Because I so enjoyed listening to David Rakoff’s storytelling on This American Life, I wanted to hear Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish: A Novel by in his native voice.
I already had an unusual relationship with this book, having read this aloud to myself since it was written in iambic pentameter and I wanted to feel the full rhythm of the words to understand the story. I usually get my audio books in digital download form but this came as a physical CD. This meant I had to sit and listen rather than listen while I did other things like exercise or do yard work. So I consumed this story in two out-of-my-ordinary ways.
There was a bonus track at the end where producer Ira Glass talks about David being sick while taping the book, how Glass had to edit out Rakoff’s gasping for a breath after every couple of words.
In the story, a sister gives a toast at a wedding and the voice Rakoff uses is so funny that Glass wanted him to read the whole book in that voice. There is a snippet of Rakoff reading the first few pages of the book in this silly sister accent.
This audio book was completed days before Rakoff died. You can hear his heart and soul in the story and his words.
