What Remains: Object Lessons in Love and Loss - Hardcover

Von Hahn, Karen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1487000391 ISBN 13: 9781487000394

Publisher: House of Anansi Press, 2018

Synopsis

Being left with a strand of even the highest quality milky-white pearls isn’t quite the same thing as pearls of wisdom to live by, as Karen von Hahn reveals in her memoir about her stylish and captivating mother, Susan ― a mercurial, grandiose, Guerlain-and-vodka-soaked narcissist whose search for glamour and fulfillment through the acquisition and collection of beautiful things ultimately proved hollow.

A tale of growing up in 1970s and 1980s in the fabulousness of a bourgeois Jew-ish family that valued panache over pragmatism and making a design statement over substance, von Hahn’s recollections of her dramatic and domineering mother are exemplified by the objects she held most dear: from a strand of prized pearls, to a Venetian mirror worthy of the palace of Versailles, to the silver satin sofas that were the epitome of her signature style. She also describes the misunderstandings and sometimes hurt and pain that come with being raised by her stunning, larger-than-life mother who in many ways embodied the flash-and-glam, high-flying, wealth-accumulating generation that gave birth to our modern-day material culture.

Alternating between satire and sadness, von Hahn reconstructs the past through a series of exquisitely impressionistic memories, ultimately questioning the value of the things we hold dear and ― after her complicated, yet impossible-to-forget mother is gone ― what exactly remains.

About this title

About the Author:

KAREN VON HAHN is a columnist with the Toronto Star. For more than twenty-five years she has reported on trends in life and style for publications such as the Globe and Mail, More, Fashion, House & Home, en Route, and Toronto Life. She was also the editor-in-chief of KingWest magazine and the host and producer of The Goods for the Life television network. Her first book was Karen von Hahn’s Hip Guide: Toronto.

Review:

“What Remains reads like an emotional fire alarm that won’t turn off.” - Toronto Star

"Immoderation in all things! Written in gauzy, fine-spun prose, What Remains is a vivisection of a mother who was both Holly Golightly and an emotional terrorist. Along the way, we also get a book that is a philosophy of style, an elegy into grief, as well as a voyage through a bygone metropolis. One of my favourite memoirs ― ever." – Shinan Govani

”A fascinating look at the writer’s life and upbringing.” – Words of Mystery

About this edition

• Publisher: House of Anansi Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1487000391
• ISBN 13: 9781487000394
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352