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bDyAMU body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><div class="GenericCalloutWrapper-tojWn iHBnEl llout--has-top-borr set-embedd-le" data-ttid="GenericCallout"><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embed__asset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO KhjZz AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset rponsive-image rponsive-image--expandable"><noscript><img alt="David Rakoffs Heroic Couplets" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w, 1920w, 2240w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></span></div></figure></div><p>You n make a novel out of jt about anythg the days: recip, PowerPot slis, e-mails, text msag. Still, not many novelists have turned to rhymg uplets. The novel is an expansive, necsarily flexible form. Couplets, by fn, are rtrictive, far more so than other rhyme schem, which space out their repetns, allowg the rear a breath or two before the faiar sound boomerangg back. An elegant narrative might be stng together om a seri of sons, a form the service of plex exprsns of thought and feelg; Vikram Seth pulled off his first novel, “The Goln Gate,” 1986. But uplets bear the stigma of gimmickry, of tipsy limericks and earworms om the Hallmark aisle. Most ntemporary poets won’t touch them. Would an archect build a hoe out of Lln Logs?</p><div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--article-mid-ntent" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--article-mid-ntent nsumer-marketg-un__slot---ntent"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><p class="paywall">Now, at the peak of summer, after the flurry of beach reads and before the arrival of fall’s tom, we have the latt, and the last, book by the wrer David Rakoff: “Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish,” a novel that mov om a neteen-twenti Chigo slghterhoe to a Madison Avenue office the fifti, om swgg pre-<em class="small">AIDS</em> San Francis to a ntemporary Israeli settlement, all rhymg uplets. Rakoff, who died, om ncer, last Augt at the age of forty-seven, was primarily an sayist, a superbly agile one. His work joed a novelist’s fe libratn of tail to a bgly acute cril sense. He was funny as hell. But the thg that ma Rakoff Rakoff was the way he built his sentenc.</p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embed__asset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO KhjZz AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset rponsive-image rponsive-image--expandable"><noscript><img alt="David Rakoffs Heroic Couplets" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></span></div></figure><p class="paywall">Rakoff once wrote about his love of Martha Stewart and his pulsive craftg hab, the hours he spent makg Joseph Cornell-like box and vatns to other people’s weddgs: “My salvatn li time spent alone wh an X-Acto knife and mercial-gra adhive.” His says are extensns of his art projects, each clse sculpted jt so before beg fted together wh the others, often at joyfully baroque length. Listeng to him read his work on an d book or “This Amerin Life,” you uld sometim hear Rakoff stra as he got to a particularly elaborate b of syntax. Could he make to the end whout trippg over his tongue? Then me the elegant ura, the halatn before glidg to the end of the phrase. Rakoff had a betiful voice, and he knew how to e .</p><p class="paywall">For the uplets “Love, Dishonor,” Rakoff chose anaptic tetrameter: l of four feet, each ma of three syllabl, the strs fallg on the last. As Ja Masl poted out the <em>Tim</em>, anaptic tetrameter provis the beat for “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” and “Yertle the Turtle,” by Dr. Sss, and the nfg effect of an imposed form on Rakoff’s prose appears, at first, jt as stark. Here is how “I Feel Dirty,” an say om Rakoff’s fal llectn, “Half Empty,” opens: “The posive psychology movement began, part, to addrs the perceived imbalance where the attribut of excellence at the upper end of the human spectm were always beg outshone by the negative.” And here is the start of “Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish”: “The fant, named Margaret, had hair on her head / Thick and wild as a fire, and three tim as red.”