April 11, 2000
A Look at... Tuesdays With Morrie - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER -- It was a book. Oprah read it, then she put it in her book club and the sales went sky high. She proceeded to produce a movie on it and the book is still selling. Starring Jack Lemmon as Morrie and Hank Azaria as Mitch, the movie aired in November and it was superb. After seeing the film I decided to get the book and read it.
Mitch Albom is real. Morrie Schwartz was. Albom is the author of the book and it’s the memoir of his times with Morrie, as he was felled with Lou Gehrig’s disease. I guess it’ll be wise to start at the begining so I will.
Mitch Albom is still one of those pushy, cynical and abrrasive sports writers. He was in some hotel room one night and he stumbled across Nightline with Ted Koppel where Koppel was interviewing Mitch’s old college professor, Morrie. Morrie was his favorite professor, he was a mentor to the young Mitch and for all of his students. He had a style in teaching that folks liked, and thousands of students fell in love with. Now that he had ALS, Koppel brought to his show the charm and class Morrie had in dealing with that retched disease. So there sits Mitch, mouth down to his chest, seeing the guy he had loved and that when he graduated, said he’d keep in touch with. That was 16 years ago and he never did keep in touch.
He tracks Morrie down in Boston and he visits him. What was supposed to be a routine, hope you’re well, wish you well and I’ve been busy visit, he comes back every Tuesday. They spend subsequent weeks sitting and talking and strike up that old friendship once more. The book is divided into chapters, each chapter is a summery of the talks they had. Ranging from love, death, letting go, children, culture and life, Morrie Schwartz’s candor and honesty, touch the book with the same kind of timelessness that only comes with being honest. Morrie Schwartz and Mitch Albom spent a number of Tuesday’s with each other. Their chats are in this book and they never fail to touch one’s heart and move you.
Morrie Schwartz was a smart man. He was a professor for a life’s career, but it wasn’t until the disease struck him that he really understood life. There isn’t any sort of religion pushed through the lessons Morrie teaches, it’s just honesty. He understood life in a way we only wish we could. Sometimes it takes something regrettable or tragic (like ALS) to warrent an awakening that is so near, yet so far.
Tuesdays With Morrie is a good book. It breaks your heart when you read about the physical decline Morrie goes through, but it lifts your spirits knowing how much wisdom was learned by both men. Wisdom learned through spending some time with someone you love and look up to. See the movie too. Jack Lemmon is superb as Morrie and Hank Azaria is also good as Mitch.
Tuesdays With Morrie (the book) is $31.95 and is published by Doubleday.
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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .