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| Best book to share summer reads: Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish | |
| (8 days later) | |
| Welcome to Guardian US summer reads. Each Monday until Labor Day we'll give an award to celebrate a new book that suits your summer mood and plans. All featured books will be summer 2013 publications. Last week, we announced our pick for best beach read: Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan. | Welcome to Guardian US summer reads. Each Monday until Labor Day we'll give an award to celebrate a new book that suits your summer mood and plans. All featured books will be summer 2013 publications. Last week, we announced our pick for best beach read: Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan. |
| The week after Labor Day we'll ask you to vote on your favorite of our summer selections. The book with the most votes will be given an additional Guardian US readers' choice award. | The week after Labor Day we'll ask you to vote on your favorite of our summer selections. The book with the most votes will be given an additional Guardian US readers' choice award. |
| Read along with us throughout the summer and tell us what you think of our picks on Twitter. | Read along with us throughout the summer and tell us what you think of our picks on Twitter. |
| The week after Labor Day we'll ask readers to vote on their favorite of our summer selections. The book with the most votes will be given an additional Guardian US readers' choice award. | The week after Labor Day we'll ask readers to vote on their favorite of our summer selections. The book with the most votes will be given an additional Guardian US readers' choice award. |
| Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish by David Rakoff | Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish by David Rakoff |
| Some books are meant to be shared. David Rakoff's novel is one of them. It's just much too good to keep to yourself. | Some books are meant to be shared. David Rakoff's novel is one of them. It's just much too good to keep to yourself. |
| This is the book you bring to your girlfriend's parents when you arrive nervously for your first weekend at their beach house. It's what you take to your boss's annual summer barbecue. You can stuff this into your backpack for your boyfriend to read aloud to you in your Oregon tent. Or put it next to the bed for your guests. | This is the book you bring to your girlfriend's parents when you arrive nervously for your first weekend at their beach house. It's what you take to your boss's annual summer barbecue. You can stuff this into your backpack for your boyfriend to read aloud to you in your Oregon tent. Or put it next to the bed for your guests. |
| LDMDCP is a grand novel that spans 20th-century American generations and families in the tradition of Jonathan Franzen. Only it's written in verse. Which means it's a slim volume. It has a clever cover that spells out the title in an unusual way – and that's just the beginning. Those of you with more to prove will want to drop the words 'anapestic tetrameter' and call it a modern-day Canterbury Tales or even The Wasteland. Don't bother. To compare it to anything is to do it a disservice. LDMDCP is uniquely brilliant. | LDMDCP is a grand novel that spans 20th-century American generations and families in the tradition of Jonathan Franzen. Only it's written in verse. Which means it's a slim volume. It has a clever cover that spells out the title in an unusual way – and that's just the beginning. Those of you with more to prove will want to drop the words 'anapestic tetrameter' and call it a modern-day Canterbury Tales or even The Wasteland. Don't bother. To compare it to anything is to do it a disservice. LDMDCP is uniquely brilliant. |
| With not much writing time left, Rakoff – a well-known contributor to This American Life who died of cancer last year just after finishing the book – managed to create whole characters from a handful of words. | With not much writing time left, Rakoff – a well-known contributor to This American Life who died of cancer last year just after finishing the book – managed to create whole characters from a handful of words. |
The tales of his strength and his temper | The tales of his strength and his temper |
| abounded | abounded |
| And God help the soul who might think them | And God help the soul who might think them |
| Unfounded. | Unfounded. |
| If Frank said that one time, in Wichita, Kansas, | If Frank said that one time, in Wichita, Kansas, |
| He'd killed a man who had addressed him as | He'd killed a man who had addressed him as |
| Francis. | Francis. |
| The stories moves across states and time, linked together by coincidences that Rakoff describes in little jewel boxes of scenes that propel the action forward. Here's one of a 1960s Mad-Men type office seduction: | The stories moves across states and time, linked together by coincidences that Rakoff describes in little jewel boxes of scenes that propel the action forward. Here's one of a 1960s Mad-Men type office seduction: |
How had it begun, before things all turned | How had it begun, before things all turned |
| rotten? | rotten? |
| She can pinpoint the day, she has never | She can pinpoint the day, she has never |
| forgotten | forgotten |
| How he came to her desk and leaned over her | How he came to her desk and leaned over her |
| chair | chair |
| To look at some papers, and then smelled her | To look at some papers, and then smelled her |
| hair. | hair. |
| "Gardenias," he'd said, his voice sultry and lazy | "Gardenias," he'd said, his voice sultry and lazy |
| And hot on her ear, Helen felt she'd gone crazy. | And hot on her ear, Helen felt she'd gone crazy. |
| "A fragrance so heady it borders on sickly," | "A fragrance so heady it borders on sickly," |
| He'd purred at her neck and then just as quickly | He'd purred at her neck and then just as quickly |
| Was back to all business, demanding she call | Was back to all business, demanding she call |
| Some client, as if he'd said nothing at all. | Some client, as if he'd said nothing at all. |
| Each story is set in its own period, ending in the early years of this century. Knowing he was dying, Rakoff wrote unsparingly about Aids and Alzheimer's. | Each story is set in its own period, ending in the early years of this century. Knowing he was dying, Rakoff wrote unsparingly about Aids and Alzheimer's. |
| On Aids: | On Aids: |
| Victor, a handsome star of the ballet | Victor, a handsome star of the ballet |
| Whose turnout, they said, could turn anyone gay | Whose turnout, they said, could turn anyone gay |
| Coughed once, and then he expired like | Coughed once, and then he expired like |
| Camille - | Camille - |
| Not quite, but the true facts seemed just as | Not quite, but the true facts seemed just as |
| surreal- | surreal- |
| And what could one say about poor lovely, | And what could one say about poor lovely, |
| Marty? | Marty? |
| Whose fever spiked high at his own dinner party | Whose fever spiked high at his own dinner party |
| Between the clear soup and the rabbit terrine | Between the clear soup and the rabbit terrine |
| By eleven that night, he was in quarantine. | By eleven that night, he was in quarantine. |
| Marco was the anchor of Bay Area News Day. | Marco was the anchor of Bay Area News Day. |
| Fevered on Friday and dead the next Tuesday. | Fevered on Friday and dead the next Tuesday. |
| Gorgeous and baritone, gifted with words | Gorgeous and baritone, gifted with words |
| And felled by an illness that struck only birds. | And felled by an illness that struck only birds. |
| You'll have your own favorite moments. Mine is the wedding scene, where Nathan has been asked to give a toast to his former best friend and girl friend, Josh and Susan. Every couplet of this excruciating, heartbreaking, hysterically funny event is a gem. | You'll have your own favorite moments. Mine is the wedding scene, where Nathan has been asked to give a toast to his former best friend and girl friend, Josh and Susan. Every couplet of this excruciating, heartbreaking, hysterically funny event is a gem. |
| That the couple had asked him for this | That the couple had asked him for this |
| benediction | benediction |
| Seemed at odds with them parking him here by | Seemed at odds with them parking him here by |
| the kitchen. | the kitchen. |
| Without spoiling it for you, I'll just say that the event has one of the best endings ever. | Without spoiling it for you, I'll just say that the event has one of the best endings ever. |
| So buy this book. Read it before passing it on. Then buy another copy to keep, but you'll probably give that one away too. It's the perfect gift. | So buy this book. Read it before passing it on. Then buy another copy to keep, but you'll probably give that one away too. It's the perfect gift. |