Book Review : Derek Raymond - I Was Dora Suarez (1990)
* a recommendation from Harry Sword *
There are two kind of novels : the ones that aim to fulfill your expectations and the ones that don’t give a fuck what your expectations are. By starting off with a gruesome thirty pages description of an ax murder, Derek Raymond's classic noir I Was Dora Suarez cruises past whatever your expectations might've been before it even starts and pulls you into uncharted territory. This is a brutal, shocking and heartbreaking novel about so much more than a police investigation. It's going to stick with me for a while.
I Was Dora Suarez is the fourth novel in Derek Raymond’s Factory series, which features a nameless, foul mouthed investigator who's an expert in both solving crimes and alienating people. When he's called on the gory murder scene of Dora Suarez and her old benefactor Betty Carstairs, our brooding badass is deeply moved to the point he becomes obsessed with bringing justice to the young, tragic sex worker. His only lead is another murder that happened the same night, the cold blooded killing of a club owner.
Moral, justice and male obsession
This novel tells the story of two men who are obsessed with the same woman: a killer and a cop. When her involvement with the former ends (with her murder), her involvement with the latter begins with the reading of her journals. She never really exists on her own terms except in the first chapter when she is trying (poorly) to escape a crazed axe murderer. The nameless detective who is the protagonist of I Was Dora Suarez builds an idea of this fallen angel character who he needs to avenge based on her writings.
One detail that really made it come alive for me is that I don't believe Dora had a strong sense of self anyway. She was too busy trying to stifle her suffering by any means necessary. The majority of her life had been governed by sadistic men and tragic circumstances that basically enslaved her into a dangerous and unhealthy lifestyle. Even in death, she cannot escape being defined by male obsession and becomes this holy ghost who guides the nameless detective to accomplish what’s right.
Dora's journals take up a good chunk of the novel and you quickly understand how she was overtaken by the idea of trying to stop suffering. The only moments where she was truly herself were in her interaction with co-murder victim Betty Carstairs. There’s this very simple, but moving scene where the detective finds travel magazines in Dora's bedroom, silently illustrating her desire to get away from this life of misery. Death was coming for her and she was still thinking about getting away.
In 1990, Derek Raymond wrote about misogyny and it's social and psychological underpinnings better and in a more nuanced way than most writers today. Give the man some props.
A boogeyman called AIDS
Another reason why I Was Dora Suarez survived the test of time for a whopping thirty-two years (more than most novels) is that it is perhaps the best account of the AIDS epidemic of the eighties and nineties I've ever read. See, Dora is dying from AIDS and it has laid waste on her body. She barely alludes to it in her journals because of shame and fear, but a sucker puncher of a morgue scene reveals in what is one of the most horrifying scenes I’ve read in years, what it did to her and believe me, you’re not ready.
It is throughly fucked up, guys. I’m warning you. You will require to have a strong stomach and even a stronger will not to Google the medical terms talked about between the detective and the medical examiner. This scene is more terrifying than any scared straight videos they made us watch in high school. Without ever versing into melodrama, Derek Raymond fearlessly describes in medico-legal terms the absolute fucking horror of terminal AIDS. It's a lot worse than bruises. A LOOOT worse.
*
Although I Was Dora Suarez is technically noir, it’s just a very powerful novel about a woman who never had the luxury of agency over her own existence. You won't remember it because of wrenching tension or snapping dialogue (there's so much British dialogue in there, sometimes I had a difficult time understanding what was going on), but you will for the haunting memory of this young woman who inhabits every page of this novel. A thoroughly uncomfortable read, but in the best possible way.
