I really like Mitch Albom. I think he's written some amazing books that are moving and thought provoking and just all around awesome. However, The Time Keeper really fell short of all those expectations.
At the end of the day... I just didn't really care about anyone. Dor (who inevitably becomes Father Time) is our main character and is basically punished by God for discovering time. AKA, being inquisitive. He was punished for being smart, essentially, which I'm not really sure how I feel about that.
6,000 years later, he's allowed to come out of the cave he was trapped in and experience time... but he has to teach two people to basically appreciate it. One wants to end her time (Sarah), another to have an endless amount of it (Victor).
But honestly, these just end up being two more characters I don't really get to know and I don't really care about. Sarah is a typical teen, and while suicide is nothing to be trifled with, I feel like I'm missing a lot of her story. Victor is just a jerk that you never really learn to like.
Inevitably, the point is to tell you to appreciate the time that you have, but honestly, I just don't think it was executed that well and certainly not up to his usual standards.
Despite all that, Albom is still a good writer. It's enjoyable to read his writing, if the book itself wasn't up to par. And the book wasn't TERRIBLE, just nothing to really rave over.
My Bottom Line 3 out of 5
In a word: Predictable.
In three words: Predictable, but good.
It is immediately apparent from the beginning of the book (or perhaps from just reading the summary on the back of the book) what the lesson of this story is. Everyone needs to better appreciate the time they have. Good lesson.
I feel like the characters could have been deeper, but this is a short book. I had the large-print version from the library (it had a shorter hold list!) and it was still a fairly thin book. If it were longer, perhaps Albom could have fleshed out all three main characters a little more, and made me care.
It's good writing, though; what's there is very good, even if it's obvious where it's going. I've never read any of Albom's books before, but I can see why he's popular, if all his writing is like this.
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