BOOK REVIEW 11: TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE: MITCH ALBOM

 

GENERAL OVERVIEW:

RATINGS:3/5

GENRE: Memoir, Poignancy, Non fiction.

Author: Mitch ALBOM

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Mitch Albom was born on May 23, 1958 in Passaic, New Jersey.
MITCH ALBOM is an internationally renowned and best-selling author, journalist, screenwriter, playwright, radio and television broadcaster and musician. Mitch is also an accomplished song writer and lyricist.

In 1995, he married Janine Sabino. That same year he re-encountered Morrie Schwartz, a former college professor who was dying of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. His visits with Schwartz  leads to the book Tuesdays with Morrie. The same book  moved Mitch away from sports reporter. And then he began his career as an internationally recognized author.

His other notable works are:

The Five People You Meet in Heaven

For One More Day

Have a Little Faith
The Time Keeper
and The First Phone Call from Heaven

INTRODUCTION:

"Tuesdays with Morrie" is the chronicle of Mitch’s time spent with his beloved professor. It is all those Tuesday talks and conversations Mitch include in the novel. They decide to meet on TUESDAYS because they are Tuesday people. And it is so of a coincidence that I am writing this on a Tuesday.

Mitch is a university student at Brandeis where Morrie was his physiology teacher. Mitch addresses Morrie as Coach while Morrie calls him Player. It might be because Morrie is always teaching Mitch valuable life lessons and particularly more on Tuesdays.  Mitch wrote the book to help pay Morrie’s medical bills. It spent four years on the New York Times Bestseller list and is now the most successful memoir ever published. 

 
ANALYSIS:

I thought this novel to be a fiction. The major reason I have never seen an old man dancing carefree amidst howling teenagers at a club party. I have not seen an old man joking casually with teenagers. I have not seen an old man being best buddy with a young guy. I have never seen a funeral being performed for a living old man. But as I went on I realized that this is a real story.

 Morrie Schwartz  is just unique. He is one of the favourite teachers of most of the students at the university. Even the most untolerable students regard Morrie as their idol. He has a very good sense of humour. He is never serious about unnecessary dramas.

I find Morrie's personality quite pleasing. The way he handles all the negative situations and finds every possible solutions to most difficult problems is impressive. He is one of a kind. He lovingly captures the simplicity beyond life’s complexity. He is so so so very simple. He just wants to hang out with his friends as his last death wish.

It is a deeply moving memoir of courage and wisdom. It is shared as an experiences of an old man's point of view. The author dictated as a player regard this visits at Morrie's as his last class and the book as his final thesis. And the student is passed with flying colours as he  successfully published the book as one of the best sellers.

The series of events is quite poignant. Every time you turn the page you find Morrie grow physically weak. But you are surprised when Morrie is easily accepting all the dependency as he is unable to move his own hands and feet. He explains the dependency as an infant depends on others for love,care and support.

He teaches us to have compassion and love for others. He teaches us to forgive others and most importantly to forgive ourselves. He teaches us how to die so that we learn to live.

Actually Morrie teaches Mitch all these lessons. But Mitch is so great that he makes sure that everyone of us gets to learn those lessons.

Everyone of us have seen old people being completely dependent on others and most of them at an Elderly Care and Home. 

People feel irritated and irresponsible when they have to take care of those old people. I also have seen selfish people wishing if they don't have to look after them at all.
But Morrie is so lucky that he have all loved ones around him every time. He does not force them to surround him every minute but instead insist them to focus on their work and be happy. That is why Mitch visits regularly only on Tuesdays.

And they talk about all those important life lessons regarding marriage, emotions,money, fame and a lot of other topics. Morrie explains all this in a best simplest way possible.

Tuesdays with Morrie is a tribute to aging I must say. The problems and difficulties of an old man that too with an incurable disease is properly justified.

CRITICISM:

To be honest, I didn't like the quick change in the topics. The way there is no link between the last chapter makes you feel you are reading a different book already.

Even the conversations are rather short. The moment you feel you are getting into it the conversation is already over. This way I didn't grasp a lot of lessons to be true.

If the novel is to be compared with other works I couldn't imagine the talks at all. Though he explains the view and the scene I just read it through my eyes and not my imagination.

FINALLY:

I liked the book. Mitch and Morrie's selfless relationship is something that I remembered after finishing the book. Though I might forget some of the lessons that Morrie explains to us, I vividly remember that you have to learn to live while we are live in carpe Diem i.e at the present.

If you have read the book, do comment which lessons do you still remember.🙂

BY SANJITA NAPIT