Deserves every syllable of adulation it’s getting in the
press. Multiple stories of Americans over the course of the last
century, that intersect in small but poignant ways. Lest that sound like a sprawling epic, these are slender vignettes in
Seussian-metered verse (with the occasional cartoon-like illustration). The whole book clocks in at 128 pages, but
is a tiny, potent firework, packed with plot and character, heart, insight and joy
of language. Like nothing I’ve read before. Tragic, funny, acerbic, fresh… this
is the Great American Novel refashioned into a completely different beast. Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish
was published posthumously. I hope Rackoff is looking down and enjoying his
work’s success.
BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS: LIFE, DEATH, AND HOPE IN A
MUMBAI UNDERCITY by Katherine Boo
Important, superbly researched, well written, highly
readable. The inhabitants of a slum at the edge of the Mumbai airport struggle
to survive and maintain their humanity. An eye-opening look at India in an age
of global change, and also a clear-sighted picture of the nearly insurmountable
hurdles for anyone at the bottom of a society’s social and economic pile. A
worthy companion to Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickeled
and Dimed.
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