Abstract:
“Secondhand” is a collection of linked essays that centers on the sudden death of the
narrator’s father in 2005, when she was 21. Each of the eight essays in the collection
explores who her father was and the grief she and her family experienced after his death.
All of the essays attempt to recreate and understand the father and the narrator’s
relationship with him from the various things, ideas, and stories he’s left behind. The
author has incorporated research from primary and secondary sources in her attempt to
understand how it is we go about remembering, understanding, and recreating someone
we have lost.
