Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom: A Book Review

chillibreeze writer — Indira Narayan

One reading of the preface and the 1st chapter “the Curriculum”of the book, Tuesdays with Morrie’ by Mitch Albom is enough to touch that sensitive chord in your heart and move you to want to read the book. While lines like ‘ A funeral was held in lieu of graduation’ and ‘Last class of my old professor’s life had only one student. I was the student,’ bring tears to your eyes, ‘kissing him good-bye earned you extra credit’ brings a wistful smile too. Humor and pathos are finely woven into the fabric of the narration. You cannot miss it.

The “Contents” section does not mention the little details that come between chapters, but like the chorus in Greek drama they connect the past to the present. The first one brings a live picture of the professor. We know him already. The author makes an honest observation when he says ‘maybe I didn’t want to forget him. Maybe I didn’t want him to forget me, when he gives his favorite teacher a gift. Makes you wonder ‘ Isn’t this a universal thought?’

‘The Syllabus” that has nothing to do with schools or colleges gives a picture of the ever smiling professor who loved to dance; lived life to the fullest and upheld his values.

Was this his syllabus for life? Does he prescribe this for his students? His reaction when he realized that he was suffering from the slow life taking disease ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) is “How did I get it?” The reader echoes the same- “How did he get it?”

Mitch Ablom’s style is simple lucid and refreshingly original (aphoristic like Bacon): “ALS is like a candle..it melts your nerves and leaves your body a pile of wax.” The author’s description of the disease, permits even laypersons understand it. Choices are limited when one is afflicted with a fatal ailment but the good part is that choices can be made. “Do I wither up, or do I make the best of my time left?”, the professor had asked himself . This appears in the beginning of the narration but we know the professor well enough. We know the choice he would eventually make. He would make death his final project. He would prove that dying was not synonymous with ‘ useless’.

Albom Mitch loses track of his mentor, caught as he is in his own priorities, and a cursory channel surfing connects him to his favorite teacher who is very ill and is being interviewed on the Television. He goes to see his professor and then realizes “in the stone walls I had built between the present and the past I had forgotten how close we once were”.

Everything about the book is wonderfully summed up here:

‘Morrie left a wonderful legacy--- reminding us gently and persistently what is really important in life’- Ruth Jadodzinski

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—About our writer:

Indira says, "I am Indira a teacher by profession, wife of an Executive and mother of two lovely girls. An avid book reader, I love to write (have written editorials for the school magazine and also letters to the editor) and teaching young ladies keeps me young and up to date".

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom: A Book Review

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