First published by Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1987 

The titular character of this novel, Jerry Goldkorn, has no living congregation, rather is a rabbi solely for burying people he has never met. In fact, the very existence of the town of Lud is to host the dead in its vast cemeteries. However, the climax of the book surrounds the funeral for Joan Cohen, with whom Goldkorn was having an adulterous affair. The long eulogy he delivers provides him some much-needed self-realization. Elkin adapted this final section of the book for a collaboration with the Mid-America Dance Company. The dancers, in outfits designed by Joan Elkin, interpreted his work as movement while he read it off-stage.