Book Review: The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom

Mitch Albom is quite famous for books like Tuesdays With Morrie and Have a Little Faith which all share a common inspirational theme.  I love his light, nonpreachy, simple style of writing, and his books always leave me feeling a lot more happy with myself - never a bad thing, if you ask me :P  The Time Keeper is his latest work - a novel that is currently 9th on the New York Times bestseller list.  While I am still waiting for a copy of Casual Vacancy to turn up, I managed to get lucky with this book and picked it up from my local library.

There isn't much of a story:  Dor lives in some time in a very distant past with his wife and is obsessed with measuring time (apparently, he is the first man to do so).  When his wife gets sick with an incurable disease, though, he decides he needs to reach heaven and stop time, so he climbs up the still-under-construction tower of Babel.  As you might know, that particular construction never does get completed, and the tower collapses, but what Mitch tells you is Dor is the only man to make it to the top from the tower, and as a punishment, Dor gets locked in a cave for what seems like forever.  Cut to present time, and he is released from his time-out and is let out into the world as Father Time to find two people who haven't realized the value of time and to save them.  The story, as babbling as it sounds, is simple and quite short really.  It's the message that Mitch Albom conveys through it that is refreshing.  In a world where we live by the clock, it's a message about slowing down and enjoying life - not trying to put everything down in minutes and seconds, and most importantly give up the concept of having everything locked down and in control.  Do pick this up if you love the Chicken Soup for the Soul sort of books.