Albom, Mitch - author
By: Dominick A. Miserandino
While Mitch Albom was originally a sports writer and gained fame as the author of ‘Tuesdays with Morrie', his latest work is a result of the reader's reaction to the first one.
DM) When it comes to death, it sometimes makes people feel uncomfortable.
MA) I don't look at it that way. I think Tuesdays with Morrie was a book
about a man who was dying, but was really a book about how to live. This
book, "The Five People you Meet in Heaven", has heaven in the title but is
really about life on earth. I think that in my books, death is used as a
perspective to say, "If you really want to understand what matters in life,
then you can put it against the biggest picture that you can.". They're
not "death" books or ghoulish by any means.
DM) I never looked at them as ghoulish, but I admit that it's not often I
feel comfortable talking about death.
MA) I think I was the same way as you about seven or eight ago, but through
weird circumstances I was forced to deal with death. My old professor
Morrie, I watched him die, and I learned that there are wonderful things
that can come out of the dying experience, some great lessons for how to
live your life. And that expanded into the idea of heaven casting some
reflection on how to live on earth. I've used them as springboards to write
about life, in both cases. Both cases are about how to live life here as
opposed to anything else.
DM) Isn't it a challenge to write about such an emotional subject?
MA) No, because I guess Morrie made it less traumatic. He was able to
prepare me for it and walk me up to it with him, as he got closer to it. He
would tell me what he was learning and feeling, and he accepted it as part
of life and therefore, walking alongside him I had to accept it. He
definitely de-traumatized me about it. He really had one of the worst ways
to die and yet he was able to find meaning and significance in that, even as
he was dying of this terrible disease. I figured if he was 78 years old and
dying and I was 37 years old and healthy, he shouldn't be happier than I
was, but he was. He was more content with his life and I tried finding out
what he knew that I didn't. And that took some of the trauma off of the
issue of death.
DM) Could you have written your most recent book without the experience of
the first?
MA) No, I don't think I would have written, "The Five People You Meet in
Heaven" without having written "Tuesdays with Morrie."
DM) But they're not continuations of one book to the other, but it seems
that common themes follow through.
MA) I think a lot of "Five People You Meet in Heaven" was formed over the
past six years in talking with people about "Tuesdays with Morrie." I would
go everywhere from bookstores, to hospitals, to universities, and I've
heard a lot of sad stories from people; a lot of stories from people who have lost loved ones, who are grieving and where they think their loved ones are. All of those stories were floating around in my head, particularly the idea of loss and what happens when people are gone. I wouldn't have had those experiences with those readers, if not for "Tuesdays
with Morrie." I would probably have heard about people talking about sports
and so if your world is people talking about sports, you'll probably write
about sports. But my world has been talking about issues about life and
death, meaningful lives and missing people. So it seems natural that I'd
gravitate towards that.
DM) It seems that you've learned a lot from just the discussion with readers.
MA) Yes I have, you learn something from everybody that you meet. I've met
hundreds and thousands of people, a lot of whom have taken their time to
tell me very personal stories. Then you realize that somebody can be very
cheery on the outside and then they show another side. You get to know
somebody that way and you get to hear different angles on their lives. I've
learned quite a bit from discussing Tuesdays with my readers and that in
turn helped form the current book.
Talk to other readers about this story.
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