100 RULES FOR LIVING TO 100

Anecdotes and advice from a long, happy, and fairly familiar life.

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’s the thing about the past.) What’s new is the angle: the hundred chapters are titled for their takeaway: from “Don’t Act Your Age” and “Make Your Own Rules” to “You Can’t Protect Your Survivors” (a sad vignette about the late Gene Hackman) and “Find Your Arlene.” Van Dyke’s 46-years-younger wife, Arlene, is the sine qua non of his life and this book: “Well over three-quarters of the memories in this book were foggy in my brain but crystal clear in hers,” due to many previous retellings. These recollections include stories of shoveling ice and coal in pre–World War II Danville, Illinois, 15-cent movies, being edged out of a spot on Ed Sullivan’s show by President Harry Truman’s daughter’s 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. “Remember Honestly” corrects a childhood anecdote told in the previous book with more candor about the extreme stinginess of Van Dyke’s father. “I was so intent on putting a smile on my life experiences that I nudged the little hint of darkness out of the story.” In addition to his wife, the supporting cast includes the author’s 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—quite a breath of fresh air. Among the most poignant chapters are “You Will Not Be Alone,” which recounts the 1987 death of Van Dyke’s first grandchild at the age of 13, and “Read While You Can,” in which we learn that advanced dry macular degeneration has ended his life as a reader. Not as a writer, though!

Tickled to find himself a national treasure at 99, Van Dyke takes some of his own advice: “Find Your Passion in Your Past.”