TOPANGA CANYON—Last week we caught up with the actor, writer and author Heath Kizzier, who was best known on “The Young and the Restless” as the gynecologist who later married Nikki Newman and ended up on the wrong side of an ex wife’s gun. A deranged ex wife no doubt. But that’s soap operas and this is real life. The memoir that I just read by Kizzier is called “Can I See Your I.D., Son?” The title comes from the author’s real life coincidences one after another, being very handsome and youthful looking, he was being carded to go into clubs when he was well into his 20s. But the book is much more than just fluff.

Book Cover Courtesy: Broadhead Books

Heath Kizzier methodically describes his childhood in great detail. The once homeless young man in Colorado and South Dakota learned how to fend for himself and still managed to be unscathed in ways that many of us are so often guarded in this business against potential threats and users. In the entertainment world, you find people want to know you and become friends with you simply because of your connections or your position in this business. But Heath like many of us learn from trial and error that we have to befriend very carefully and take it from the author, you’d better just know who you are getting acquainted with.

When I received this book, Heath pointed out to me, as he does in this book, “This is my life’s experiences from my point of view.”  Surely the handsome star who has written some of the most fascinating and entertaining novels captures the reader’s attention in this tome as well. What many of his fans and readers will want to know is, what was his experience like working on CBS’s number one daytime drama, “The Young and the Restless?” I won’t give away the secrets, but let's just say that Kizzier is extremely honest and very descriptive in his stories of working with one of daytime’s most popular leading ladies while on the series. He describes how almost shell-shocked he was in his early days on the series and how he became accustomed to the diva’s way of doing things.

But Kizzier, a good guy by nature is never mean spirited in his storytelling. The book flows well. In addition to the chapter on his time at “Y&R,” I loved two other chapters as well. "The Great Flood" and "A New Place" round out my top three favorite chapters. Each of the aforementioned chapters showed us a different Heath Kizzier at a different point in his life. The one constant is the author’s exhaustive notes and journals which he used to write this book. Few people in the 20th or 21st centuries are such great historians of one’s life and knowledge. His own diaries are equal to the late President Abraham Lincoln’s in detail.

When reading this wonderful book, you get the feeling that Kizzier is actually healing himself from past wounds and he does so with humor and honesty. “Can I See Your I.D., Son?” is one of the best memoirs I’ve ever read of a man who is under 75 years old. The handsome author just turned 40. This is one rich story that gives the reader hope, belief in mankind and that talent and hard work wins out at the end of the day.

“Can I See Your I.D., Son?” is available at Amazon.com and bookstores around the U.S.