Customer Reviews

Remember How I Love You: Love Letters from an Extraordinary Marriage

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

In "Remember How I Love You: Love Letters from an Extraordinary Marriage," Elaine Orbach briefly describes her marriage to actor Jerry Orbach, best known for starring on legendary TV show Law and Order as well as hit movies like Dirty Dancing. Unfortunately, Orbach never got a chance to write his memoir but his wife does a good enough job for both of them. She describes growing up in Pittsfield, Massachusetts and going to New York where she met Jerry while working on a Broadway show. Orbach himself was from the Bronx and considered himself a real New Yorker.

After they married, the Orbachs briefly moved to LA, where movie agents were indifferent to Jerry's New York credentials. What ultimately saved Jerry's career was returning to New York to take part in a movie which ultimately garnered him some recognition--though the road to celebrity was still long.

Intermixed with Elaine's chapters on Jerry's life (including his love for golfing, poker, and the simple life) were poems that he wrote to her each morning, before going to work. The poems themselves are mostly cute four/five liners, which Jerry wrote for the fun of it, but which took on a more sentimental meaning for Elaine after he was no longer there. The book is small and very short, but ultimately reveals an intimate side to Jerry and his personal life that was off-limits during his acting career. Ultimately, I found this book a brief but a very poignant and a compelling look into Jerry Orbach's life.

This is a combination memoir and poetry book as Elaine Orbach tells the audience about her marriage to the late actor Jerry Orbach, starting with how they met in the first half of the biography. That section is interesting but nothing extraordinary. The latter half of the book consists of short poems that for the most part are lighthearted ditties that the late actor scribbled on a cat calendar before a shooting. His wife Elaine would read and enjoy them before tossing them into a tureen. At his funeral several were read in loving memory and eventually led to the book. Is this great literature? No as some of the entries are inane, others poorly written and few complex beyond simple rhyming. Yet the poems are inspiring and enjoyable. Readers will who appreciated Law and Order will relish seeing another side of the actor; his love for his beloved Elaine as the couple reminds us how important it is to tell your loved ones you care while they still can appreciate the mental hugs.

Harriet Klausner

This is a wonderful Christmas gift for one that you love. What a talent he was without even knowing it. Its a gift of love.

I always loved Jerry Orbach as an actor and besides watching him in every episode of "Law and Order", I also got to see him on Broadway in 42nd Street. His wife wrote this book, but passed away suddenly just before it was published so she is not around to promote the book. It's a quick read about Jerry and Elaine's life together filled with lots of letters he wrote to her daily. I recommend the book for any fans of Jerry Orbach.

This is a book that promises small, but delivers huge. It chronicles a love a husband (Jerry Orbach) has for his wife, Elaine. In "Remember How I Love You," it shows how a man does not take love for granted. Sometimes he will write with fluency. Other times he encounters the writer's block. Regardless, he will pen down his feelings to let Elaine journeys with him. Indeed, a marriage that depends only on a rare few gigantic showers of love, is no match for a marriage that flows with constant trickles of adoration and love. Little things add up.

Jerry's love letters is a way how a man shares his life journey with the most important person in his life, his wife. His love notes is an example of how ordinary words, written with an extraordinary heart makes all the difference. I warmly recommend this book for all couples. Read it. Practice it with your spouse regularly. You may save not only the money for marriage counseling, but your marriage as well. Below is one of my favourites:

"You said, 'Don't write a poem today.'
But I am writing anyway.
There's not enough time in the day
to say the things I want to say.
A million poems my whole life through,
could never tell my love for you!

XXX's
Jer" (p95)


The book closes with a touching poem (p178). This time it is from Elaine, after Jerry died. Prepare for tears. Really good ones.

4 Stars of 5.

conrade

Having been a long time Jerry Orbach fan and admirer of his wife as well, I was delighted with this offering. It brought tears to my eyes, and then made me laugh out loud. What a wonderful experience.

What a wonderful example for all those whose relationships last no longer than their shampoos. Sometimes a little gesture, each day, creates a love that lasts a lifetime. It did here, and we are treated to a silly and lyrical reality of just such an affair, and the real costs of television celebrity. (You really do get to wake up in the city that never sleeps.) A real story of staying the course, but never mawkish or too sentimental. A great valentine's gift, I would think. I have bias in this, however: Jerry Orbach was one of my favorite actors.

Great Book - brings a lot of love filled smiles. Cover on book was a little torn even though I bought it new. Recommend to anyone who has a deep, endearing love in their life!

This is an enlightening look at a side of Jerry Orbach that few knew. Pages of poems he wrote to his wife every day reveal his constant love over the years for his wife. I highly recommend it to couples of all ages!!

I wasn't married to a famous person as was Elaine Orbach. But I was married to an honest, hard working man who was taken too young by cancer. And to that shared pain, this book spoke to me and made me smile through the tears.

Sadly, I was more of a "Lenny Briscoe" fan than a Jerry Orbach fan - that is to say I only knew of him from Law & Order rather than his sterling career on Broadway. But from the sweet and silly little poems that he wrote to his wife each morning, I can see that Jerry and Lenny weren't too far apart. Regular guys who cared deeply and gave their all to life.

The "poems" are little more than random doodles, but through their simple sweetness the portrait of true love emerges. As the cancer took hold and then took over, the tone of the notes changed and the love and devotion speak loudly. Anyone who has watched a loved one succumb to this monsterous disease knows the agony that this couple experienced.

This little book makes a perfect gift for a newlywed couple or as an anniversary present. It would also offer quiet comfort to the recently bereaved. Everyone needs to remember how precious and fragile true, honest love can be.