The third memoir from Van Dyke covers similar ground as the previous two; now he is approaching 100 instead of 90, but before that, not much has changed. (That\u2019s the thing about the past.) What\u2019s new is the angle: the hundred chapters are titled for their takeaway: from \u201cDon\u2019t Act Your Age\u201d and \u201cMake Your Own Rules\u201d to \u201cYou Can\u2019t Protect Your Survivors\u201d (a sad vignette about the late Gene Hackman) and \u201cFind Your Arlene.\u201d Van Dyke\u2019s 46-years-younger wife, Arlene, is the sine qua non of his life and this book: \u201cWell over three-quarters of the memories in this book were foggy in my brain but crystal clear in hers,\u201d due to many previous retellings. These recollections include stories of shoveling ice and coal in pre\u2013World War II Danville, Illinois, 15-cent movies, being edged out of a spot on Ed Sullivan\u2019s show by President Harry Truman\u2019s daughter\u2019s tepid opera singing, and recollections from the sets of Bye Bye Birdie, Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The New Dick Van Dyke Show, and many more. If the upbeat tone of his preceding books prompted some critical calls for more conflict, emotion, and introspection, those are answered here by stories with a darker tone. These include a phone call from Cary Grant on LSD, an anxious encounter with a possibly predatory elementary school teacher, a long-running on-set prank involving walnuts, and a 20-year toothache, as yet not fully resolved. \u201cRemember Honestly\u201d corrects a childhood anecdote told in the previous book with more candor about the extreme stinginess of Van Dyke\u2019s father. \u201cI was so intent on putting a smile on my life experiences that I nudged the little hint of darkness out of the story.\u201d In addition to his wife, the supporting cast includes the author\u2019s 73-year-old son, Barry, and his 41-year-old personal assistant, Jimmy, who uses they\/them pronouns and has a second career as a WWE-style wrestler\u2014quite a breath of fresh air. Among the most poignant chapters are \u201cYou Will Not Be Alone,\u201d which recounts the 1987 death of Van Dyke\u2019s first grandchild at the age of 13, and \u201cRead While You Can,\u201d in which we learn that advanced dry macular degeneration has ended his life as a reader. Not as a writer, though!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The third memoir from Van Dyke covers similar ground as the previous two; now he is approaching 100 instead of 90, but before that, not much has changed. (That\u2019s the thing about the past.) What\u2019s new is the angle: the hundred chapters are titled for their takeaway: from \u201cDon\u2019t Act Your Age\u201d and \u201cMake Your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4881"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}