Sunday, March 1, 2015

The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom



This is my initiation to Mitch Albom's works and may I say, it is enthralling. Finished the book by the 2nd time I opened it. The Time Keeper is a transporting fiction that borrows from the ancient Babylonian times wherein the main character “Dor” becomes the first human to count and or keep time. As a boy, Dor was gentle-hearted, the kind that wondered about the things around him and asked innocent questions. Whereas, his brother “Nim” was the overachiever, visionary-type that built "that" tower intended to skyscrape toward Heaven. At this point I wonder if the names of the the brothers “Nim" and “Dor” (backwards for “Rod”), put together completing “Nimrod,” (the delusional dude in the Bible that built the Tower of Babel) was intentional. But I digress. 

Going back to the book, Dor falls in love with childhood mate Alli, during their time as husband and wife, Alli falls ill and upon nearing her death, Dor has a meltdown and decides he will stop his wife’s suffering by scaling upward the tower to talk to the “gods.” As he did so, the people building said tower follows his ascend, the tower and the people then begin to fall, language confusion starts and the only one that reaches the outer dimension is Dor who enters a sort of purgatorial place and at this point becomes - the father of time.

While in limbo, Dor’s tears becomes a pool of psychedelic blue (or something) and through it he begins to hear human beings’ plead for “time” for eons. Among the voices heard through this portal pool of sound, two stand out, that of a cancer-striken billionaire pleading for more time and that of an insecure teenager who cannot wait for time when asked out on a date by the most popular jock in school who turns out to be a jerk.  Subsequently, Dor, a.k.a. Father Time is given a chance to redeem his transgression by being sent here to earth to intervene with the bad impending heartaches of these two and thereby completing his own journey as well.

This book is very imaginative, descriptive and a bit mystical which perhaps is a common thread with Mitch Albom (ex. Five Peeps You Meet in Heaven) right? To be honest I did not get anything religious here, just a fascinating story told that transcended elements and yet maintained the frailty of humans which in itself is a fascinating matter and the book is page-turner because of these traits. It is good light reading and has made me curious about Albom’s other books. If you are the dreamy, romantic and the interested kind, give this one a tumble, it won’t be a waste of time, pun intended.
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