GET A LIFE (STORY)!: Shatner's autobiography explores much more than "Star Trek"

What makes William Shatner's autobiography worth reading is that it covers his whole life, not just the "Star Trek" years, and so you get a look at the real person behind Capt. James T. Kirk.

Of course, "Star Trek" is what Shatner always will be remembered for. And those years are covered in the book — but they don't dominate it. Instead, we are given Shatner's "Trek" experiences in the context of his entire career, which gives a more complete picture of him.

The book reads like a long monologue. I suspect Shatner dictated it to David Fisher, who then did the work of putting it into written form. No matter, though. It's entertaining and at times very candid, especially the chapter dealing with his third marriage to wife Nerine, who struggled with alcoholism and, as a result, drowned in the pool at the couple's California home.

Shatner tells of coming home to find her in the pool and subsequently calling 911 and then about the media speculation about whether he had killed her.

"After the O.J. Simpson debacle, I suppose I should have known what was going to happen. . . . But that didn't stop people or the media from asking those terrible questions. Did Shatner kill his wife?"

In this chapter, Shatner talks at length about what clearly was a painful period in his life, also detailing "Trek" co-star Leonard Nimoy's longtime struggles with alcoholism. Nimoy tried to help the couple overcome Nerine's addiction — a battle that, tragically, could not be won.

Shatner was born in Canada to a Jewish family, and he describes his roots in detail. His father made inexpensive men's suits for French Canadian clothing stores, but it was his mother who encouraged him to act.

He talks about the tensions between Jewish and Catholic children in the neighborhood where he grew up and his exposure to anti-Semitism. In fact, Nimoy, who is the same age as Shatner, had similar experiences growing up in Boston, which the book also covers.

The book jumps back and forth at times between periods of Shatner's life, further giving the impression that he informally dictated it and just decided to go with the flow of his thoughts and memories.

Given his well-known and much parodied style of overacting and his well-known and much parodied love of the spotlight — which he admits to — there are times when you get the feeling he might just be exaggerating some of his experiences.

For instance, in 2001 he and his future fourth wife, Elizabeth, had an opportunity to ride on horseback along the Mexican border with patrol officers. Eventually, the patrol came across a group of Mexicans trying to sneak across the border into the United States.

The officers were in the process of detaining them and, as Shatner tells it: "Liz and I were sitting up on our horses, bundled into jackets, hats on our heads, wearing these goggles that covered most of our faces. And suddenly, one of these illegal immigrants looked at me, first with curiosity, then with recognition, and said finally in a heavily accented English, "That is Captain Kirk?' Then he smiled and asked, "We have autograph?' "

That anecdote seems just a little too good to be true, but since the whole book is basically Shatner talking, you can't always be sure when he's being tongue-in-cheek and when he is truthfully recounting experiences with fans. In fact, he concedes at one point that sometimes, he does just make things up.

The "Trek" years and the effect that Capt. Kirk had on his life have been well documented elsewhere, so there is nothing here that will come as a real surprise to die-hard Trekkies. But Shatner also talks a lot about "T.J. Hooker," "Rescue 911," "Boston Legal" and his stint as a spokesman for Priceline.com.

This is an entertaining look at the life of a pop culture icon, from his lean and hungry years ("Star Trek" was in fact a failure when it first aired, and Shatner struggled to make a living for years afterward) to the increasing wealth that the "Trek" movies and, later, "Rescue 911" brought him.

That Shatner has reinvented himself so many times and is known to multiple generations of fans — and even become a parody of himself through his record albums and that notorious "Get a life" skit on "Saturday Night Live" — makes his life story a fast and fun read.

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