Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die; Cherish, Perish, a Novel
by David Rakoff
Buy on AmazonThe characters' lives are linked to each other by acts of generosity or cruelty. A daughter in early 20th century Chicago; a hobo during the Great Depression; an office girl in 1950s Manhattan; the young man reveling in 1960s San Francisco, then later tends to dying friends as the AIDS pandemic hits; as the new century opens, a man who has lost his way finds a measure of peace in a photograph he discovers in an old box-an image of pure and simple joy that unites the themes of this work.
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"David Rakoff’s posthumous first novel, written in rhyming verse that’s more akin to Dr. Seuss than T.S. Eliot, is a seductive heartbreaker. Its 12 cleverly connected vignettes span much of the 20th century and are filled with the sly, sharp social commentary that made him a perennial favorite on This American Life. Spinning rhymes like “San Francisco” and “Crisco,” “paradise” and “pubic lice,” and “Christian Lacroix” and “bourgeois” while dying at 47 from cancer, Rakoff infused Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish not just with his withering wit but with a piercing, wistful appreciation for life, love and art."
NPR Books We Love — 2013 · apps.npr.org
"I just finished the manuscript of the new book “Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die; Cherish, Perish, a Novel,” by David Rakoff. It’s a rhyming “novel,” very funny and very sad, which is my favorite combination."
By the Book: Ira Glass · nytimes.com