Buryin' Daddy

Putting My Lebanese, Catholic, Southern Baptist Childhood to Rest

Biography & Memoir
Cover of the book Buryin' Daddy by Teresa Nicholas, University Press of Mississippi
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Teresa Nicholas ISBN: 9781604739718
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi Publication: February 24, 2011
Imprint: University Press of Mississippi Language: English
Author: Teresa Nicholas
ISBN: 9781604739718
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Publication: February 24, 2011
Imprint: University Press of Mississippi
Language: English

A descendant of Lebanese Catholic immigrants on her father's side and Baptist sharecroppers on her mother's, Teresa Nicholas recounts in Buryin' Daddy a southern upbringing with an unusual inflection. As the book opens, the author recalls her charmed early childhood in the late 1950s, when she and her family live with her grandparents in a graceful old bungalow in Yazoo City, Mississippi. But when the author is five, her eccentric father-secretive, penurious, autocratic, hoarding-moves his growing family into a condemned duplex nearby. Separated from her beloved grandmother and chafing under her father's erratic discipline, the girl longs to flee from the awful decrepit house. When she's a teenager, she and her father find themselves on conflicting sides of the civil rights movement and their arguments grow more painful, until a scholarship to a northeastern college provides the means of her escape.

Two decades later, Nicholas has built a successful career in book publishing in New York. When her father dies suddenly, she returns to Mississippi for the funeral and to spend a month in the hated duplex as her mother comes to terms with her husband's passing. But as she sorts through the strange detritus of her father's life, the author comes to understand that he was far more complex than the angry man she thought she knew. And as she draws closer to her surprisingly resilient mother, affected by stroke but full of blunt country talk, she finds that her mother is also far from the naïve, helpless creature she remembers. Through a series of surprising and oddly humorous discoveries, the author and her mother will begin to unravel her father's poignant secrets together in this graceful and generous exploration of the intermingling of shame and love that lie at the heart of family life.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

A descendant of Lebanese Catholic immigrants on her father's side and Baptist sharecroppers on her mother's, Teresa Nicholas recounts in Buryin' Daddy a southern upbringing with an unusual inflection. As the book opens, the author recalls her charmed early childhood in the late 1950s, when she and her family live with her grandparents in a graceful old bungalow in Yazoo City, Mississippi. But when the author is five, her eccentric father-secretive, penurious, autocratic, hoarding-moves his growing family into a condemned duplex nearby. Separated from her beloved grandmother and chafing under her father's erratic discipline, the girl longs to flee from the awful decrepit house. When she's a teenager, she and her father find themselves on conflicting sides of the civil rights movement and their arguments grow more painful, until a scholarship to a northeastern college provides the means of her escape.

Two decades later, Nicholas has built a successful career in book publishing in New York. When her father dies suddenly, she returns to Mississippi for the funeral and to spend a month in the hated duplex as her mother comes to terms with her husband's passing. But as she sorts through the strange detritus of her father's life, the author comes to understand that he was far more complex than the angry man she thought she knew. And as she draws closer to her surprisingly resilient mother, affected by stroke but full of blunt country talk, she finds that her mother is also far from the naïve, helpless creature she remembers. Through a series of surprising and oddly humorous discoveries, the author and her mother will begin to unravel her father's poignant secrets together in this graceful and generous exploration of the intermingling of shame and love that lie at the heart of family life.

More books from University Press of Mississippi

Cover of the book Swamp Rat by Teresa Nicholas
Cover of the book W. E. B. Du Bois on Asia by Teresa Nicholas
Cover of the book Native American Place Names in Mississippi by Teresa Nicholas
Cover of the book From Midnight to Guntown by Teresa Nicholas
Cover of the book Coming to Colorado by Teresa Nicholas
Cover of the book Conversations with Andre Dubus by Teresa Nicholas
Cover of the book Anteaters Donâ??t Dream and Other Stories by Teresa Nicholas
Cover of the book Quincy Jones by Teresa Nicholas
Cover of the book Photographs by Teresa Nicholas
Cover of the book Quincy Jones by Teresa Nicholas
Cover of the book Delta Epiphany by Teresa Nicholas
Cover of the book Garden of Dreams by Teresa Nicholas
Cover of the book The High-Kilted Muse by Teresa Nicholas
Cover of the book The Artist's Sketch by Teresa Nicholas
Cover of the book Desegregating Desire by Teresa Nicholas
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy