The first thing that came to my mind after reading ‘The Timekeeper’ by Mitch Albom was “Thank heavens, I didn’t buy the book.” I had come very close to buying the book on more than one occasion since it was on the top 10 bestseller list but somehow desisted each time and I thank my stars I did.
So, I borrowed the book from the library instead (at least I didn’t pay for it!) to appease my curiosity.
Right from the start, I knew this was a book I wouldn’t enjoy but I carried on reading in the hope that something good would come of it. But alas it did not! Nothing appealed to me in the book- neither the storyline, nor the narrative, nor the characters and definitely not the annoyingly slow pace of the book.
The book was boring, tedious and too much of a fable to digest for a grown-up mind! It’s a story about a man who will later be known as Father Time as he is the first man to try to measure the gift of time. He is banished for centuries for this crime, relegated to a cave where he can hear sounds from Earth seeking time or chasing time while he himself remains shrouded in timelessness, not aging in centuries.
If this seems childish, it seemed even more ridiculous when Father Time- Dor descended on earth and quite predictably started working in a watch store where he come across the other characters from the book- Sarah and Victor!
The life-stories of Sarah and Victor are presented in an absolutely uninspiring fashion too. So you wonder why should a man live 6000 years to save a hysterical, suicidal teenager and an eccentric rich old man out of the millions of other people with real problems- even if this is just a fable.
And even if you knew that there was bound to be a ‘time’ sooner or later in the book where all the 3 characters will cross paths and you obviously keep your hopes high for that climax, the actual incidence doesn’t give any sense of satisfaction to the reader.
Perhaps it is because the way the book is written, the stories of each of the characters jarringly keep cutting into one another and the reader is unable to form a connection with any character.
What I took away from the book is the philosophy of time and that of the futility of trying to race it or challenge it. But it did not make any deep life-changing impact on me- this was something I and I believe most readers would already know. Perhaps in this time-crazed world, we do not pause to reflect on it but it is not really new.
Over all I felt a disturbing nothing after reading the book! (usually a character or piece from the novel stays on with me for days and weeks). But I felt nothing after reading, ‘The Timekeeper’ except relief that it was such a short book!
My final take on The Timekeeper by Mitch Albom: 2 on 5. The intent of the book is good, but the narrative leaves you dissatisfied. Perhaps it is not time yet!!
