Tuesdays with Morrie
1994
- memoir
- als
- sociology
- nightline
- death
- brandeis university
- amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
- faculty
- patients
- case studies
The story
Tuesdays with Morrie is a memoir by American author Mitch Albom about a series of visits Albom made to his former sociology professor Morrie Schwartz, as Schwartz gradually dies of ALS. The book topped the New York Times Non-Fiction Best-Sellers List for 23 combined weeks in 2000, and remained on the New York Times best-selling list for more than four years after. In 2006, Tuesdays with Morrie was the bestselling memoir of all time.
What it’s like
Plain, unhurried prose with the warmth of a long conversation: the book lives in one book-lit study and a sunroom where a dying professor talks, and its sensory world is small and domestic, with a familiar bedroom, the hum of a home-care setting, the rattle of a sick man's breath, and the soft clink of cups in a kitchen. Albom writes in a conversational, first-person voice that is clean and lightly reportorial, short chapters that each open on a Tuesday and close on a single idea. There is little landscape and no score to speak of, only the quiet of an ordinary house in an un-showy New England setting, which keeps the mood steady and reflective. The vibe is gentle, earnest and bittersweet, with a tender, wistful undertone rather than despair. It suits a rainy Sunday, a slow evening alone, or a comfort reread when you want to sit with mortality without being overwhelmed. The emotional arc follows a younger man slowly learning to slow down and reconsider what matters, guided by an older mentor who is growing weaker. Intensity is low: illness and death are present and described frankly, with physical decline shown in plain detail, but there is no violence, gore or sexual content and the tone stays consoling. It is for readers who want a sincere, quietly moving book about living well and facing death with dignity.
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