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Author Smith, Julia Ridley, author.

Title The sum of trifles / Julia Ridley Smith.

Publication Info. Athens : The University of Georgia Press, [2021]

Item Status

Description 1 online resource (256 pages) : illustration (black and white).
text file
Series Crux : the Georgia series in literary nonfiction
Crux (Athens, Ga.)
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references.
Contents Always magic -- Jazz on school nights -- The house beautiful ... or the house good enough -- The art of dying -- A miniature for my mother -- Legs -- Horror vacui -- The quilt -- Paper chase, a play of desire -- The sum of trifles.
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.
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Subject Smith, Julia Ridley.
Smith, Julia Ridley -- Family.
Adult children of aging parents -- Family relationships -- North Carolina.
Adult children of aging parents -- Family relationships.
North Carolina.
Parents -- Death -- Psychological aspects.
Parents -- Death -- Psychological aspects.
Women college teachers -- North Carolina -- Biography.
Women college teachers.
Genre/Form Biographies.
Subject Antique dealers -- North Carolina -- Biography.
Antique dealers.
Antiques -- North Carolina -- Psychological aspects.
Antiques.
Psychological aspects.
Personal belongings -- North Carolina -- Psychological aspects.
Personal belongings.
Material culture -- North Carolina.
Material culture.
Antiques -- Psychological aspects.
Families.
Biography & non-fiction prose.
Society & culture: general.
Sociology: death & dying.
Memoirs.
Coping with death & bereavement.
Family & relationships: advice & issues.
Biography.
Genre/Form Autobiographies.
Autobiographies.
Other Form: Print version: 9780820360416
ISBN 0820360422
9780820360423 (electronic book)