Teen Book Review: "Tuesday's with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson" by Mitch Albom

 "Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, and gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it. For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly twenty years ago.

Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded. Wouldn't you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you?

Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying of ALS - or motor neurone disease - Mitch visited Morrie in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final 'class': lessons in how to live." 

--- Summary Via Goodreads

Review By: anonymous

2/5 Stars

To be fair to this book, I do not read memoirs, and when I do, I hate

them. This book is no exception. It reminded me that every book, and every

story told is biased. Say one storyteller liked the princess of the story a lot

more than the last storyteller, then, they would describe her as “the beautiful,

wonderful, princess” as opposed to “the princess.” Bias, whether it be positive

or negative, stains every piece of information and every story. Nothing full of

words or information can escape bias, whether it be a nature documentary or a

children’s book, it will all have bias. Every human being is wonderful and

unique, each contributing their own wonder to society and the people around

them. Sometimes, people are painted to be more wonderful than they are. To

be clear, Morrie was certainly a wonderful person. He had cheer, and was wise.

Morrie valued relationships, and what came from them. However, rarely,

if ever, is there anything bad said about him. People often say not to have your

enemies write your story, however, if your story is covered in rose petals and

worship by your friends, how is anyone to believe the story left behind was a

truly accurate story? This is not a particularly big problem in Tuesdays with

Morrie, because it is clear that this was a memoir intended to highlight Morrie’s

many wonderful and great achievements. In fact, the story of Morrie is

touching, and filled with life lessons we should all best take to heart. Talk to

everyone like they’re about to take their last breath, because you never know

when they will. However, it is also made apparent that this is a book that wasn’t

quite looked over carefully when it comes to grammar. The chapter titles

themselves capitalize words that should not be capitalized in titles (such as

‘we’). Overall, the hatred I, as a reader, harbor towards this book likely isn’t

because this book is bad, or horribly written. This was simply not the book for

me.