Genre: Fantasy, Fiction
Length: 240 pages
Audience: 15 and up
Rating: ****
Lifetimes
ago, time did not exist. Words such as minutes, months, and years were never uttered nor crossed
anyone’s mind. They were of no one’s
concern. People never mentioned how
“time flies” or how one needed to “kill time.”
Those concepts were never born.
But one day someone had to invent the words and the figures of speech. Someday someone had to invent the measurement
of time altogether. That one day life
forever changed. What started off as one
person wanting to learn more turned into agony for billions upon billions of
people.
Characters
This book
revolves around seven main characters: Ethan, Lorraine, Sarah, Grace, Victor,
Dor, and Alli. The tale begins with Dor
and Alli, a boy and girl who lived before the idea of time was ever born,
before schedules were ever made, and before people fretted over missing a
moment (Albom, 7). However, Dor
eventually begins to take a fascination in counting and then in recording the
sun’s constant shadows. In chapter four
the author wrote, “Dor became a measurer of things. He marked stones, he notched sticks, he laid
out twigs, pebbles, anything he could count” (20). He became consumed by these activities
(20). Though he grew closer to Alli and
the two get married, his first love is always time. “If one were recording history, one might
write that at the moment man invented the world’s first clock, his wife was
alone, softly crying, while he was consumed by the count” (25). He then becomes Father Time and is sentenced
to spend six thousand years listening to the complaints of everyone who too
became consumed by time (47-48).
These six
thousand years later, he is told by a heavenly figure to meet someone who wants
to extend time and someone who wants to end it (79). This is how Father Time makes Victor and
Sarah’s acquaintance. Sarah is a smart,
but awkward high school student who lives with her divorced mother, Lorraine,
and has a relationship with popular and beautiful Ethan. She is distant with those at school, who
mocked her for her weight, and she is distant with her mother. However, the attention from Ethan sparked
something in her: a sense of worth (126) and a sense of obligation to be what
that boy deserved (81). She is the one
who chants “make it stop” (181). Victor,
one of the richest men in the world, is dying of cancer and does not want to
leave Earth any time soon. He will do
anything to survive, even lie to his wife (141) and pay his way to have his
body frozen so he can be woken up in a day where science has far advanced (142). He is the one who desires “another lifetime”
(181).
Mature Content
The book is
generally targeted towards an older, matured audience. In multiple scenes teenagers underage drink,
a lesson some parents may not want their children to be exposed to. One of the
teenagers also continues to attempt suicide.
In another scene, a boy and a girl are making out and touching sexually. From these experiences alone, a younger audience
may not be appropriate; a teenage and adult audience are recommended.
Positive Content
Despite the
mature content, the book is one that is worth someone’s time. The author uses the main characters to teach
positive, meaningful messages - time is limited in order that each moment can
be made precious. The book also teaches
that because we do not know the future, we should not limit our time on earth
through suicide; one can always have hope.
These two themes can be applied to anyone.
This book,
though about a general, cliché topic such as time, still captures one’s
attention. It is not a book someone
would toss aside and consider a complete waste of time. Instead, the book explains a life that people
today cannot imagine. “Try to imagine a
life without timekeeping. You probably
can’t. You know the month, the year, the
day of the week. You have a schedule, a
calendar, a time for dinner or a movie.
Yet all around you, timekeeping is ignored. Birds are not late” (8). It is hard to imagine living like other
animals where time is not kept. It is
hard to fathom how at one time the idea of time did not exist. This book is about more than the cliché idea
of time. It is about living a life that
one cannot imagine. It is about the
unknown. Like Dor, people want to know
more. People want to experience this
unknown and to learn. The book allows
readers to do just that.
The author
also appeals to its readers through how it was written. For starts, Albom uses short sentences and
short chapters. This gives the
appearance that the book is simple and easy to read. The writer also bolds various phrases and
uses repetition throughout each chapter.
For example, the third chapter says, “Sarah Lemon fears time is running
out” and further down the page, it says, “Victor Delamonte fears time is
running out” (9). Both statements use
repetition and were bolded; these methods emphasize two main characters
struggling with a problem that Father Time has created. The book also effectively shows concepts
instead of tells what those concepts are.
One such area is the following: “Sarah returns to the mirror. She thinks about the boy. She pinches the fat around her waist. Ugh” (9).
Albom effectively uses description to show instead of tell the reader
that Sarah is self-conscious about her weight.
Conclusion
Reading such
a book - for its foreign concepts, themes, and style - is sure to make time fly
for anyone.
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