</p><p class="paywall">But uplets n be far more supple and sophistited than they first seem. They’re brought to life by accumulatn, a scene or argument or joke buildg over a sequence of vers rather than a glib one-two jab, and by misdirectn, too. No form sets up clearer expectatns of what’s to e; so much the better, then, to do what’s unexpected. “Where there is need for bdg there mt be some difference or separatn between the thgs to be bound,” wrote the mid-century cric W. K. Wimsatt. Alexanr Pope, the master of the form, wng the most om their subversive possibili. His uplets brg together the fe and the rough, the elevated and the base, as his famo warng to the va heroe of “The Rape of the Lock,” who might “sta her honour, or her new bro, / Fet her pray’rs or miss a masquera.” In “An Essay Cricism,” published 1711 when he was twenty-two, Pope skewered wrers who took the banal rg of uplets at face value:</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><asi class="PersistentAsiWrapper-VGrR daRVRt persistent-asi" style="posn:absolute;top:to;height:to" data-ttid="PersistentAsiWrapper"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="vsclg"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></asi></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="w6yqed"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><blockquote class="BlockquoteEmbedWrapper-sc-SdiGL jPeLne paywall blockquote-embed"><div class="BlockquoteEmbedContent-RbGs gmbtPx blockquote-embed__ntent"><p>And ten low Words oft creep one dull Le,<br/>While they rg round the same unvary’d Chim,<br/>Wh sure Returns of still expected Rhym.<br/>Where-e’er you fd the olg Wtern Breeze,<br/>In the next Le, whispers thro’ the Tre;<br/>If Chyrstal Streams wh pleasg Murmurs creep,<br/>The Rear’s threaten’d (not va) wh Sleep.</p></div></blockquote><p class="paywall">As if to strike back agast the abers of the form, Pope ed uplets for everythg: poetry, says, and translatn. He trimmed the Iliad to rhymed iambic pentameter as a French garner might take a pair of sheers to a prehistoric fort. (Bee of Pope’s, and his precursor John Dryn’s, efforts to wrangle ancient epics to their preferred shape, their vers were lled “heroic.”) For Pope, rhymg uplets were the uns of that sential eighteenth-century qualy, w:</p><blockquote class="BlockquoteEmbedWrapper-sc-SdiGL jPeLne paywall blockquote-embed"><div class="BlockquoteEmbedContent-RbGs gmbtPx blockquote-embed__ntent"><p>Te w is Nature to advantage drs’d<br/>What oft was thought, but ne’er so well exprs’d,<br/>Somethg, whose tth nvced at sight we fd,<br/>That giv back the notn of the md.</p></div></blockquote><p class="paywall">I wouldn’t be surprised if was Pope, wh his emphasis on the role of the tellect art and his flair for social satire, who first attracted Rakoff to rhymg uplets. “Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish” featur exactly the kd of self-volved damsel that Pope would have dreamed of takg on verse:</p><blockquote class="BlockquoteEmbedWrapper-sc-SdiGL jPeLne paywall blockquote-embed"><div class="BlockquoteEmbedContent-RbGs gmbtPx blockquote-embed__ntent"><p>San had never donned que so bourgeois<br/>A garment as Thursday night’s Christian Lacroix.<br/>In llege—jt five years gone—she’d have abhorred <br/>But now, beg hont, she fuckg adored .</p></div></blockquote><p class="paywall">Or maybe was Chcer, the ventor of rhymg uplets English, who drew Rakoff to the form and showed him the fe le between poem and novel. Wh s ragtag mishmash of characters—a nun, a knight, a lawyer, a wife, a iar, a monk—all speakg voic as distctive as any Dickens or Trollope, “The Canterbury Tal” uld easily qualify as a novel verse. Chcer’s uplets tch the sounds of his pilgrims’ journey to Thomas Becket’s shre, the up-and-down of a packhorse’s ga echog the rhythm of the rhym. His uplets aren’t ma for refed <em>jx mots</em> but for stori told over the noise of crowd roadsi ns and the clatter of hoov; their doma is the body more often than the md. In “The Miller’s Tale,” the bawdit of them all, Alison, the pretty young wife of a naïve Oxford nkeeper, is sced by the scholar Nicholas, who brazenly “ughte her by the queynte,” and dispos of a send suor, the daty Absolon, by stickg her bare backsi over a wdow ledge when he climbs up a ladr the middle of the night to offer her a kiss. When Absolon returns, he’s armed wh a poker; this time, ’s Nicholas who’s wag for him.</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-1 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">I thought of “The Miller’s Tale” while readg the most jubilant passage “Love, Dishonor.” The scene is neteen-seventi San Francis, where Clifford, an artist who disvered he was gay as a young boy a figure drawg class, is havg satiable fun:</p><blockquote class="BlockquoteEmbedWrapper-sc-SdiGL jPeLne paywall blockquote-embed"><div class="BlockquoteEmbedContent-RbGs gmbtPx blockquote-embed__ntent"><p>O, San Francis, I’ve left you my heart!<br/>(Tug those two down while you b on that part…)<br/>A boy on a stoop who was palmg his crotch,<br/>It seemed impole, Clifford thought, not to watch<br/>Then up to his flat where they diddled for hours,<br/>Another one’s mp had near-magil powers;<br/>Clifford the bull and that ass the torero<br/>That led him for blocks the wrong way on Guerrero<br/>A mouth like a summer-ripe plum, or a lf<br/>Fuzzed wh goln hair, or a neck, or a lgh<br/>Could make Clifford fall (and might leave him wh pubic lice)<br/>And still he felt he had land paradise.