Probably not a book I would have grabbed ... but #nonfictionNovember and this was included in the AudiblePlus catalog, so immediately available (I also noticed it was at my library). I'd just listened to a couple other actor memoirs so, why not? I know Dick Van Dyke only from the Disney movies, never watched The Dick Van Dyke Show or Diagnosis Murder, other than a small clip here and there. 

I went with the audio edition, and it was narrated by the author, at the age of 89. His diction and voice has been affected by age (unsurprising) but made a few things a little harder to understand. I had to listen at regular speed (I have been speeding up most listens of late). 

While a good portion of the book WAS about "keeping moving" and staying active while aging,  most was just a memoir, stories of his life. It wasn't exactly chronological, and it was repetitive in parts (seriously, a couple times I wondered if I had bumped the player and repeated a section). 

Definitely learned some things about the actor that I hadn't known (his drinking/smoking, early family life, three relationships - divorced, never married but with 30 years companion who died, then married again to a woman 40+ years younger). I have to admit the age difference of the latter is a little mind boggling. I despise drinking/smoking ... my own issues, but it always affects me seeing someone struggle (and that's not even looking at how it affects those around the one doing it). 

I'm at the "just over 50" ... but I've always had a fear of growing old. While I admire those who manage it (and some of the examples highlighted here ... Ruth Ginsberg, Betty White, are no longer living, and anyone reading the book in the future will likely find more, including the author, although he IS still alive during my read!) this didn't really help change my perception. Not sure anything can. 

In a conversation with his brother ...
"Is there anything good about getting older? Do you have any advice for people who are getting older, who are entering their sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties?"
"Don't do it"
"Don't do what?"
"Don't get older"
What my brother mean was don't slow down, don't give up the things you like to do, don't pay attention to the calendar ...

IS that what he meant? That's not what he said ...

Later ... "you do the same things you always did-or try to-except that it hurts."  

Now that I believe. Even at just over 50, I seem to be going downhill fast! In my mind I've had this little checklist of things I felt like I needed to accomplish, and I'm pretty much there. Seriously, I think after that last one is checked, I'm good to go.   He states "Don't be scared of dying. Be more frightened that you haven't finished living"  ... is there a point where people have "finished living" and we don't need to say "oh how sad" ... even if it's a little earlier than expected? I know it's different for everyone, but for me, I do NOT want to be a burden, I don't want to "fight" through disease with doctor's appointments that eat up time and money and effort. Some people can stay active and adorable while aging ... others might very well ruin any fond reflection their loved ones had of them by sticking around too long.

So - I've got a bit of a negative view of this whole thing, so it's a little hard to be impartial about the book, based on a positive view of the topic.

He jokes about his term life insurance, that expires at age 95 ... paid into it all that time for no return. He tries to be a little too punny and clever. It got a little rambly ... as he tried to make sure he showed his support for gay marriage, race relations, lots of topics. Got a touch political, and a little into "god" and faith and religion too.  He had a chapter "Ninety Years - A Report Card" where he'd  touch on any and every topic and give it an A, or and F or a D ... (usually just the extremes). Good/Bad. He has some poems ... sings "That Old Senility" to the tune of "The Bare Necessities".  In a final chapter (A Conversation with Carl) about how he could go to Carl with needs and here "in need of another chapter for this book" and I was thinking "no, we don't need another chapter!" In this, he literally replays a conversation ...

Me: So how is it being ninety-three"
Carl: Slower (he smiles). But hey, it's better than having stopped at ninety-two...

He goes on and on, and while he does list the Me/Carl ... in audio it all ran together and I couldn't keep track of if what was being said was Dick or Carl ... but I didn't really care. 

While I did learn a little about Mr. Van Dyke here, and he's a cute old man ... I think I might have preferred to just have my memory of him from his younger years in the Disney films, and not learned some of the things about him. I'm afraid the negative outweighed the positive for me in this presentation.