The Sum of Trifles

Crux: The Georgia Series in Literary Nonfiction

by Julia Ridley Smith

When Julia Ridley Smith’s parents died, they left behind a virtual museum of furniture, books, art, and artifacts. Between the contents of their home, the stock from their North Carolina antiques shop, and the ephemera of two lives lived, Smith faced a monumental task. What would she do with her parents’ possessions?

Smith’s wise and moving memoir in essays, The Sum of Trifles , peels back the layers of meaning surrounding specific objects her parents owned, from an eighteenth-century miniature to her father’s prosthetics. A vintage hi-fi provides a view of her often tense relationship with her father, whose love of jazz kindled her own artistic impulse. A Japanese screen embodies her mother’s principles of good taste and good manners, while an antebellum quilt prompts Smith to grapple with her family’s slaveholding legacy. Along the way, she turns to literature that illuminates how her inheritance shaped her notions of identity and purpose.

The Sum of Trifles offers up dark humor and raw feeling, mixed with an erudite streak. It’s a curious, thoughtful look at how we live in and with our material culture and how we face our losses as we decide what to keep and what to let go.

Genres: Memoir, Essays, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2021

Reviews

[Kathryn E · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Amazon review: TG
5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, thoughtful and immersive
Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2021
While I know the writer, I wouldn't give a five star rating if she wasn't such a really brilliant writer. Julia is honest, humane and has an ability to see comedy in the most difficult parts of living. The book is about parents dying, which happens every day, but her writing not only reflects the universality of her situation but the unique experiences which define her parents, their extensive collection of antiques (they owned a family antiques business), and their Southern histories, all of which she is coming to terms with over the course of the memoir. It's funny, touching and also a great story of the South and the legacies of slavery. It is also a beautiful gift for someone who has lost a friend of family member.

[Ron Law · Rating 5 out of 5]

So we’ll written. These essays, memories are so touching, so funny and so very thoughtful. After the death of her parents, the author examines all their “stuff,” trying to determine what to keep and what not to keep. The memories that spring forth are so wonderful. Recommend this!

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A grief memoir, a reckoning with the family history (slaveholding), an exploration of our various relationships to myriad earthly possessions, AND set in North Carolina, this is one I'll definitely read again.

[Liz Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

This excellent memoir is a series of linked essays about the power of things in our lives. Smith’s focus is her parents, lifelong antique dealers and collectors, and her grief at their deaths as expressed by her attachment to their possessions. She also explores her family’s slave-holding history. I loved Smith’s ability to weave her personal story with an exploration of both literature and non-fiction works on death, hoarding, and history. This book pushed me hard, but in the best way, to think about why I hold on to so many objects.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoughtful memoir about the intersections of grief, family history, social history, race relations and personal responsibility.

[Kelly Ferguson · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the age of Marie Kondo’s tidying up, stuff has lost cachet. The current trend of minimalism values experiences over things, and Millennials and Gen Xers have little interest in the colonial bedroom sets or service for 12 that their parents have left behind.

But what if your mother ran an upscale antique store filled with beautiful, irreplaceable objects? It’s one matter to purge Gone with the Wind collectibles, but a Genji screen or 19th-century quilt might give pause...

Full review at the link below!

https://indyweek.com/culture/page/jul...

[Jo Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Other books give helpful, practical advice about how to clear out a loved one's home, but this collection of essays provides a much more personal, emotional account of the experience. The author works through the process of untangling her emotional attachment to her ancestors' things, an integral part of her grief process. Part of her journey included sorting out the relationships, as well as the heartbreaking legacy of slaves in the family. This collection has heart, humor, pain, and searing honesty.

[Belinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of Julia Ridley Smith’s experience of purging the belongings of her deceased parents. The book is filled with life stories and straight forward feelings. Recommended by a friend (RM), this book is honest, sometimes humorous, and filled with literary references. The title of the book describes the process of ones life as a sum of trifles and was certainly appropriate.

Read paperback copy.

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, I enjoyed that a lot. Smith is working through figuring out what to do with all of the stuff that her deceased parents left behind. Each chapter has at its hard a different thing—a folding fan, a hifi set—that she uses to be recount her and her family’s lives, but also ponder deeper questions.

[RG · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book - it is a tender but clear-eyed description of the author's relation to her parents, and to the antiques which framed their lives. Extremely well-written, lovely to read, highly recommended.

[Lynn Domina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of essays about the author's parents' stuff. I most appreciated the pieces toward the end of the book--they are more complex, linking her parents' lives and their stuff to ideas, events, and moments beyond their immediate lives.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

All-over-the-map memoir which delves into grief, mental illness, guilt, and possession. A tough book for me to recommend to anyone specific since I think some sections would be appreciated, but others might cut too close to the bone. Anyone interested in family history might give this a try though.

[Kami · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really slow and lovely, especially at the beginning. I was less interested in the author's dive through family history, it all felt very academic somehow. The book was most moving when she talked about her mother, who she clearly adored, and when she drew us into the items in her home.

[Debi Steeley · Rating 3 out of 5]

It started off good but about two thirds of the way through it seemed to lose focus, switch tracks.

[Elle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellently written. Beautiful and personal tale of grieving, literature, family history, class and our attachment to items.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

(no 49 of 2022)

Favorite chapters
"Always Magic" (first)
"Legs" (dad)
"The Quilt" (family history)
"The Sum of Trifles" (new beginnings)

[Jeannine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the reflection on specific things in each essay. My dad, too had a too large hifi that I will have to put in a Dumpster one day. Smith handles themes like legacy and identity with heart and research. Highly recommend to all who have aging parents.

[Jenny Wheelbarrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection of essays to form a memoir addressing grief and loss and what do adult children do with the collection of their parents’ personal and professional life in antiques. What possessions have monetary value and which are valued by the memory attached? What do you walk away with when your parents die?