Tuesdays with Morrie
| Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson | ||||||||||||
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Hardcover - USA - 1st edition. |
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Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson is a memoir written by Mitch Albom published on 1997-08-18. The book was dramatized into a movie in 1999.
In the book, the author remembers his college years with professor Morrie Schwartz as he interviews him now that Schwartz is dying from ALS.
Personal
| Own? | Hardcover - USA - 1st edition. |
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| Read? | Hardcover - USA - 1st edition. |
| Finished | 2025-04-01. |
I think I bought this book at a used bookstore because the title sounded familiar to me. It sat on my self for several years before I picked it up. I enjoyed it, but it was a bit over simplistic.
Review
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Overall: |
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Good
- The book covers a lot of deep issues. I particularly appreciate Morrie talking about America's cultural fear of death and the importance of accepting and valuing it.
- Learning about Morrie's tragic upbringing made me even more impressed that he ended up so well-adjusted.
- I don't usually like when books jump between past and present so frequently, but, for this book, it works by helping to mix up the sad content.
- The contrast between world events and Morrie's teaching is often well-placed. The popularity of the O.J. Simpson trial, was a poignant example of how culture can be fascination with something sensational, yet completely unhelpful. Although, the author overdoes it a bit with some petty issues.
- I like how the author describes Morrie's living funeral. When the book was published in 1997, this was still a rather rare thing in the USA.
Bad
- The author kind of beatifies Morrie. This is probably a mix of rose-tinted nostalgia, admiration, and not wanting to speak ill of the dead, but it's a bit over-the-top.
- The advice found in the book is often too simplistic. I think that it's important to teach people not to fixate on money or fame because those things ultimately won't bring happiness, but simply saying that isn't enough. The author needs to explain how to avoid this in society which pushes it and how to cope with these feelings after being inculcated.
- Morrie's a bit too anti-consumerism for my taste. I think it's okay to get happy over the purchase of something new and derive enjoyment from things in addition to people. I don't necessarily agree with him that a person wanting something new and shiny means they are lacking love in their life.
- Morrie suffers from a mild amount of generational bigotry. This is noticed when he says things like he feels sorry for the younger generation's inability to make loving relationships. Morrie grew up in a time when husbands had full say in divorce and spousal rape was legal, so why is he saying 1990s people are dysfunctional. They may not be perfect, but they certainly made progress.
Ugly
- Nothing.
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