</p></div></blockquote><p class="paywall">But ’s the morn poet Thom Gunn who watch over the scene which Clifford next appears, wastg away om <em class="small">AIDS</em>: “It was the sadns that gripped him, far more than the fear / That if facg the tth he had maybe a year.” Gunn was born 1929 and died 2004. He spent much of his life San Francis. In 1992, he published “The Man Wh Night Sweats,” a llectn of poems about <em class="small">AIDS</em>, three rhymg uplets. “<a href=">Lament</a>” is for Gunn’s iend Allan Noseworthy, who died on a midsummer day 1984. It’s an extraordary work. In a hundred and sixteen l, Gunn trac the episos of Noseworth’s ath: the body’s first failur, the pa and tedium of the hospal, the kdns of a nurse, Noseworth’s renciliatn wh his tranged father, a ath that “by drowng on an land sea / Of your own fluids,” and Gunn’s emergence, alone, to the ngo light of the outdoors for the burial.</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="qc359"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><blockquote class="BlockquoteEmbedWrapper-sc-SdiGL jPeLne paywall blockquote-embed"><div class="BlockquoteEmbedContent-RbGs gmbtPx blockquote-embed__ntent"><p>…You had gone on om me<br/>As if your body sought out martyrdom<br/>In the far Canada of a hospal room.<br/>Once there, you entered fully the distrs<br/>And long pale rigors of the wilrns.<br/>A gt of morphe hid you. Back sight<br/>You breathed through a segmented tube, fat, whe,<br/>Jammed down your throat so that you uld not speak.</p></div></blockquote><p class="paywall">As Joel Lovell <a href=">scribed</a> the <em>Tim</em>, Rakoff spent his last months stgglg to fish “Love, Dishonor,” and wrote s fal pag the month before he died. He had been toyg wh sectns of the book for years, some for as long as a ; uplets appealed to him long before he knew his illns would be fatal. Even so, there’s a different ronance to the wrg that Rakoff produced as he raced to beat the clock. Couplets are a self-pleted form. Their rhym, a strg of termediary endgs, allow the traveller who might not have the strength to go on much further a seri of natural stoppg pots. If ath had ught him off guard, Rakoff would still, a sense, have managed to fish. In “Lament,” Thom Gunn softly mak the analogy between the end of a uplet and the end of a body: “And so you slept, and died, your sk gone grey, / Achievg your pletens, a way.”</p><div class="Contaer-bkChBi byNLHx"></div><p class="paywall">A wrg teacher of me ed to repeat a phrase of Wordsworth’s: “Nuns et not at their nvent’s narrow room.” It’s the tle of a son, the first a seri of metaphors that Wordsworth draws between people who live ntentedly enclosed spac and those, like him, who are jt as happy to be nfed by poetic form:</p><blockquote class="BlockquoteEmbedWrapper-sc-SdiGL jPeLne paywall blockquote-embed"><div class="BlockquoteEmbedContent-RbGs gmbtPx blockquote-embed__ntent"><p>Nuns et not at their nvent’s narrow room;<br/>And herms are ntented wh their cells;<br/>And stunts wh their pensive cals;<br/>Maids at the wheel, the weaver at his loom,<br/>S blhe and happy; be that soar for bloom,<br/>High as the hight Peak of Furns-fells,<br/>Will murmur by the hour foxglove bells:<br/>In tth the prison, to which we doom<br/>Ourselv no prison is: and hence for me,<br/>In sundry moods, ’twas pastime to be bound<br/>Wh the Son’s snty plot of ground;<br/>Pleased if some Souls (for such there needs mt be)<br/>Who have felt the weight of too much liberty,<br/>Should fd brief solace there, as I have found.</p></div></blockquote><p class="paywall">Rakoff was one of Wordsworth’s kdred souls, a seeker of the eedoms that only form allows. Wrapped tight his uplets, did he fd the solace Wordsworth promised? Impossible to say for sure, though the last l he wrote offer a clue: “She’s standg and squtg, ey half-closed om the sun / And lghg, lighted at what’s still to e.”</p><p class="paywall"><em>Photograph by Anthony Pidgeon</em></p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="acdwk"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 PaywallInleBarrierWhWrapperGrid-fyrGfS kLQIUk 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When I fally started “The Frd,” one prciple was clear: no Dickens.</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi cuRXdL summary-em__byle-date-in"><div class="SummaryItemBaseByle-fFbXkY cgDBtc summary-em__byle"><div class="summary-em__byle__ntent"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH dSEWiO byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss byle__preamble">By </span>Zadie Smh</span></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="SummaryItemWrapper-iwvBff ewgXAt summary-em summary-em--ARTICLE summary-em--no-in summary-em--text-align-left summary-em--layout-placement-text-below-sktop-only summary-em--layout-posn-image-right summary-em--layout-proportns-33-66 summary-em--si-by-si-align-center summary-em--si-by-si-image-right-mobile-false summary-em--standard