Rejuvenate! It’s Never Too Late by Eartha Kitt: book review

Rejuvenate (2002) is not just the memoir of American dancer, singer, and actor Eartha Kitt, it is also a guide to keeping healthy and active in your seventies.

Eartha Kitt (1927-2008) played Catwoman in the 1960s TV series of Batman. She wrote this book when she was 72-74 years old, and includes chapters such as: Breathe, Stretch, Bend, Rock-and-Roll, Release, Walk, Balance, and Eat. Each chapter presents one exercise, without high-impact routines, but in a gentle yet invigorating way.

As she provides guidance to others, she uses examples of her own methods for vitality and living healthily, from food to exercise. Instead of discussing her dates with famous celebrities, she writes of having lunch with Socrates and Plato books. She writes about regular simple exercises, without a gym or expensive equipment, and without a personal trainer.

In the final chapter, Kitt includes ‘mind and body’ tips, as well as other exercises not previously mentioned: bounce, jump, twist, and punch.

She writes about reading, ‘stretching’ life experience outside of her comfort zone, ‘bending’ her mind so that she was not rigid in her views, walking her dogs, curiousity, the benefits of habit, creativity, caring for the planet, peace and stamina, cordiality and community, simple food, and having a love of life.

It seems that Eartha Kitt didn’t take life too seriously, and knew when to be a rebel and provocative, how to get through life’s challenges, how to use humour, and when to release her frustrations through exercise, while remaining elegant and calm. This is an inspiring, motivational book for men and women, throughout the ages, written as a memoir-style-guide to get people moving with health and happiness, purpose and poise.

MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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