Episode 41 — Claire Bidwell Smith

Claire Bidwell Smith is the guest.  She’s the author of the memoir The Rules of Inheritance, available now from Hudson Street Press.

Darin Strauss, the author of Half a Life, calls it “a perfectly crafted story — not about grief, but how to walk out of grief with your soul intact; it’s not a lamentation, but a lesson.  The Rules of Inheritance should be required reading for anybody who’s trying to get their arms around a big sadness.”

A tremendous amount to talk about here.

Topics of conversation include:  pregnancy, nausea, boys vs. girls, hospice, focus, parenthood, WWII, language, grief, traveling, alcohol, guilt, Dave Eggers, Spain, Greyhound buses, San Francisco, Atlanta, beauty, love, funerals, apathy, religion, circles, sex, the afterlife, heaven, hell, catharsis, and self-medication.

Monologue topics:  death, grief, Ben Kenobe, John Lennon, Davo, Crested Butte, watery balls, absurdity, $5 foot-long, horse sex, and ridiculous species.

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Correction:  In this episode’s monologue, I say that Claire Bidwell Smith was 26 when her father passed away; she was 25.  My apologies for the error.  -BL