Book Review: 'Tuesdays with Morrie'

Tuesdays with Morrie is a novel based on the experience author Mitch Albom had when reconnecting with his old coach, Morrie, who is about to pass. Full of life lessons and understanding of what the world has to offer, this novel is one to really make you consider answers for how to make it through. This book made my heart tear by thinking about death. That sounds odd, but it is true—it is bound to happen, so why not do it with love?

Morrie's outlook on death had everything to do with selflessness and his charismatic nature, specifically by surrounding himself with friends and family to spread the word of life and death. It is weird to think about death as a guarantee. We all know it is coming—but don't we all assume it is going to miss us as well? I'm too young. By the time I'm that old, there will be robots and a cure for death. Though they both might be true, death is always a guarantee.

Albom fills the book with other religions and views on life and death of people around the world. One, which, if I am not mistaken, is a South American tribe that believes that for one death there is one birth. So if there were no deaths, there would be no continuation. I like to compare this to the Law of Conservation of Mass, where matter cannot be created or destroyed, just changed in form. The spirit must continue on, as that matter cannot just be vanquished, so it is changed into a new life.

Albom is a writer, granted he wrote sports stories as compared to novels—this was his debut novel—he knows how to set your heart up for failure. You know from the beginning of the book that Morrie is going to die. Death is guaranteed, is it not? Albom's novel-self talks about being optimistic and un-accepting of death, much like the readers and myself. Why do we think things can get better? Why are we not accepting what is coming our way with open arms? We are moved throughout the text with Albom clinging onto hope, which ultimately comes up short as expected.

There is something important that stems from what Albom writes about. When looking at his publications, they are mostly focused on death—The Five People You Meet in Heaven, For One More Day, Have a Little Faith. Death is something everyone has to have help with. We live in a society where we are seeing death as a disease, an "end all," the finish. Albom suggests through his writings that there is a life after death, and so taking the invitation for death should not be all that scary—if not just seen as something to embrace.

In the mindset of Morrie, keep your heart the widest in the time of your struggle. You can easily pity yourself, or want pity from others. You can spend your time left the way you want it, however that is. In the end your memories go with you, so take what memories you would want forever, which might be spending time with loved ones, or even a student you had decades ago.

Love yourself and each other.

Purchase on Amazon here.

About the Author

I started with Vocal right when they hatched, but I've taken a seven month hiatus trying to figure out grad school. I previously was an English major and wrote for my university newspaper as an editor for features, and as a contributor in opinion and arts and entertainment. I am currently in a graduate program for college student affairs and I'm just trying to make life happen through weird odds and ends.

Like the story? Share it on social media!

Thank you for reading my article. The fact that you even made it here makes my heart warm. Feel free to share with your friends on your respective social media! It is greatly appreciated.

Be well, friend.