The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom {Book Review}

I recently was directed to Mitch Albom’s book, The Time Keeper, because first, I was researching time travel (this book isn’t necessarily about that) and then later I saw someone I know read it and really enjoyed it. I’d passed it up at first but I’m more likely to read/watch something if someone I know has already done so and enjoyed it.

I was not disappointed. Honestly, I’d not expected what I found in this book.

The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom
Reading level: Ages 18 and up (according to Amazon)
Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Hyperion; BOOK CLUB edition (September 4, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1401322786
ISBN-13: 978-1401322786

From Amazon.com:

The man who became Father Time.

In Mitch Albom's newest work of fiction, the inventor of the world's first clock is punished for trying to measure God's greatest gift. He is banished to a cave for centuries and forced to listen to the voices of all who come after him seeking more days, more years. Eventually, with his soul nearly broken, Father Time is granted his freedom, along with a magical hourglass and a mission: a chance to redeem himself by teaching two earthly people the true meaning of time.

He returns to our world--now dominated by the hour-counting he so innocently began--and commences a journey with two unlikely partners: one a teenage girl who is about to give up on life, the other a wealthy old businessman who wants to live forever. To save himself, he must save them both. And stop the world to do so.

Told in Albom's signature spare, evocative prose, this remarkably original tale will inspire readers everywhere to reconsider their own notions of time, how they spend it and how precious it truly is.
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Originally when I was steered toward the book, I picked it up and read a page or two inside. It wasn’t what I was looking for at the moment. But it stayed in my mind and for some reason kept tugging at me. Finally, I requested the book (ebook from my library) and read it on my computer.

I promise I won’t tell the entire book but will give some details about each of the characters in the book (the main ones) and why they’re important.

Basically, you have Dor (Father Time) who is from long ago, who is fascinated with counting- fascinated with figuring out ‘time’ even if he doesn’t realize that is what he is doing. He marks down when he first thinks of one of his childhood friends as more than a friend- he calls it’s Alli’s time. He marks down when they get married, when they have their kids, and other points in his life. He continues on this way until another childhood friend who has become strong and powerful demands that Dor help him with his ‘inventions’. Dor doesn’t understand how he can help and tells Nim, his childhood friend, this. Nim exiles him for refusing to help (rude, huh?). Dor and his wife, Alli have to leave the place they call home and their children and go into exile. Dor’s wife becomes sick and she is dying. Dor is still intent on capturing time –stopping it for his wife now. He needs more time.

In ‘our’ time, perhaps, we are presented with two people –Mr. Delamonte and Sarah. They are opposites. He is old and successful in business and life –he’s been married for 40+ years. She is a senior in high school who is smart but anything but successful. She shies away from people –she comes from a broken home.

It turns out as the stories go on and become intertwined that Mr. Delamonte is searching for more time, even as his is running out, while Sarah is trying to end her time although she still has so much ahead of her.

Dor is paramount in all of this. With his fascination with time, he had created a counting stick, of sorts. When Nim had come to visit him and recruit him to work on his massive tower (of Babel, I should add), he took one of Dor’s sticks. That’s the first that someone other than Dor begins to count time. Before that no one did.

As you may have guessed, Dor is the one that is placed in the cave until nearly broken then released to ‘redeem’ two people who are counting time. Mr. Delamonte and Sarah are those two people.

This is a short book, not difficult to read at all. It could be done in a matter of a few hours. But the message in it…is one that will stick with you (or at least I think it will) for much much longer. Each person that is mentioned in this book has a view of time. Some (like those at the start) have no concept of ‘time’. They don’t see their years as being short or long –it just …is.

Why do we count time so much? There is the perfect amount of time in the day and night for all that we are meant to do. If we don’t do it, are we meant to in the first place? Or are we squandering our time on unimportant things?

Dor didn’t get to see his children grow up; he didn’t appreciate the beauty of the sunrise or sunset; he didn’t appreciate life because he was too busy counting time. It’s the same with Mr. Delamonte and Sarah (although both are on the opposite ends from each other in their thinking about time): they both are consumed by something all of the time and do not enjoy or appreciate what is important.

Overall, I thought this a great book. It is written very simply. I will mention that there is drinking, cancer, divorce, smoking, rebellion, suicide and disrespect in the book so I would not say this is recommended for immature middle school kids, but see nothing wrong with a mature high school kid (under the age of 18) reading this. Of course, I leave that up to parents.

I read some of the reviews for this book at Amazon.com and the very low ratings are understandable to a point. This is intended as a simple book, I believe. It is a book (again my opinion) that lets us think of our own situations. Yes, some of the characters are stereotypical. In our world of computer graphics and fakeness, stereotypical is often lost –everything and one has to be superbly different and unique. And yet, really, we are so much the same. For those who couldn’t relate to the individuals in the story, I say, good for you –perhaps you have the handle that some others don’t have on life and a realistic perspective. The book gives us extremely simple writing. Does it need to be super complex so we need to break out our dictionary and reference books? Should it have people that we cannot relate to at all because they are unrealistic? I don’t think it does. Sometimes it just needs to be really simple.

***Disclaimer: I checked this book out from the Cuyahoga County Public Library (the best in the US! *wink*) on my own and wrote this review of my own desire to do so. All opinions are my own. It does contain affiliate links. See Disclosure/Policies.***