Vodka at Versailles

Heartbreaking and beautifully written. During Roger Rees' last illness, his husband started sending out updates to their large circle of friends. After Rees died, Elice was encouraged to keep up the custom in order to help work through his own considerable grief. The book collects a potpourri of things --- the above mentioned letters, tributes to Rees at his memorial, letters Elice received from their friends and mementos of their life together. They met in a scene that would absolutely work as a rom-com and never really looked back. Rees was on Broadway in Nicholas Nickleby, and Elice fell in love with him watching the play from the balcony. By the time Rees left for England and The Real Thing they were a couple. The book is funny, charming (Elice is a playwright, and it shows) but also heartbreaking. Elice is never afraid to let the reader know how bereft he is without the love of his life. The thing that saves it from being mawkish (aside from the quality of the writing) is the emergence of Rees as someone it must have been a total pleasure to know. Somewhat self-effacing, talented, funny, sentimental and what more than one person quoted refers to him as, a mensch. The Elice family embraced him as another son, and Rees more than returned their love. It is incredibly moving to see photos of family gatherings with Roger Rees in the middle of a suburban New Jersey Jewish family (he converted). The love he felt for his in-laws is always written all over his face. I teared up once or twice. I recommend it to anyone, whether you are familiar with Rees or not. It will make you want to go back and rewatch as much of his work as is available; fortunately for us, that's a lot.