I'm not the one to publicly review a book. However, when I come across a book that sits with me as this one did I find it hard not to share my opinion. Before I begin, you should probably know that I like authors such as Charles De Lint, Stephen King, Caroline Kepnes, John Green - so really anything. I have no particular genre interest and am willing to give any book a read. Therefore, when this book came to my attention I was eager to give it a shot. I read this book about a month or so ago and I wasn't planning on writing a review about it. However, over that month I've had time to reflect and honestly I cannot stop thinking about the novel and how is has changed the way I perceive some things.
I was given a book called The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom to read by my English teacher and at first, I thought (honestly) that it was going to be quite a challenging read as it wasn't exactly my cup of tea. Before I began reading it I did a quick Google search of Mitch Albom to find that he was quite a religious author (if you know me at all, I'm quite agnostic), so having to put my beliefs aside and read this book with an open mind was quite difficult; despite my beliefs I don't have a problem with my beliefs being challenged or hearing others opinions - I have my opinion and I keep it to myself, just as other people should (this is a whole other topic).
The story is basically three parallel stories running at once. It was, at first, quite hard to get used to and I didn't really like the style but after a few chapters (the chapters are only 2-3 pages) it was quite an easy read and I started to really get into the storyline. The book itself is only 300 pages or so and I was able to read it nonstop in about 3 hours. The three main characters are Father Time, Sarah and Victor. Father Time is the first man on earth to have the ability to count the hours and for this is banished to a cave for centuries. Once his soul is nearly broken he is granted the freedom to teach two people the true meaning of time. This is where Sarah and Victor come into the story. Sarah is a teenage girl who is about to give up on life and wants time to move faster and Victor a wealthy, old businessman who wants to live forever but due to an illness is restricted by time. The story critiques each persons values and looks at the response to the question: Do we live in the moment? Or are we going to spend our lifetime worrying about what could have been and what should happen?
I enjoyed this storyline so much due to the way it resonated with me and forced me to think about the life I live. It made me also think about the way we are constantly rushing, conscious of time and worrying about the future. We never slow down to cherish the current moment.
My favourite quote from the novel is a classic:
Try to imagine life without timekeeping. You probably can't. You know the month, the year, the day of the week. There is a clock on your wall or the dashboard of your car. You have a schedule, a calendar, a time for dinner or a movie. Yet all around you, timekeeping is ignored. Birds are not late. A dog does not check its watch. Deer do not fret over passing birthdays. Man alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers a paralysing fear that no other creature endures. A fear of time running out.
I think I like this quote so much because it's rather important in our current society because it reminds us to enjoy the present moments, the moments we are enduring and not fret over the future.
I am very eager to read another of Mitch Albom's books.
- Emma xo
