_The Time Keeper_ by Mitch Albom
So, in my continued reading spree, I thought I would try Mitch Albom’s latest book or latest to my knowledge.
This was really an interesting read and a bit different from his past work. The book follows the path of Dor from the past, known now as Father Time, and two people from the modern day – Sarah and Victor – both at the opposite ends of life.
With Dor we see the beginning of the idea of time. Dor is fascinated with counting and understanding the passage of numbers. He supposedly lived when the Tower of Babel was being built and then upon the death of his wife, he climbs the tower to gods and tries to stop time so that he can hang on to his love. In doing so, Dor gets trapped in the space of no time and hears how the world changes due to his invention of time.
The world has become obsessed with time – wanting more, wanting it to be faster or slower, wanting it to stop. As Sarah and Victor represent the starting of life (Sarah as a young teenager) and the end of life (Victor as a very rich man who is dying of cancer), we see how their obsession with time affects their quality of life and those around them. With such a focus on time and trying to outlive it, they forget that there is no way of controlling or knowing what will happen over time.
Dor comes into the present to show them what will happen to their loved ones if they continue on their particular paths versus if they let time be. Through this, Dor also realizes his own fault in obsessing over the discovery of time.
It is a poignant message and was somehow very ‘timely’ in my reading of it as I was thinking about my time home last month. As usual, Albom’s books make me think and are such a quick and easy read, but with a lot of punch!
One more and then I will be caught up on my reading frenzy. Unless, of course, I finish the current one before then. π
-T π
