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The Resource The removers : a memoir, Andrew Meredith

The removers : a memoir, Andrew Meredith

Creator
Author
Summary
A dark, poignant, and emotionally brave coming-of-age memoir: the story of a young man who, by handling the dead, makes peace with the living. For almost twenty years I mistook my father's downfall as my own. But it wasn't. It was not my sister's either, nor my mother's. A literature professor at La Salle University, Andrew Meredith's father was fired after unspecified allegations of sexual misconduct. It's a transgression Andrew cannot forgive, for it brought about long-lasting familial despair. In the wake of the scandal, Andrew's parents limp along, trapped in an unhappy marriage. Meanwhile, Andrew treads water, stuck in a kind of suspended adolescence--falling in and out of school, moving blindly from one half-hearted relationship to the next, slowly killing the nights drinking beer and listening to music with his childhood friends. Broke, Andrew moves back home to his childhood neighborhood in northeast Philadelphia and takes a job alongside his father as a 'remover, ' the name for those unseen, unsung workers who take away the bodies of those who die at home. He describes, as only a professional can do, the intimate, horrific, poignant, and occasionally morbidly comedic aspects of handling the dead. Just how do you carry a 500-pound corpse down winding stairs? What actually happens to pacemakers, tooth fillings, surgical screws, artificial hips, and anything else that the deceased has within his or her body? Andrew begins to see his father not through the lens of a wronged and resentful child, but as a sympathetic, imperfect man who loves his family despite his flaws. Eventually the chip on his shoulder starts to lose its weight. Poetic without being florid, and with the literary ability to transform the naturally grotesque into the exquisite, The Removers is a searing story of a young man who finds in death a redemptive path toward the forgiveness of the living, including himself
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Edition
First Scribner hardcover edition.
Extent
179 pages
Isbn
9781476761213
Instance
Label
The removers : a memoir
Title
The removers
Title remainder
a memoir
Statement of responsibility
Andrew Meredith
Creator
Author
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
A dark, poignant, and emotionally brave coming-of-age memoir: the story of a young man who, by handling the dead, makes peace with the living. For almost twenty years I mistook my father's downfall as my own. But it wasn't. It was not my sister's either, nor my mother's. A literature professor at La Salle University, Andrew Meredith's father was fired after unspecified allegations of sexual misconduct. It's a transgression Andrew cannot forgive, for it brought about long-lasting familial despair. In the wake of the scandal, Andrew's parents limp along, trapped in an unhappy marriage. Meanwhile, Andrew treads water, stuck in a kind of suspended adolescence--falling in and out of school, moving blindly from one half-hearted relationship to the next, slowly killing the nights drinking beer and listening to music with his childhood friends. Broke, Andrew moves back home to his childhood neighborhood in northeast Philadelphia and takes a job alongside his father as a 'remover, ' the name for those unseen, unsung workers who take away the bodies of those who die at home. He describes, as only a professional can do, the intimate, horrific, poignant, and occasionally morbidly comedic aspects of handling the dead. Just how do you carry a 500-pound corpse down winding stairs? What actually happens to pacemakers, tooth fillings, surgical screws, artificial hips, and anything else that the deceased has within his or her body? Andrew begins to see his father not through the lens of a wronged and resentful child, but as a sympathetic, imperfect man who loves his family despite his flaws. Eventually the chip on his shoulder starts to lose its weight. Poetic without being florid, and with the literary ability to transform the naturally grotesque into the exquisite, The Removers is a searing story of a young man who finds in death a redemptive path toward the forgiveness of the living, including himself
Biography type
autobiography
http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
1975-
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Meredith, Andrew
Index
no index present
Literary form
non fiction
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Meredith, Andrew
  • Meredith, Andrew
  • Coming of age
  • Corpse removals
  • Fathers and sons
  • Forgiveness
  • Young men
  • Philadelphia (Pa.)
Label
The removers : a memoir, Andrew Meredith
Instantiates
Publication
Copyright
Carrier category
volume
Content category
text
Control code
37628422
Dimensions
24 cm.
Edition
First Scribner hardcover edition.
Extent
179 pages
Isbn
9781476761213
Isbn Type
(hardback : alkaline paper)
Media category
unmediated
System control number
  • (Sirsi) 37628422
  • (Sirsi) 37628422
Label
The removers : a memoir, Andrew Meredith
Publication
Copyright
Carrier category
volume
Content category
text
Control code
37628422
Dimensions
24 cm.
Edition
First Scribner hardcover edition.
Extent
179 pages
Isbn
9781476761213
Isbn Type
(hardback : alkaline paper)
Media category
unmediated
System control number
  • (Sirsi) 37628422
  • (Sirsi) 37628422

Subject

Genre

Library Locations

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      -31.876002 115.778403

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