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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
This was really interesting and well written (rhyming, too!!). I was going to complain that the author's voice, while vivid, was a little weak and too quiet at points, but then I listened to the postscript and they said he was dying of cancer and I felt bad. Nonetheless, things move so quickly in this short book that his wavering voice at times caused me to lose the thread of the story. Would recommend listening in a quiet environment.
Tip: read this book aloud to get a feel for the rhythm and the story.
Wow. Unlike anything else. I would not typically pick up a book written in Poetry, but I had heard a lot of his stories on This American Life, including another piece he did in rhymed couplets that blew me away. Highly recommend. The physical book is quite beautifully designed. But I think it might be even better as an audio book. If you don't know David Rakoff (I haven't read his earlier books of essays myself) recommend listening to some of his pieces on THis American Life: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/contributors/david-rakoff A good introduction is the memorial/retrospective they did when David died last year: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/472/our-friend-david
I really liked the style this book was written in and the interconnection of it's characters through the stories.
Loved this! Read it twice in a row (partly on audio, partly in text). Don't really know what else to say!
I'm not big on poetry, but the concept of a serious novel written entirely rhyming couplets with the same beat scheme that Dr. Seuss frequently used was just too strange to pass up!
I often have trouble with poetry because I get so caught-up in paying attention to the beats and rhymes that I lose track of the story. That never happened here. The scheme is simple enough to not distract me.
I don't keep most books I read, but I love this so much I'll probably buy a copy. I'll get the same edition that I've already read because it is very nice, with images by [a:Seth|5120|Seth|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1199494766p2/5120.jpg], (even though there is a typo on page 60 where one whole line is missing.)
The author knew he was dying as he raced to finish this, and that adds another layer of sadness to the story which already has several sad parts.
I'm not big on poetry, but the concept of a serious novel written entirely rhyming couplets with the same beat scheme that Dr. Seuss frequently used was just too strange to pass up!
I often have trouble with poetry because I get so caught-up in paying attention to the beats and rhymes that I lose track of the story. That never happened here. The scheme is simple enough to not distract me.
I don't keep most books I read, but I love this so much I'll probably buy a copy. I'll get the same edition that I've already read because it is very nice, with images by [a:Seth|5120|Seth|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1199494766p2/5120.jpg], (even though there is a typo on page 60 where one whole line is missing.)
The author knew he was dying as he raced to finish this, and that adds another layer of sadness to the story which already has several sad parts.
What a fun read- I was thinking in rhyme all weekend! and I keep thinking about it- worth picking up- easy to read lots to think about!
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
This was wonderful and devastating and just all round sad-making.
Favourite rhyming couplet: seance-crayons
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.)
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.)
Excellant! I listened to the audio-book read by the author before he died. It would have been helpful to also have the book with me while listening to keep up with the characters. Highly recommend!
David Rakoff’s final book, while filled with beautiful images and prose, seems to suffer from the author’s attempt to beat death to the finish line. Occasionally, the rhymes in this collection of interlocking sketches in verse seem clumsy and awkward, as if Rakoff planned to go back and polish up his couplets but never got the chance. Trying to impose a rhythm on the poetry as you read only leads to unintentional speed bumps when a line has more syllables than expected, or emphasis doesn’t fall where you expect. All of this being said, Rakoff’s work has only ever had its fullest expression when heard read by the author himself, so I expect that when I finally get around to hearing his recording of this work, it will be a bittersweet experience (I’ve heard that Rakoff, near death when recording this, sounds understandably weak and tired), but one where the author’s intent will be more fully realized.
Still, a fierce intelligence and finely-honed wit shine through, as the author threads the cameos of his characters through the fabric of the 20th century, uncovering both achingly personal anecdotes and broader social transformations in the lives he illuminates. From the status-obsessed socialite to the libidinous gay man born in the wrong era, Rakoff excavates the telling detail, the perfect bon mot, the brutally apt remark that limns his clever and probing portraiture of American fortune and folly. While it falls short of greatness, “Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish” is a rewarding emblem of Rakoff’s life-long effort to capture and distill the baffling, wondrous lives of his fellow, fallible human beings.
Still, a fierce intelligence and finely-honed wit shine through, as the author threads the cameos of his characters through the fabric of the 20th century, uncovering both achingly personal anecdotes and broader social transformations in the lives he illuminates. From the status-obsessed socialite to the libidinous gay man born in the wrong era, Rakoff excavates the telling detail, the perfect bon mot, the brutally apt remark that limns his clever and probing portraiture of American fortune and folly. While it falls short of greatness, “Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish” is a rewarding emblem of Rakoff’s life-long effort to capture and distill the baffling, wondrous lives of his fellow, fallible human beings.