When everything slips away, what do you hold on to?
A beautifully written memoir that doesn't blink from talking about the death of a loved one. It is unapologetic, un-euphemistic, and unafraid.Following a long fight with cancer, Tracy's death ended their thirteen-year marriage. In the months immediately following his loss, Frederick Marx writes about their time together, falling in love, their shortcomings, and how they made each other better people. Marx recounts his relationship with his partner--not as saint, but as person. Then he describes his own struggle to go on without her. Marx shares an intimate, soul-searching look at love and loss. With exquisite openness and honesty, his story is full of pain, but it also includes the grace and beauty he experienced on that journey. Ram Dass, author of Be Here Now, said: "This book shivers with the frailties of what it means to be human, enfolding loss in all its forms, finding a way through acceptance and the pure ground of being back to love."
"Frederick Marx has written a touchingly intimate account of love, loss and healing. Losing a loved one is something most everyone faces at some point in life. At Death Do Us Part shows the possibility of navigating through this journey with consciousness, understanding and an open-heart."
"I was deeply moved by Frederick's story beginning with the words from his introduction. 'How do you get over losing your life partner?' This is an experience none of us want to go through, yet it is one that is part of the inevitable human journey. Frederick offers us a glimpse into our present and future losses, but does it in such a beautiful and caring way, we feel like we're with a true guide and loving friend who is holding us in his kind embrace."
"This book is one's man's story of love, loss, and realization; actually it is a story that many of us know or will know. Heartbreaking, beautiful, intimate, challenging... This is a book we should all read."
"Marx's eventful story seems tailor-made for a philosophically captivating memoir; his struggle with his inner demons supplies plenty of fodder for introspection, which he tackles with subtlety and candor.... It is admirably forthcoming."
"At Death Do Us Part is a book about life, of change, of opening your heart. Reading Frederick's words and mulling over his stories, I feel that my world is now filled with more depth and more flavors, as well as some new questions and insights about this thing we call being alive. A beautiful, moving book."
"AT DEATH DO US PART is a true love story, on the plane with Joan Didion's YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING and Joyce Carol Oates' A WIDOW'S STORY. Heart-breaking. Heart-healing."
"Most people know Frederick Marx from Hoop Dreams, Journey From Zanskar, and other fine films. They probably don't know that he is a longtime student of dharma, an ordained Zen priest, and a gifted writer exploring the terrain of the human heart. This book shivers with the frailties of what it means to be human, enfolding loss in all its forms, finding a way through acceptance back to love."
―Ram Dass, author of Be Here Now
