An Act of Love. The Gift of Death: Author Amy Bloom On Her New Memoir

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum

Meghan Daum

Society & Culture

4.7 • 855 Ratings

🗓️ 22 May 2022

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Amy Bloom is the author of ten books, mostly works of fiction, and her short story collections have been finalists for The National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her latest book, In Love, is a memoir about her husband Brian's diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer's in his mid-sixties and Brian's decision to end his life on his own terms. This required traveling to Zurich, Switzerland, where an organization called Dignitas facilitates what they call "accompanied suicide." Amy talked with Meghan about what was involved in getting to Digntas and why even though assisted dying is technically legal in some states in the U.S., the process is much more difficult than most people realize. In addition to being an author and a professor of creative writing at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, Amy has also been a practicing psychotherapist for decades and she talks about how that role intersects with her writing life and what she's learned about relationships and compatibility after years of hearing people's stories and telling her own.

Guest Bio:

Amy Bloom is the author of four novels and three collections of short stories, including Come To Me, a finalist for the National Book Award, and A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You, a finalist for The National Book Critics Circle Award. Her most recent book is the widely acclaimed NY Times bestselling memoir, In Love. She has written for magazines such as The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Vogue, Elle, The Atlantic Monthly, Slate, and Salon, and her work has been translated into fifteen languages. She is the Silverberg-Shapiro Professor of Creating Writing at Wesleyan University.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I think you have to have sort of compatible spirits, you know, and the things that Brian and I had in common were not our hobbies.
0:13.1	And it was not Henry James. I have other people I can talk to Henry James about.
0:17.6	Plus, I have my own thoughts. So I don't really need to talk to somebody else about them, except for fun. And I certainly didn't need that in a husband. But what we had in
0:26.0	common was that neither of us was very good at denial. Both of us preferred a certain amount of
0:32.9	transparency. We had very similar values politically.
0:38.3	He had never had children and never wanted children, but he was willing to embrace my children and he adored the grandchildren and they adored him.
0:48.3	So he was willing to have the shape of his family life conform to my stronger wishes.
0:56.4	And we trusted each other.
0:58.0	We both thought the other person was the right kind of person, a good person, a person you'd
1:03.8	want to be in trouble with.
1:08.7	Welcome to the unspeakable podcast.
1:29.6	I'm your host, Megan Down. My guest is writer Amy Bloom. She is the author of 10 books, most of them works of fiction. Her latest book is a memoir. It's called In Love. And it chronicles the experience of her husband, Brian, being diagnosed with Alzheimer's in his mid-60s and his making the decision to end his life on his own terms. This requires traveling to Zurich,
1:35.6	where an organization called Dignitas facilitates what they called accompanied suicide.
1:41.5	Amy talked with me about what was involved in getting there and why seeking aid
1:46.0	in dying in places in the U.S. that technically allow it is much more complicated than most people
1:51.5	realize. In addition to being an author and a professor of creative writing at Wesleyan University
1:57.2	in Connecticut, Amy has also been a practicing psychotherapist for decades,
2:01.8	and she talks about how that role intersects with her writing life and what she's learned
2:06.8	about relationships and compatibility after years of hearing people's stories and telling her
2:12.6	own. So here is my interview with Amy Bloom.
2:19.0	Amy Bloom, welcome to The Unspeakable.
2:22.1	Thank you. It's good to be here to speak about the unspeakable.
	...

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