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    Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish: A Novel
    Audiobook2 hours

    Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish: A Novel

    Written by David Rakoff

    Narrated by David Rakoff

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    From the incomparable David Rakoff, a poignant, beautiful, witty, and wise novel in verse whose scope spans the twentieth century

    Through his books and his radio essays for NPR's This American Life, David Rakoff has built a deserved reputation as one of the finest and funniest essayists of our time. Written with humor, sympathy, and tenderness, this intricately woven novel proves him to be the master of an altogether different art form.

    Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish leaps cities and decades as Rakoff sings the song of an America whose freedoms can be intoxicating, or brutal.

    The characters' lives are linked to each other by acts of generosity or cruelty. A daughter of Irish slaughterhouse workers in early-twentieth-century Chicago faces a desperate choice; a hobo offers an unexpected refuge on the rails during the Great Depression; a vivacious aunt provides her clever nephew a path out of the crushed dream of postwar Southern California; an office girl endures the casually vicious sexism of 1950s Manhattan; the young man from Southern California revels in the electrifying sexual and artistic openness of 1960s San Francisco, then later tends to dying friends and lovers as the AIDS pandemic devastates the community he cherishes; a love triangle reveals the empty materialism of the Reagan years; a marriage crumbles under the distinction between self-actualization and humanity; 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 brilliantly conceived work.

    Rakoff's insistence on beauty and the necessity of kindness in a selfish world raises the novel far above mere satire.  A critic once called Rakoff "magnificent," a word that perfectly describes this wonderful novel in verse.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJul 16, 2013
    ISBN9780385392914
    Unavailable
    Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish: A Novel

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    Reviews for Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish

    4/5

    119 ratings17 reviews

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    • 2/5
      I read it for the poetry gimmick, but the story didn't add up to much. I think Rakoff must have struggled with the format. It is very fragmentary puzzle, and we seem to be missing half the pieces. My favorite novel in verse is still Vikram Seth's "The Golden Gate."
    • 4/5
      This has been on my radar since before it came out and David Rakoff was on This American Life talking in verse. It took me a while to acquire it, just because, and then it sat for a while until I read Alexander Chee's The Queen of the Night last week and in the Acknowledgments Chee said that Rakoff inspired him to write the book while telling him the story of Jenny Lind.

      This was wonderful and devastating and just all round sad-making.