SummaryCollectnGridSummaryItem-WColm kdEfwY" role="button" tabx="0"><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-2" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="The Novelist Whose Inventns Went Too Far" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="SummaryItemContent-eiDYMl bcywvc summary-em__ntent"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN fYiFyD summary-em__bric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">Life and Letters</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM cZPaWG summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-2" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href=" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ iIjKeM summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">The Novelist Whose Inventns Went Too Far</div></a><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-2" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="The Novelist Whose Inventns Went Too Far" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd jxOIpm cPtisA summary-em__k">After the Ao-Cuban wrer H. G. Carrillo died, his hband learned that almost everythg the wrer had shared about his life was ma up—cludg his Cuban inty.</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi cuRXdL summary-em__byle-date-in"><div class="SummaryItemBaseByle-fFbXkY cgDBtc summary-em__byle"><div class="summary-em__byle__ntent"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH dSEWiO byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss byle__preamble">By </span>D. T. Max</span></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="SummaryItemWrapper-iwvBff ewgXAt summary-em summary-em--ARTICLE summary-em--no-in summary-em--text-align-left summary-em--layout-placement-text-below-sktop-only summary-em--layout-posn-image-right summary-em--layout-proportns-33-66 summary-em--si-by-si-align-center summary-em--si-by-si-image-right-mobile-false summary-em--standard SummaryCollectnGridSummaryItem-WColm kdEfwY" role="button" tabx="0"><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-3" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="The Bt Books We’ve Read 2023 So Far" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="SummaryItemContent-eiDYMl bcywvc summary-em__ntent"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN fYiFyD summary-em__bric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">Unr Review</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM cZPaWG summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-3" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href=" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ iIjKeM summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">The Bt Books We’ve Read 2023 So Far</div></a><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-3" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="The Bt Books We’ve Read 2023 So Far" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd jxOIpm cPtisA summary-em__k">Our edors and crics review notable new fictn, nonfictn, and poetry.</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi cuRXdL summary-em__byle-date-in"><div class="SummaryItemBaseByle-fFbXkY cgDBtc summary-em__byle"><div class="summary-em__byle__ntent"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH dSEWiO byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss byle__preamble">By </span>The New Yorker</span></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="SummaryItemWrapper-iwvBff ewgXAt summary-em summary-em--ARTICLE summary-em--no-in summary-em--text-align-left summary-em--layout-placement-text-below-sktop-only summary-em--layout-posn-image-right summary-em--layout-proportns-33-66 summary-em--si-by-si-align-center summary-em--si-by-si-image-right-mobile-false summary-em--standard SummaryCollectnGridSummaryItem-WColm kdEfwY" role="button" tabx="0"><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-4" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="The Upper Wt Si Cult That Hid Pla Sight" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="SummaryItemContent-eiDYMl bcywvc summary-em__ntent"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN fYiFyD summary-em__bric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">Unr Review</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM cZPaWG summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-4" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href=" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ iIjKeM summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">The Upper Wt Si Cult That Hid Pla Sight</div></a><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-4" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="The Upper Wt Si Cult That Hid Pla Sight" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd jxOIpm cPtisA summary-em__k">In the sixti and 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david rakoff gay

