As he approached 40, veteran journalist Kita (Wisdom of Our Fathers) decided to revisit his greatest missed opportunities. It's a terrific conceit and, within the limits of his 20 specific regrets (from "losing my hair" to "working my life away"), Kita pulls it off with wit and aplomb. After two months of conditioning, he works out with his alma mater's high school basketball team and is told that this time he wouldn't have been cut. He and his wife attend a workshop for lovers (for which he happily paid $1,000 and would do so again before spending another $10 on a Viagra pill), allowing them to have "the best sex of our married lives—and with each other, no less." They also renew their vows in a ceremony far more satisfying than their overstressed wedding. Even when his quests don't pan out, Kita finds peace: so what if he can't recover that first Camaro, or if that woman he was too shy to approach in college won't return his letter? Basically a happy guy (okay, without those elusive washboard abs), Kita doesn't often stray toward seriousness, though he laments not having said good-bye to his father, who died at 62 (and tries to revisit him via a psychic); he also takes a day trip with his Mom to try to repair some long-standing rifts. In his conclusion, Kita lists some regrets he hasn't yet pursued that might make for a deeper challenge (e.g., moving out of the valley in Southeastern Pennsylvania where he's lived all his life and becoming fluent in a foreign language). Though he achieves some heady moments of satisfaction and introspection, some readers may be left wishing that Kita, who never in his 40 years has found a hero more compelling than Jack LaLanne, had written a darker, more thoughtful book. (Apr. 26)
Forecast:Originally scheduled for publication in June, this has already gone back to press before its new April release date, which coincides with Kita's appearance on
Oprah.
Men's Health (where the author's an executive writer) has claimed first serial rights. Rodale is putting $100,000 worth of marketing behind an initial printing of 50,000 copies—looks like they have a winner for Father's Day.