      Favourite rhyming couplet: seance-crayons
    • 3/5
      From the title alone, you’ll guess that this is a novel filled with all the stuff of life. From disappointed childbirth to dementia and death, the characters here suffer and glory in equal measure. There is the young artist who finds himself in the heaven that was San Francisco in the mid-70’s. There is the generous Jewish hobo who shares his warmth on a train bound west. There is the jilted lover and the innocence of beauty and youth. Spanning a century, the story moves between characters who sometimes only tangentially cross each paths. But always echos of their earlier hopes or fears recur. If it were merely a novel, it might have been merely gripping. But it is a novel in verse. Yes, in verse!The challenge for the reader, I suppose, is to consider what, if anything, being in verse adds to what might already have been a fascinating story. And what, if anything, does it take away. I don’t have a full or firm answer to those questions. I found the verse, which is Seuss-like, to be plodding and lumpen. And yet, it was also, at times, surprising. Certainly the audacity of pursuing such mature subject matter in such a childish verse form cannot be gainsaid. It is a feat. But is it more than a feat?For what it is, I enjoyed the story and characters, even when grim. I find I could have done without the verse. But then, maybe I wouldn’t have read this particular story without the attraction of such a whimsical literary effort. Maybe.Only very gently recommended.
    • 3/5
      I listened to this as an audiobook, read by the author.
      When I first realized it was in verse, I almost turned it off and returned it to the library. But I have it a chance, and actually enjoyed some parts of it. My favorite story was of Cliff, his life drawing class experience.
    • 5/5
      An elegy for himself, an ode to the capriciousness of life infused with the profound poignancy that David Rakoff died soon after he completed this work. In fact, he had cancer and knew that he was going to die while he was writing this. Which he did at the age of 47. This is a wonderfully unique book. A poem-novel. Admittedly, the rhyming couplet is not the most elevated form of poetry. It has an inescapable relationship to the limerick. But Rakoff manages to use it in a way that transcends the limitation of that scheme. He embraces the innate "low" humor of the rhyming couplet to provide a sense of humor to the saddest of stories. It is without a doubt a heartfelt expression of his own spirit, finding the humor in tragedy.He manages quite inventive and unexpected rhymes, and while there is an occasional awkwardness in the meter, it is rare, and for the most part, so smooth you barely notice the cadence. He wisely and frequently breaks the repetitive meter found in stereotypical rhyming couplets to produce something of much great sophistication.And beyond the language, the characters presented are masterfully real and sensitively rendered. One might quibble that this isn't quite a novel, rather a series of interconnected short stories. But so what? You follow a character for a chapter and then follow another one for a chapter whom the previous had encountered in some fashion and then another that the previous had encountered and so on. It is rather a human chain of relationship that while tenuous at best (sounds like real life, no?) is all we have in this world. There is modest intertwining of the stories, but primarily they are individual journeys. And the consistent theme seems to be that life always takes you somewhere you didn't expect or plan. You just never know what will happen so you might as well live your life as fully as you can and don't let it pass you by.So, as Thoreau suggested: live deeply and suck out all the marrow of life. For tomorrow, you might have a brain tumor.
    • 5/5
      Read from August 22 to 26, 2013I read this aloud to my husband and cats (it made me pay more attention). We all really liked it. It's clever, through-provoking, and the book design & drawings are a fantastic addition. I had never heard of David Rakoff until people started talking about this book and it was an excellent introduction. I'm looking forward to the audio book edition so someone can read it to me -- my read-aloud skills aren't anywhere near the professional standard.OK, now that I've told you how much I enjoyed it...I've never understand the whole "novel in verse" thing. Isn't an epic poem a type of novel in verse? Why the distinction? This collection is connected stories, it doesn't follow a novel-esque format so isn't it more of an epic poem than a novel in verse? I guess I don't understand the distinction. Of course, I turned to the Internet for an answer to this whole epic poem vs novel in verse question and I found a kind of answer from diy MFA. It didn't really help...I think it just confused me more.
    • 4/5
      Well, I did it. I read David Rakoff's last book. I've had the book since shortly after it came out, but I've put off reading it just because I knew there wouldn't be any more after this one.And I liked the book, but reading it was bittersweet because there was no reading it without hearing Rakoff's voice speaking of hope and heartbreak and the unfairness of everything ending just when you think you've figured out how to be happy. There's this beautiful thing there about people loving us more than we love ourselves, and then this other thing about the many things that stand in our way of loving one another, and still another about how loving can both free us and trap us and how we don't necessarily get to choose which, all in rhyming anapestic tetrameter.* It reminded me of "What's the Matter Here," 10,000 Maniacs' peppy-sounding song about child abuse: The delivery both makes it easier to take in and makes the hurt all the more stark.I have no way of knowing if I would have found this book so poignant if it weren't Rakoff's last, but I think I would have.*(Using only my old English Lit books, I initially identified the meter as dactylic tetrameter, but smarter people than I say otherwise. I suspect that this trouble with rhythm might be why I've never been a good dancer.)
    • 5/5
