since i already read books based on celebrities emma roberts, and mindy kaling's instagram. i decided to throw another celebrity into the mix, b.j. novak.
(quick digression: i didn't think much of him on the office looks-wise until he got the glasses, than swoon!!)
b.j. novak posted this:
so i decided to check out david rakoff's love, dishonor, marry, die, cherish, perish. based on novak's pic and on the fact that the cover was really cool.
quick addition, i have to give a shout out to my friend fabian for being in the know and beating novak to posting this. i even liked fabian's photo but didn't think about checking it out until novak's post. damn my pop culture media obeying brain!!!
here is fabian's post:
since i based picking this book up based on b.j. novak's good looks and an interesting cover, i had no idea what this book was about. i had never read anything by rakoff prior to this nor have i listened to this american life which he contributed to. i also had no idea that rakoff passed away in august of 2012 due to cancer, and this book was published posthumously. i had expected a normal size book and was shocked by how thin it was when i picked it up from the library. but most surprising of all, was that the entire book is written in verse! yes, verse! its like dr. seuss for adults! and rakoff was a genius because he made it work with some impressive rhymes!
for example:
news-aperçus
adolescence-phosphorescence
eyesore-mysore
bon vivant-confidant
cantilever-fever
(i could go on and on)
one of my favorite couplets was about the conservative blanche tilly who attacked clifford's gay comics:
"how i wish you would stop up that bile-spewing spigot,
you use when you speak, you rebarbative bigot."
cruel and articulate!
but as my SAT scores will show you, vocabulary is not my forte, so the dictionary was out to help me with some of the words that rakoff used.
paresis: slight or partial paralysis
frond: large leaf
malfeasance: wrong doing or misconduct
aperçu: a brief survey or sketch
bon vivant: a person having cultivated, refined, and sociable tastes especially with respect to food and drink
(i really need to start a word-a-day program for myself.)
though love, dishonor, marry, die, cherish, perish is written in verse which has a lightheaded feel to it, rakoff's characters stories are quite heavy. the novel opens with the story of a baby, margaret, born into pitiful conditions, as the midwife saw it, red haired and without a father (he was trampled by horses) and a mother without a family. and the midwife was right, margaret ends up being raped by her mother's second husband. luckily, she runs away to california and finds a better life.
margaret's tragic story was a lot to digest especially being the opening story. but as the reader is introduced to other characters in the novel, suffering is just a fact of life. mother, lost the glamour life of her youth when her father gambled it away. clifford, an artist, gay and found freedom in san francisco, and sadly contracted and died from AIDS. hannah, suffered from dementia and a cruel daughter-in-law. and josh, who lost is family and ended up finding a picture that connects the all characters in the end, a six degrees of seperation.
of all the stories in this novel, helen and nathan were the highlights for me.
helen was clifford's cousin. her mother was had quite the sharp tongue and would tease helen growing up, and the sarcasm, unfortunately went over helen's head. but that ended up being the least of helen's problems though it was probably the source of her problems.
helen's tale is a story told before, probably in amc's mad men (i haven't watched it), and sort of in billy wilder's the apartment (i actually imaged the office set up from this movie as i read). boss has an affair with secretary. helen's affair went on for about 5 years (i can't imagine that!) and ended with an abortion. due to this, she got drunk and caused a scene at the holiday office party but fortunately was not fired (the affairs were quite commonplace so nothing worth being fired over.) but what i loved about helen was that though this occurred to her, she didn't play victim. she still went to the holiday party every year, even wore her cocktail to work so to not have to go back and forth between home. she knew people talked and in the end gave a big fuck you to her office tormentor.
nathan, i admired as well for giving his life tormentors a big fuck you too and on their wedding day. he was caught in a love triangle between his best friend josh and josh's girlfriend, susan, and ended up the odd man when the other two married. susan, being the bitch that she was, something her father also recognized, made sure nathan attended and gave a speech. i really enjoyed nathan's speech, it was based on the fable about the tortoise that helped the scorpion get across the river. in the fable, the scorpion ends up killing the tortoise and himself because it is his nature to stab. it seemed an odd choice at first but he amazingly put it on content.
he explained:
so what can we learn from their watery ends?
is there some lesson on how to be friends?
i think what it means is that central to living
a life that is good is a life that's forgiving.
we're creatures of contact, regardless of whether,
to kiss or to wound, we must still come together,
like in annie hall, we endure twists, bad torsions,
for food we don't like, in such tiny portions!
but, like hating a food but still asking for more,
it bears standing dry but so lonely on shore.
so we make ourselves open, while knowing full well
it's essentially saying, 'please come pierce my shell.'
love is does leave us open to pain but in the end it is worth it than being lonely. (this coming from an old maid).
however, nathan's speech did not end on this pleasant note but in the end, susan deserved the harsh speech. and i love how in the end, susan's dad corrected nathan, letting him know that turtles swim not tortoises.
nathan's speech also demonstrated rakoff's cleverness. another favorite passage of mine was clifford's mother talking about being trapped in the valley (san fernando valley for all you non-LA-ers).
"malibu's breezy. hollywood's shady
but burbank? he might as well've brought us to hades!
i could yip when i think of the crime it,
was moving me out here was 'because of the climate."
the fan in her hand the scene's sole, languid motion,
"i once heard it said that there was an ocean
not terribly distrant from where we sit here,
but, i supoose that was just a bum steer.
escaping me now are the details specific,
but could it be named something like 'The Pacific'?"
i was in the valley when i read it. and it was a hot day in october! so the perfect setting for that passage. plus i plan on stealing mother's little joke about the pacific!
also aren't the illustrations great? they were done by seth. the ending illustration was especially cute:
an enjoyable read, i now plan on reading the rest of rakoff's works.
ps i saw on bj novak's instagram that the la times review was written all in verse. here is a link.
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