Belas of the world. Bravo.
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IndependentThinker
5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece.
Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2016
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Perfection. I wish it was a series, or at least a trilogy, wherein Bella starts a gang. There is much potential for a continuing saga. Zahavi brilliantly gets in the head of the common man, the more unhinged violent rapist/murderer, and her avenging angel of a protagonist. A must read for any societal underdog.
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Jeri Kopet
5.0 out of 5 stars A gritty and dark revenge fantasy
Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2013
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This book lives up to its name. My professor friend recommended I read it after I showed interest in the presence of violent women in literature, namely: where were they? In this book, the protagonist Bella goes through a powerful transformation and becomes a slayer of patriarchal ideas. And you can't help but root for her every step along the way.
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Lisa Hoffman
4.0 out of 5 stars Read this book
Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2013
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Why didn't I know about this book sooner? Read this, then recommend it to your friends, you won't regret it.
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Amazon Customer
1.0 out of 5 stars Duped by bookseller
Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2016
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I was very disapointed. The book is translated into French. As a non French speaker and reader I was not happy. The cover is in English - nowhere when ordering it did it say it was in French.
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Julia Mira
3.0 out of 5 stars This is a book about an attractive young woman who does pretty much exactly what I fantasized
Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2014
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I got this book because when I was a young woman, I had recurring fantasies of hurting the men who sexually harassed me. I am not the victim of abuse, it never went that far. But I was groped, my breasts and butt were fondled, my interest in science and math were sneered at because of my weak mind, etc. You've heard it before, it's not new though I imagine the men amongst my readers have no idea how pervasive casual harassment is for attractive young women.

This is a book about an attractive young woman who does pretty much exactly what I fantasized. She not only kills her harassers, but, as happens in dreams, she gets her hands dirty.

I didn't give the book five stars because it is deeply uncomfortable reading about that kind of rampage, more so than I expected. I only got through about 75% of the book. I know that when something becomes uncomfortable like that, then you're at the bleeding edge of literary genius. This book might actually be great. But it isn't all that good.

I want something a little more in love with the English language. I want something a little more nuanced - surely the character has a deeper life. Surely more issues should be raised than just the fact that many men sometimes treat women like sex toys, and that some of them go too far, and that when they do, it is often wrongfully tolerated by our culture. Surely there is more to say than that!
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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j-l B
5.0 out of 5 stars noir de noir
Reviewed in France on July 21, 2020
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Contrairement à la présentation sur ce site , l'auteur n'est pas Jean Esch qui est seulement le traducteur mais Helen Zahavi née en 1966 (comme moi;--) , auteure de quatre romans et qui a fait une entrée fracassante en littérature avec ce roman "dirty week-end" -publié en version originale en 1991.
Résumé :
Ce roman est une réédition - longtemps attendue - du premier roman noir signé Helen Zahavi (1991)... et du dernier en date des ouvrages de littérature à avoir fait l'objet d'une demande d'interdiction au Parlement de Londres, pour cause d'immoralisme...demande non reçue, ouf, ou alors cela aurait voulu dire que l'on était revenu au temps de l'Inquisition.
Un classique absolu d'un genre en fait indéfinissable ;--))
Un petit livre indispensable à toutes celles qui, fatiguées de se faire peloter dans le métro rêvent de montrer aux mecs de quel bois elles savent se chauffer, pour peu qu'on les pousse à bout.
Vraiment dans le genre de "baise moi" de Virginie Despentes- voir mon commentaire où en résumé je disais :""...C'est violent, sanglant, amoral...C'est un roman olfactif qui sent le sperme, les règles, les sécrétions vaginales mais aussi la mer, les champs et le béton de la ville....Le sexe dit faible qui maltraite le sexe dit fort." , Et bien "dirty week-end" vous plonge dans la même atmosphère , dans la vie de Bella une femme qui en a marre de vivre dans un monde de machos, d’obsédés, de pervers qu'elle côtoie tous les jours...et qu'elle décide un jour au réveil d'éliminer.
Attention ce roman est noir de noir et extrêmement violent.
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Amanda
5.0 out of 5 stars Re-discovered
Reviewed in Australia on January 30, 2024
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My large friend group in the early 90's all passed this book around and loved it! About a female murderer, but very real feeling, no cliches or self pity. Rhythmic writing in parts that really adds to the atmosphere.
So happy i found this book again! Will be sharing .
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J. Potter
5.0 out of 5 stars Sublime, literary and wildly entertaining crime
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 5, 2013
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It's always a pleasure as I make my way through a book, realising a quality above the usual. Especially turning the last page and knowing the book now ranks as an all-time great. This is rare. In the last year American Gods and Cloud Atlas rank as such. I'd also read Helen Zahavi's Donna and the Fatman, sometimes titled Donna's Revenge, which stood shoulder to shoulder with these other two. Donna was sublime. I bought Helen's other two books immediately, but until last Sunday I hadn't read either. Mostly because I didn't want them to spoil the esteem I held for the first - if that makes any sense at all. But I couldn't sleep Sunday and reached for the Kindle. One thing led to another, and I started reading Dirty Weekend.

