Let's Face It

Kirk Douglas is a born storyteller, and in this engrossing memoir he offers wonderful tales, favorite jokes, and hard-won insights. As he explores the mixed blessings of growing older, he looks back at his youth and his storied, glamorous life in Hollywood. He tells delightful stories of the making of such films as Spartacus and includes anecdotes about such friends as Frank Sinatra, Lauren Bacall, Ronald Reagan, Fred Astaire, John Wayne, and Johnny Cash. He reveals the secrets that have kept him happily married for more than five decades, and talks fondly of times spent with his sons and grandchildren. He reflects upon his Jewish faith and offers strong opinions on everything from racism to corporate greed to the war in Iraq and the situation in Israel. He writes about the need to care more about the world and less about ourselves, as he shares a lifetime's accumulation of wit and wisdom.