How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences
University of Nebraska Press (Verlag)
978-1-4962-1409-6 (ISBN)
2021 Clara Johnson Award from Jane's Stories Press Foundation
2020 Gold Winner for Autobiography & Memoir in the Foreword INDIES
Many are haunted and obsessed by their own eventual deaths, but perhaps no one as much as Sue William Silverman. This thematically linked collection of essays charts Silverman’s attempt to confront her fears of that ultimate unknown. Her dread was fomented in part by a sexual assault, hidden for years, that led to an awareness that death and sex are in some ways inextricable, an everyday reality many women know too well.
Through gallows humor, vivid realism, and fantastical speculation, How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences explores this fear of death and the author’s desire to survive it. From cruising New Jersey’s industry-blighted landscape in a gold Plymouth to visiting the emergency room for maladies both real and imagined to suffering the stifling strictness of an intractable piano teacher, Silverman guards her memories for the same reason she resurrects archaic words—to use as talismans to ward off the inevitable. Ultimately, Silverman knows there is no way to survive death physically. Still, through language, commemoration, and metaphor, she searches for a sliver of transcendent immortality.
Sue William Silverman is a memoirist, poet, and teacher of writing at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She has published several books, including Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You; Love Sick: One Woman’s Journey through Sexual Addiction; The Pat Boone Fan Club: My Life as a White Anglo-Saxon Jew (Nebraska, 2014); and Fearless Confessions: A Writer’s Guide to Memoir.
Author’s Note
Ultima Thule
Fate 1
Clotho
spins the thread of life
The Eternal Reign of Miss Route 17
13 Ways of Surviving New Jersey
Miss Route 17 Refuses to Grow Old
The Three Fates: How Much Is the Moon Worth?
The Remarkable Death-Defying Exploits of Miss Route 17
Until My Number Comes Up
Requiem for a Qwertyist
My Death in the Family
The Three Fates: Drawing the Shades
A Member of the Wedding
Fate 2
Lachesis
measures the thread of life to determine how long you live
The Sick Hypochondriac
The Three Fates: On Tedium
The Safe Side
My Life as a Thanatologist
The Janet Leigh Variations
The Summer of Hate and Death
Here Be Human Dragons
Miss Route 17’s Near-Death Experience under the Boardwalk at the New Jersey Shore
Sigilisms of Miss Route 17’s Many Hidden Talents
Death Comes for the Poet
Flirting with the Butcher
The Three Fates and the Barefoot Angels
Fate 3
Atropos
cuts the thread of life with a pair of shears to decide how someone dies
At the Terminal Gate
Miss Route 17’s Own Graceland
Memorabilia: My Guardian Devils and the Phantom of the Opera Gloves
The Three Fates: When You Go
Of Chrysanthemums, Tupperware, Cremated Remains, and FedEx-ing to the Great Beyond
Miss Route 17’s Blue Period
The Three Fates: Filling in the Blanks
On the Reliance of Verbs to Survive Death
The Queen of Panmnesia
Acknowledgments
Notes
| Erscheinungsdatum | 03.02.2020 |
|---|---|
| Reihe/Serie | American Lives |
| Verlagsort | Lincoln |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 140 x 216 mm |
| Themenwelt | Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte |
| Literatur ► Comic / Humor / Manga ► Humor / Satire | |
| ISBN-10 | 1-4962-1409-9 / 1496214099 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-4962-1409-6 / 9781496214096 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
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