Purchase
90 Years of Living, Loving, and Learning
Wiley
March 2007
On Sale: March 16, 2007
256 pages
ISBN: 0470084693
EAN: 9780470084694
Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction Memoir
He has been one of the
brightest stars in Hollywood, a hard-charging actor whose
intensity on
the screen has been mirrored in his personal life. As Kirk
Douglas has
grown older—he turned ninety in December 2006—he has become less
impetuous and more reflective. In this poignant and
inspiring new
memoir, Douglas contemplates what life is all about,
weighing current
events from his present frame of mind while summoning the
passions of
his younger days. Kirk
Douglas is a born storyteller, and throughout Let's Face It
he tells
wonderful tales and shares favorite jokes and hard-won
insights. In the
book, he explores the mixed blessings of growing older and
looks back
at his childhood, his young adulthood, and his storied,
glamorous, and
colorful life and career in Hollywood. He tells delightful
stories of
the making of such films as Spartacus, Lust for Life,
Champion, The Bad
and the Beautiful, and many others. He includes anecdotes
about his
friends Frank Sinatra, Burt Lancaster, Lauren Bacall, Ronald
Reagan,
Ava Gardner, Henry Kissinger, Fred Astaire, Yul Brynner,
John Wayne,
and Johnny Cash. He reveals the secrets that have kept him
and his
wife, Anne, happily married for more than five decades, and
talks
fondly and movingly of times spent with his sons, Michael,
Peter, Eric,
and Joel, and his grandchildren. Douglas's life has
been filled
with pain as well as joy. In Let's Face It, he writes
frankly for the
first time about the tragic death of his son Eric from a
drug overdose
at age forty-five. Douglas tells what it was like to recover
from
several near-death episodes, including a helicopter crash, a
stroke,
and a cardiac event. He writes of his sadness that many of
his closest
friends are no longer with us; the book includes many moving
stories
such as one about a regular poker game at Frank Sinatra's
house at
which he and Anne have been fixtures along with Gregory
Peck, Jack
Lemmon, and their wives. Though many of the players are
gone, the game
continues to this day. In Let's Face It, Douglas
reflects on
how his Jewish faith has become more and more important to
him over the
years. He offers strong opinions on everything from
anti-Semitism to
corporate greed, from racism to Hurricane Katrina, and from
the war in
Iraq to the situation in Israel. He writes about the
importance in his
life of the need to improve education for all children and
about how we
need to care more about the world and less about ourselves.
A
must-read for every fan, this engrossing memoir provides an
indelible
self-portrait of a great star—while sharing the wit and
wisdom Kirk
Douglas has accumulated over a lifetime.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
| 
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy