Horowitz in winter

[Valin]

Power Line

Scott Johnson

June 15, 2015

 

FrontPage managing editor Jamie Glazov commissioned me to review David Horowitz’s new book, You’re Going To Be Dead One Day: A Love Story (Regnery, 176 pages, $24.99). Today is the book’s official publication date and the book is now available at Amazon. Jamie has authorized me to post my review on Power Line in the hope that it might introduce new readers to David’s memoiristic books of recent years. This is what I wrote, less a review than an appreciation:

 

This book opens with April in May. April is David Horowitz’s wife, April Horowitz, and the the month is May 2014. Succeeding chapters take us through September 2014. As the book opens, Horowitz struggles with physical infirmity following a botched surgery and his wife is recovering from a near fatal automobile accident. These two tragedies have an aspect of lucky timing. April’s recovery coincides with David’s infirmity; she is able to lend him a hand in his efforts to recover. At the intersection of his misfortune and her recovery, after twenty years of marriage, husband and wife find their passion for each other rekindled.

 

(Snip)

 

No one can be harder on Horowitz than he is on himself. “I should have been a better husband and father and friend,” he writes. “I want to believe that the man I am now would have done better. But while my thoughts can travel back in time, I cannot. Consequently, there is little I can do with these regrets other than use them as an inspiration to be kinder and more understanding toward those I love in the days that remain.”

 

The new book, short as it is, displays Horowitz in his capacity of son, husband, father, stepfather, brother-in-law, and grandfather. Whatever mistakes he made in the past, anecdotes and reflections in the text of this book strongly suggest to me that he has learned how to love. It is a humbling demonstration. He doesn’t offer himself as a teacher in this regard, but he could. In this book, he loves in three dimensions.

 

(Snip)