      I was not expecting to love this book, just like it. I stumbled across this book when I was looking at some other book blogs and thought that I would eventually check it out since it's different from anything else I have ever read. Then, as I was browsing my local library, this book happened to be sitting out on display, so I took it as a sign and checked it out, and I am very glad I did.I'm not normally a huge fan of poetry or verse, but after reading this book, I can't imagine this story being told any other way. Despite the fact that this book is written in the same form as "The Night Before Christmas" it dealt with really serious issues like rape and homosexuality. It's actually a rather disturbing juxtaposition between the content of the book and its playfully presented lyrical writing.At first, the stories all seem to be separate from each other, but as the book continues the lives of the characters start to intertwine to varying degrees, all of which are meaningful and very well pieced together. Despite the size of the book, (it's only about 110 pages with large print) you still become attached to the characters. It is also very likely that you will relate to at least one of the characters, if not multiple.My only issue with the book was that there where a couple of sections that the flow was lost a little. In these sections, it was hard to concentrate on the story since I was just trying to figure how to read those few lines. However, the majority of the book flowed really well and was easy to read and get into the rhythm.Overall, I really loved this book. If you are looking for something a little shorter but meaningful this is definitely the book for you. It goes by really quickly and can be read in a couple of hours or less if you are a faster reader than me. (And let's face it, I'm a pretty slow reader considering how much of it I do.)
    • 5/5
      What a wonderful little piece. I listened to the audio, read by the author, and absolutely recommend it. It is one of the few books I think would likely suffer from being read rather than heard. I went into this having no idea David Rakoff passed away just 2 weeks after recording this book and was aware of his impending death throughout the whole of the writing process. About half way through the book I came to Goodreads to see the thoughts of others, and the first comment started with that fact. The knowledge did change my experience, how could it not. That said, this epic poem, or novel in verse, or whatever you want to call it was beautiful and moving and funny and heartbreaking from start to finish and I think the knowledge that it was written by a man in his 40s staring imminent death in the face did not change the emotional effect, but simply sharpened each feeling. I went with a 4.5 thought I loved this. The first part of the tale is just a bit too overwrought and aggressively joyless for me to go to a 5. There are moments of light and humor in every life, no matter how overwhelmingly bleak. I expect Rakoff, whose sense of play really comes out later in the book knew that better than anyone.
    • 5/5
      I thought this was brilliant! Definitely not for the light readers out there though...
    • 4/5
      Though I had heard of David Rakoff (an essayist in the same vein as David Sedaris)—I had not read any of his work. I am not sure if Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die; Cherish, Perish is really the place to start. Unlike his other work this is considered a novel and it is presented in the form of rhyming couplet. This alone made it a somewhat difficult read. However after getting used to the unusual style I enjoyed the story, particularly how the characters subtly intersect each other’s lives (I found myself reminded of the novel the Hours). I both read and listened to the novel and particularly enjoyed the author’s reading of the novel. Sadly the author died shortly after finishing this novel—so we will just have to wonder how his writing journey would have developed. 4 out of 5 stars.
    • 3/5
      Well. . . this was interesting! A book in verse.
      And if I weren't so tired, I might try to review it in verse as well.
      Or rather, it's a matter of not being clever enough.
      Tracing characters thru the decades, telling the stories of the different eras.
      Recommend reading it aloud to yourself it you can.
      I was alone and could do so, found it had an easier flow and cadence that way.
      It's different enough and well done - give it a try, if you're interested, curious.
    • 5/5
      What a lovely piece to be David Rakoff's last.
    • 4/5
      David Rakoff's novel in verse, published posthumously, is written mostly in anapaestic and amphibrachic tetrameter, which means it rolls along, sounding at times like Dr. Seuss for melancholy adults. Much of the verse is witty; some is awkward, but as a whole, the short book is well worth reading. Inevitably, the book gets compared to Vikram Seth's Golden Gate, another novel in verse with ties to San Francisco (that one in sonnets); Vikram's book is melodramatic, but moved me more. The core message of Love, Dishonor seems to be that acts of love and joy transcend the sorrows and betrayals that precede and follow them (inevitably, because sorrow and betrayal are the stuff of life, generation after generation). It may be a hopeful message, but it's still pretty sad. One of the best segments in the novel, which Rakoff wrote while battling an ultimately fatal cancer, describes the experience of terminal illness from the point of view of a central and sympathetic character: "When poetic phrases like 'eyes, look your last'Become true, all you want is to stay, to hold fast.A new, fierce attachment to all of this worldNow pierced him, it stabbed like a deity-hurledLightning bolt lancing him, sent from aboveLeft him giddy and tearful. It felt like young love."[89]
    • 5/5
      A lovely and touching short novel in verse, this book has a very wide scope -- America in the 20th century. This is approached through a series of chapters, or stories, or whatever, focussed on a specific character. The stories intertwine and echo one another in surprising ways, adding to the richness of the book. The verse form takes one by surprise at first, but it is easy to settle into, and adds to the charm of the work. This might have been more finished had Rakoff not died way too soon, but it is a terrific work as it is. I look forward to rereading it.
    • 5/5
      I didn't know if I'd be up to a book in verse, but I was able to slip effortlessly into Rakoff's tale. The empathy he has for his characters (well, most of them--those who deserve it) is stunning. These verses do, in their well-chosen couplets, what very few, much longer novels manage in many thousands of words (create worlds). I would say that the only thing wrong is that I wish it were a longer book, but anything additional would be unnecessary, would dilute the power of the novel, so that would be selfish of me.
    • 4/5
      I had some trouble deciding what rating to give this one, because it is so very different, stories told in verse and rhyming verse at that. I do know that once you start reading, it is best to keep going until the end because once one is in the rhythm it is amazing to read these stories. I am just amazed at the amount of work and pure genius it took to write over a hundred pages of matching verse and have it not only make sense but tell some pretty great stories and all with a common theme. I know I couldn't have done it. ARC from publisher.