By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO, Calif. —The Other Side of Me is word play on one of Sidney Sheldon's most successful novels, The Other Side of Midnight.  However much Sheldon pours himself into his novels, screen plays and television scripts, his memoir seems written by tired formula.  He'd like us to believe that he is utterly unable to predict other people's reactions to his works.  Whatever he thought they were thinking, almost invariably it was the opposite.

I had the sense that rather than telling his readers about himself, his real self, he was keeping them at bay with tried and true anecdotes, set up lines, punch lines—the kind of stuff that makes a Las Vegas comedian's act a pleasant diversion for an hour and a half, and then instantly forgettable.

Yes, there are a few revealing moments in the 363-page book: his attempted suicide as a youngster; experiencing alternating periods of depression and elation throughout his life, not knowing until well into his adulthood that he had bipolar disorder; the despair he and his second wife Jorja felt when their newborn died of spina bifada,  how devastated they were when another baby's biological parents at the last possible moment canceled her adoption.

Sheldon was born Sidney Schechtel—a name he changed to Sheldon as he made his way into show business.  He was born to a Jewish family, but after the infant Alexandra's death he and Jorja joined the Church of Religious Science, "a nondenominational, rational combination of religion and science. Its philosophy of peace was exactly what Jorja and I needed. We took courses for a year in practitioner's training, and then a second year. It was a wonderful healing experience..."

In this book, Judaism gets less mention than his first wife, to whom he was married only briefly. He does not elucidate on why he divorced either his wife or his religious heritage. Perhaps he did not want to hurt anyone's feelings.  That's safe, of course; but hardly memorable. 

For those interested in probing the American Jewish experience, Sheldon provides only a few morsels—a mixture of humor and hostility.  Here's the one-two-three.

One: contacted about updating the script of The Merry Widow, he was asked if had ever heard of Jan Kiepura.  "No. Is that some holiday?"  No, he's a big opera star in Europe — ba dump bump!

Two: he was dating Wendy Barrie, goddaughter of J.M. Barrie of Peter Pan fame.  He received a phone call from someone who wanted to know if he enjoyed his life.  "If you do, stop seeing Wendy Barrie."  Why?  Bugsy Siegel was the man paying her rent.  Sheldon never saw her again.

Three: Groucho Marx was a close friend of Sheldon's.  Supposedly when the comedian's 8-year-old daughter went to a  country club with a friend, she was ordered to leave the swimming pool.  "We don't allow Jews here," the employee said.  After learning of the incident, Groucho  immediately got the manager on the phone.  "You're being unfair," he said.  "My daughter is only half Jewish.  Is it all right if she goes in the pool up to her waist?"

Sheldon never tells us whether he simply wanted to submerge himself completely in that "swimming pool," or whether there was something  that drove him away from the one he already had.