Customer Reviews

Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson

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3 star:		(74)
2 star:		(60)
1 star:		(89)

 

 

Not only is this an enthralling read but it is extremely inspirational as well. There is so many lessons to learn from this one of a kind book. Thank you Mr. Albom.
Other great reads in non fiction- Katlyn Stewart's NIGHTMARES ECHO and Jackson McCrae's THE CHILDREN'S CORNER

I read this book every year! It reminds me on how short life is and how important it is to love. We live in a rat race. If we don't stop ourselves for a moment, life passes us by. Great lessons to be learned. I bought this for a friend whose father has fallen ill.

This book has received a lot of positive reviews over the years from the book-reading community. My personal view is that it may be slighly over-accredited. The book will however inspire you to think about life !!

Mitch Albom shared with us his real life lesson from his old college teacher Morrie (the 'Coach' as he called him), who was dying of ALS disease. In his so-called fourteen-week of lessons, Albom was enlightened and inspired by Morrie about "the meaning of life". Topics like Death, Family, Emotions, Money, Marriage, Culture, Forgiveness were covered.

I feel like Mitch Albom didn't put much time and efforts in writing this book. He just finished this as a project which he promised and felt obliged to Morrie. The depth of content is shallow, even it covers pretty lofty topics. Many of the pages are spent talking about Morrie's getting-worst-every-week dying conditions, while only a small fraction of the paragraphs are used to describe Morrie's conversations and his 'teachings' to him.

The structure of the book is also quite loose. Flashback memories written in between chapters are confusing sometimes, and look like they're just to fill up pages. Some of these 'interlude' paragraphs don't really have much relationship with what was written in the previous chapters.

The intention of the author, though, is still good. It could well be a good introductory book for teen or young readers. As for me, who is approaching 50 years of age in two years, this book seems to be too elementary with the depth it covers.

Now, tell me what you think....

Mitch Albom was a student of sociologist Morrie Schwartz at Brandeis University. At graduation he promised to keep in touch with his old professor, but as time went on this promise faded away. Nearly twenty years later Albom, now a sports writer, was flipping through the channels when he saw his old professor on "Nightline" and discovered how sick he actually was. Morrie was suffering from ALS, or Lou Gerhig's disease, which slowly wastes away your muscles. After seeing this show Mitch flew up to Boston to visit his dying teacher. After their first reunion Mitch continued to visit every Tuesday afternoon. They were "Tuesday people".

Tuesdays with Morrie is a touching story that discusses the meaning of life. It is a small book with a large message. Though this story never actually tells the reader what the true meaning of life is, it does expand on the professor's sayings. These include "Love is the only rational act", "Love each other or perish", "death ends a life, not a relationship".

Albom calls his weekly visits with Morrie their last class together and the theme "the meaning of life". The topics of this class included life, death, marriage, money, family, and other such issues. Though the author did bring a tape recorder to their classes he did not provide a full transcript of these discussions. Instead he focused on those Morrie's little aphorisms. He was able to tie just about everything to love. To Morrie there is no life without love. He looked down upon our culture saying that it taught all of the wrong values and trains us to hold in our emotions and feelings.

This book comes close to being almost too sentimental, but stops before it gets excessively sappy. Towards the end of the book Albom tells us how this book was largely Morrie's idea. He called it their final thesis. The money that the publishers advanced was used to pay for the majority Morrie's overwhelming medical bills.

One of the things that draw readers to this book may be the fantasy of revisiting our old friends that we haven't seen or heard from in several years. What would it be like if we got the chance to see these people again and tell them how much me care about them? Tuesdays with Morrie tells us do this before it's too late. It was almost too late for Mitch. In the end though, he really made a difference in his teacher's life, and vice versa.

While I don't necessarily agree with everything (i.e. the philosophy of) espoused in this book, I have, nonetheless, gleaned many lessens about life from its pages. This book is an emotional and intellectual ride with Morris Schwartz (late Professor of Sociology at Brandeis University). This is a record, of sorts, about his last few months of life, his thoughts about life and certain things in life such as marriage, regrets, the perfect day, money, love, forgiveness, etc.

Mitch Albom has a great writing style, simple but yet detailed, descriptive and emotive. There is much wisdom in these pages, much emotion, much love, much grief, much warmth, much compassion, much courage, much experience, much mentoring, much teaching, and the list could go on. I find it interesting that when I see famous people in interviews and they are asked to reveal who has had the most influence in their lives up to that point, most make mention of a school teacher. Morrie was such a person - one who had much influence. This book will move you to tears and cause you to laugh. It is quite easy to read and you could probably finish it in about an hour or so, but in that hour your life will be changed in one way or another having read these pages.

I read this book in one sitting...finished it at 4:00am and wept for another hour...stayed up and made a list of those mentors and friends who have touched my own life in ways I hadn't considered before reading this book. The book has moved me to action; I'm finding my old friends and letting them know what they have meant to me while they're still here. The book has also moved me to consider my responsibility as a mentor for others. I have not read a book this moving since Rebecca Brown's "Gifts of the Body". In both of these works, the message is so simple and concise, yet it seems to elude us until someone reminds us of just how lucky we are to have had the friends and experiences that have shaped our lives. I've bought several copies of "Gifts of the Body" to pass on to friends and family. With "Tuesdays With Morrie", I have a new selection to share with those special people. My thanks to Mitch and Morrie for a great personal lesson.

Beautiful and inspirational and yes, even sweet. One of the better books I have read this year. remarkable! Very highly rated along with his other book, "The Five People You Meet In Heaven" as well as "Nightmares Echo" by Katlyn Stewart and "Magical Thinking" by Augusten Burroughs

It's no wonder that this simple well-told tale is back on the charts, high up there. It's not great literature like "Moby Dick" or some such heavy-handed book, but rather a heartfelt and touching look at life. I especially like the way the book unfolds: in a gentle manner with revelations coming mostly toward the end; the way it should be. If you haven't read this one, please do, along with Albom's "The Five People," which is also simple and good. No, his books are not "classics" or tomes that will probably be around forever, but they are inspiring and something we all need to read.

Though this book tells the life of a dying man it is very inspirational and will help you understand so much about not only yourself but what may lie on the other side. Very profound work by the way.
Recommending: Song Of Cy: Understanding Grief by Katlyn Stewart

This is one of those books you will read again and again for the inspirational content alone. You follow the life of Morrie, he could be anyone,a man that lives and dies but does so in such a way as to not only teach the author but to teach us as well. Powerful lessons learned.

Also recommended: Other memoirs to read: Nightmares Echo, A Paper Life,I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings