Bookends Book Club: Tuesdays with Morrie

Subtitled ‘An Old Man, A Young Man and Life’s Greatest Lesson, this 1997 memoir by the award-winning sports columnist Mitch Albom is based on a series of Tuesday visits he made to his former sociology professor, Morrie Schwartz, as Schwartz was dying from motor neurone disease (the book was written in part to help defray Schwartz’s mounting end-of-life medical expenses).  Each chapter covers a different topic of conversation — including death, fear, ageing, greed, marriage, family, forgiveness, and the meaning of life — interspersed with Albom’s reflections on his own career-driven lifestyle and flashbacks to his college years. The results are sincere and the writing skilful; but is it inspirational? Or even sentimental?