My Lover, the Rabbi
Published on 26. March 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
464 pages
978-1-80351-400-0 (ISBN)
Description
To the untrained eye, the rabbi is far from desirable. He is lofty and unkempt, he is ageing and his congregation is ever diminishing. But to one man, he is the object of obsession.
Our narrator adores the rabbi and worships the universe between his legs. But so too does he bristle at being relegated to the peripheries of the rabbi's life. When they're apart, he manically contemplates every element of the rabbi's being: his absent husband; his first (and only) wife and child, both now deceased; his unstable, yet alluring, adopted son. Until, in a bid to help sustain their relationship, our narrator embarks on an increasingly urgent quest to better understand his mercurial lover - one which threatens to upturn the lives of both men.
Lavish and lascivious, My Lover, the Rabbi is an exuberant exploration of devotion and desire, as well as a careening Catherine wheel of a novel about queer family-making, one which is attuned to the mysterious constellations and patterns that shape our lives.
Our narrator adores the rabbi and worships the universe between his legs. But so too does he bristle at being relegated to the peripheries of the rabbi's life. When they're apart, he manically contemplates every element of the rabbi's being: his absent husband; his first (and only) wife and child, both now deceased; his unstable, yet alluring, adopted son. Until, in a bid to help sustain their relationship, our narrator embarks on an increasingly urgent quest to better understand his mercurial lover - one which threatens to upturn the lives of both men.
Lavish and lascivious, My Lover, the Rabbi is an exuberant exploration of devotion and desire, as well as a careening Catherine wheel of a novel about queer family-making, one which is attuned to the mysterious constellations and patterns that shape our lives.
Reviews / Votes
Like Ingeborg Bachman's Malina, My Lover, the Rabbi circles and penetrates the outer edges of perception and experience. It's a brilliant book, written with manic zeal and cool strategy -- Chris Kraus My literary version of heaven. Neurotic erotic bliss -- Melissa Broder Wildly funny, proudly filthy, uncompromisingly committed to finding shapes for what really matters in life, this is an exceptional piece of writing. As obsessive as Proust, as entertaining as Almodovar, this deep dive into the strange equivalences of desire and loss is surely going to win Koestenbaum a whole new army of admirers -- Neil Bartlett One of the most original and relentlessly obsessed cultural spies writing today. His alarmingly focused attention to detail goes beyond lunacy into hilarious and brilliant clarity -- John Waters A writer and thinker for all time -- Maggie Nelson I'll go wherever putto, poet, painter and-little did you know-lounge crooner and ivory tinkler Wayne Koestenbaum wants to take me -- Rachel Kushner Koestenbaum is an exuberant critic, enraptured poet, intoxicated historian... I can hardly think of a writer who is so exacting about his own enthusiasms, so diligent in his pursuit of joy, so principled in the defense of pleasure -- Brian Dillon Whatever his subject favorites include porn, punctuation and the poetry of Frank O'Hara the goal is always to jigger logic and language free of its moorings... His great and singular appeal is this fealty to his own desire and imagination... Figuring it out, after all, is a life sentence -- Parul Sehgal * The New York Times *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 215 mm
Width: 135 mm
Thickness: 39 mm
Weight
482 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80351-400-0 (9781803514000)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Wayne Koestenbaum is a poet, critic, novelist, artist and performer- he has published over twenty books, including Camp Marmalade, Stubble Archipelago, The Pink Trance Notebooks, My 1980s & Other Essays, Hotel Theory, Best-Selling Jewish Porn Films, Andy Warhol, Humiliation, and Jackie Under My Skin.