Climbing the Mountain: My Search for Meaning

From Publisher's Weekly:

After his near-fatal helicopter crash in 1991, legendary actor Douglas was

driven to examine why he, an elderly man, had survived an accident that

killed a couple of younger men. This led him back to his Jewish roots,

which in turn led him to question his own identity: Was he Kirk Douglas,

world-famous movie star, or Issur Danielovitch, the scrappy Jewish kid from

Amsterdam, New York? The result is the actor's sixth book (after an

autobiography, The Ragman's Son, and four novels), which aspires to be a

family history, a spiritual quest and a name-dropping celebrity memoir all

at once. Folksy interpretations of the Torah are intermixed with a sort of

running apology to his sons for not being a better father, along with brief

stories of Douglas's film career and his famous friends. One poignant yet

amusing chapter features Douglas weeding out his address book (Brando is

dropped, Anthony Quinn stays), while another relates the aging star's

frustration at having to audition for a part he didn't get (in Wrestling

Ernest Hemingway) and his badly disguised pleasure when the movie flopped.

Much of the book is about the actor's amazement at turning 80, and his

frustration with his failing physical powers, especially with his stroke

last year. Though the various strands of the book never quite come

together, its awkwardness is in fact its greatest charm. There's little trace

of a ghostwriter here; by turns feisty, sentimental, grouchy, funny,

boastful and touchingly vulnerable, the voice throughout is unmistakably that of

Kirk Douglas. Photos. 100,000 first printing. (Sept.) -Publisher's Weekly

From The Publisher:

With the simple power and astonishing candor that made his 1988

autobiography, The Ragman's Son, a number one international bestseller,

Kirk Douglas now shares his quest for spirituality and Jewish identity --

and his heroic fight to overcome crippling injuries and a devastating stroke.

On February 13, 1991, at the age of seventy-four, Kirk Douglas, star of

such major motion-picture classics as Champion, Spartacus, and Paths of

Glory, was in a helicopter crash, in which two people died and he himself

sustained severe back injuries with debilitating long-term effects. As he

lay in the hospital recovering, haunted by the tragedy, he kept wondering:

Why had two younger men, whose lives were in front of them, died while he,

who had already lived his life fully, survived?

The question drove this son of a Russian-Jewish ragman to a search for his

roots and on a long journey of self-discovery -- a quest not only for the

meaning of life and his own relationship with God, but for his own identity

as a Jew. Through the study of Torah, Kirk Douglas found a new spirituality

and purpose to life. His newfound faith deeply enriched his relationship

with his own children and taught him -- a man who had always been famously

demanding and impatient -- to listen to others and, above all, to hear his

own inner voice.

With the narrative skill that has made him a successful novelist, Kirk

Douglas not only takes the reader through his own near-death experience but

tells the story of his stubborn struggle to make sense of his own life, to

come to terms with the reality of death, and to answer the "big questions"

that eventually confront us all: What is the meaning of life? Why are we

here? Who is God?