I have actually finished reading this book a while ago and have only just had time to do the review for the book (eg Birthdays, socials etc).
To start off with, when doing the review, I will try and avoid ruining the ending of a book for anyone. If I have somehow mentioned something in the review which could ruining the finale of the book please tell me and then I can edit the post.
The Brief: The story is about Mitch Albom, who was a student of Morrie Schwartz. Mitch has a strong connection with the professor at college, and after finishing college didn't speak with him for 20 years. Finally, after watching a program about the professor and his illness (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS) he finally visits him, and they meet every Tuesday and talk about different topics such as money, culture, raging, death etc.
The way he lays out the story is quite interesting and it does gradually get you into the main theme of the book which is everyday life. At the beginning you're introduced to the two main characters at graduation and promise to talk to each other after. Then skip 20 years and the student is questioning his life choices and Morrie has been diagnosed with ALS which is slowly deteriorating his body. When they finally meet after Mitch watched an interview on 'Nightline' they begin to meet every Tuesday. Each chapter after they meet again is set on a Tuesday with a different topic each time.
When I read each of the chapters it does make you think and you can see each of them is fairly accurate in our society. For example, the seventh Tuesday was the 'Fear of Ageing'. And it is true, some people are afraid of getting older . If this weren't the case then why do we get 'anti ageing creams' and why do some people experience mid life crises when we haven't done something in our life. The people which do experience this crisis do say 'If I were young again' and you hardly hear anyone say 'I wish I were sixty five'. But one point which Morrie does bring up is that why do we envy the youth as we have already experienced it before. After each of the Tuesdays it gets me questioning each of the topics they discuss.
To split these chapters up it does give us a small amount of back story and the relationship development when the two were in college. This is quite good since a few books I have read state that there is a relationship there and don't tend to develop on it or show their history. In this you can see how it develops but its normally a page or a page and a half on this back story. However it doesn't give as much depth as it could have given.
Since its being told from the author's point of view as it is based on a real life story, it does give you a sense of what he is going through and you sympathise with him.
Overall, I found this an enjoyable read and a very thought provoking read. I would give this book an 8.5 out of 10.
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