Bella is a fragile and quite attractive woman, a person quite happy for the world to pass by. Unfortunately it seldom does. Her need for seclusion attracts unwanted attention. It starts with intimidating calls in the middle of the night, then personal threats as she tries to enjoy a few hours in the sun. Bella has nowhere to turn or run. Tired of a life persecuted by men who think they can own her, something trips in Bella's mind and she decides to run no more.

Any worries Dirty Weekend might taint my love of Donna and the Fatman was dispelled about two lines in. Dirty Weekend is not only possessed of the same original and sublime narrative, it defines a wonderful heroine we can admire and fear a little. Imagine Dirty Harry with the badge and scowl swapped out for a red silk dress, stilettos and a disarming smile.

Undoubtably literary throughout but easily bridging the entertainment divide, Dirty Weekend is a compulsive tale of revenge against society and the many aspects of it we accept, that with closer thought, probably shouldn't. The characters are all distinct and familiar to us in everyday life. The themes echo feminism but never preach, just lay out the facts. Both Donna and Bella have wildly entertained, stimulated and refined my interactions with women, which is something quite special I believe.

I cannot recommend Dirty Weekend highly enough, which I would urge you to read first. Because I have a few theories about where the eloquent Donna (and the Fatman) come from.

I hope this was helpful.
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Lord Emsworth
4.0 out of 5 stars A well written, deadpan revenge noir,
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 29, 2020
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Dirty Weekend by Helen Zahavi was a familiar sight on the London underground when it came out in 1991. I was inspired to read it having noticed that The Curiously Specific Podcast had done an episode on it, and I wanted to listen to the podcast having read the book. Needless to say the podcast is a great listen. It adds more interest and humour to the reading experience.

Dirty Weekend is a well written, deadpan revenge noir, which features plenty of unapologetic violence, that won't be to everyone's taste. It was a few decades ahead of its time.

Bella, our protagonist, credibly and powerfully describes how an intelligent and stable person develops low self esteem, and how that feels. I was beguiled by Bella, the everywoman who has had enough of the daily humiliation meted out by men.

Dirty Weekend is written in a stocato, somewhat repetitive, style which works really well with the content, and is an interested counterpoint to the graphic violence. It's no surprise that Michael Winner chose to make a film adaptation.

The Brighton setting, a place I know very well, only added to my enjoyment.

The book was very divisive when it came out. Some reviewers loved it, some hated it. Perhaps those in the latter category had never encountered exploitation type fiction before? Either way, it seems relatively tame by modern standards.

4/5
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camille
4.0 out of 5 stars surprenant
Reviewed in France on March 1, 2019
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Surprenant comme le sujet est traité et le roman est construit . Quelque peu déroutant au début , mais au fond , c'est original et vaut le détour .
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