Book Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3.5/5 stars)
Audio Book Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5 Stars)
Total Rating: ★★★★☆ (4.25/5 stars)
We’re always counting. The seconds. The minutes. The hours. The years.
But it wasn’t always like that. Thousands of years ago, Dor began to count, and time as we know it began. But creating time has been both a curse and a blessing, and Dor is thus transformed into Father Time himself, forced to listen as people continue to ask for more time, faster time, and slower time. In order to break his curse, he has to help two unlikely individuals: Sara Lemon, a love struck teenager who wants time to move faster, and Victor Delamonte, a big-wig business owner who just wants to live forever.
In a compelling narrative, we are taken through time to Dor’s childhood, as well as back to the present, where Sara and Victor contemplate time. It illustrates humanity’s obsession with time. What would it be like if we didn’t tell time? Would we enjoy these moments more? Would we revel in the sunsets? These are the topics Mitch Albom asks through The Time Keeper.
Dan Stevens’s narration of the audio book makes the story even more compelling. While at times the whimsical narrative could become repetitive and slow, Dan Stevens made it entertaining and kept my attention.
The overall story is a wonderful analysis on humanity. Most of the book is compelling, realistic, and a true look at how teenagers fall desperately in love, and greedy old men area always for more. The last chapters were a tad cliche though, reminiscent of stories like A Christmas Carol, seeing the future which may or may not be totally accurate. But Dor does in fact get what he deserves in the end, after an eternity of emptiness, and that is enough to provide a satisfactory ending.
So don’t waste time, but don’t rush through; The Time Keeper is a honest look at humanity. When you finish it, you might just stop counting the seconds and a live a little.
What’s it about?
In Mitch Albom’s exceptional work of fiction, the inventor of the world’s first clock is punished for trying to measure God’s greatest gift. He is banished to a cave for centuries and forced to listen to the voices of all who come after him seeking more days, more years.
Eventually, with his soul nearly broken, Father Time is granted his freedom, along with a magical hourglass and a mission: a chance to redeem himself by teaching two earthly people the true meaning of time.
He returns to our world–now dominated by the hour-counting he so innocently began–and commences a journey with two unlikely partners: one a teenage girl who is about to give up on life, the other a wealthy old businessman who wants to live forever. To save himself, he must save them both. And stop the world to do so.
Told in Albom’s signature spare, evocative prose, this remarkably original tale will inspire readers everywhere to reconsider their own notions of time, how they spend it, and how precious it truly is.
E.S. Barrison 