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The sum of trifles / Julia Ridley Smith.
Van Pelt Library CT275.S52433 A3 2021
Available
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Smith, Julia Ridley, author.
- Series:
- Crux (Athens, Ga.)
- Crux : the Georgia series in literary nonfiction
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Smith, Julia Ridley.
- Smith, Julia Ridley--Family.
- Adult children of aging parents--Family relationships--North Carolina.
- Adult children of aging parents.
- Parents--Death--Psychological aspects.
- Parents.
- Women college teachers--North Carolina--Biography.
- Women college teachers.
- Antique dealers--North Carolina--Biography.
- Antique dealers.
- Antiques--North Carolina--Psychological aspects.
- Antiques.
- Personal belongings--North Carolina--Psychological aspects.
- Personal belongings.
- Material culture--North Carolina.
- Material culture.
- Adult children of aging parents--Family relationships.
- Antiques--Psychological aspects.
- Families.
- Psychological aspects.
- North Carolina.
- Genre:
- Biographies.
- Autobiographies.
- Physical Description:
- 238 pages ; 22 cm.
- Place of Publication:
- Athens : The University of Georgia Press, [2021]
- Summary:
- "This first book by Julia Ridley Smith explores the death of the author's parents through the objects they left behind, offering both a poignant meditation on grief and a curious, thoughtful look at the ways that we live in a material culture, where everything from a work of art to a prosthetic leg contains a multitude of meanings. One piece uses her father's hi-fi as a way of talking about jazz, race, and the life of the artist, while another (previously published in the New England Review) zooms in on an antique mourning miniature to tell the story of her mother's final days. The book combines family lore, memories of growing up in the home of two antiques dealers, and an assessment of the narrator's literary and cultural influences as a white woman growing up in the late-twentieth century South. Organized as a series of essays exploring the things her parents left behind, The Sum of Trifles traces Smith's experience of loss as her elderly parents' health declines and they die, leaving the narrator and her family with the task of sorting, donating, and finally selling the contents of their home"-- Provided by publisher.
- Contents:
- Machine generated contents note: FIRST
- Always Magic
- Jazz on School Nights
- The House Beautiful or the House Good Enough
- LAST The Art of Dying
- A Miniature for My Mother
- Legs
- Horror Vacui
- NEXT
- The Quilt
- Paper Chase, a Play of Desire
- The Sum of Trifles.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references.
- Other Format:
- ebook version :
- ISBN:
- 9780820360416
- 0820360414
- OCLC:
- 1245956768
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