Everybody's dog . Ted Williams, his kids, gay men, rich Wterners. They're eezg their bodi for the future, when science (God help ) will lgh at ath. David Rakoff explor the strange cult of wantg to live forever

Contents:

GAY HUMORIST DAVID RAKOFF DEAD AT 47

* david rakoff gay *

”A self-scribed gay Jewish Canadian transplant to New York Cy, Mr.

” “Frd” and “Don’t Get Too Comfortable” received Lambda Lerary Awards, an annual honor for lbian- and gay-themed Mr. (I've also been told anecdotally that as many as 25 percent of the current spend-patient populatn might be gay men. Now, there's a Venn diagram to chill me to the re of my homosexual marrow.

STUART LTLE RCU A GAY BOY

Canadian-born gay wrer was known for his humoro tobgraphil says * david rakoff gay *

The cryonicists are simply one extreme wh a cultural moment that has vilified agg to the pot where the jectn of a nrotox to erase wrkl and halt facial exprsn is pletely Alrians will thk me a fool, no doubt, and many thgs this world are an outrage, to be sure, but ath at our current life expectancy don't strike me as one of them (and as a gay man who lived New York Cy durg the 1980s, I know a thg or two about people disappearg before their time). On seeg iends die young durg the AIDS epimic "Seeg so many iends who were tly young and iends of iends — you know, I'm a gay guy, livg New York Cy durg the '80s and '90s durg the height of the panmic — was like livg wartime but a very specific kd of war... Rakoff was pecially known for his humoro and wty observatns about gay life.

At one pot the gay thor of Don’t Get Too Comfortable and Half Empty talked about the importance of Stuart Ltle upon his life. Rakoff, who as a small gay boy felt he didn’t belong anywhere, knew stantly that he had found a soul mate E.

But had Whe, even 1945, placed Stuart his worsted blue su wh patch pockets anywhere near a schoolyard (there is an episo where he actually teach school, but more on that later), Stuart would have learned nclively om his human peers that he was, at the very least, a big fag, a sissy, a ‘mo and a do I mean to claim the fe feelg and higher sentiment embodied by Stuart’s rarefactn as the exclive provce of the gays.

QUEERG ‘THE SIMPSONS’, DAVID RAKOFF’S LAST DEADLE, AND OLD GROWTH NORTHWT’S GAY ROMANCE CONFERENCE

Canadian-born gay wrer was known for his humoro tobgraphil says * david rakoff gay *

And certaly a gray felt hat and ne are not necsarily gay props and of themselv are an tegral part of a gay childhood, wh s vigilance agast exposure, s years of passg.

As a gay child, your life sentially nsists of wrg checks your ass n’t ver.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* DAVID RAKOFF GAY

Stuart Ltle Rcu a Gay Boy | Better Livg through Beowulf .

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